8-Year Old Elijah Tells Michelle Bachmann His Gay Mother Doesn’t Need Fixing
There is a video quickly on its way to going viral of an eight-year-old boy, Elijah, confronting tea party candidate Michele Bachmann. Elijah, in line with his mother, wait for their turn to greet Bachmann. When the time comes, the boy’s mother gently coaxed him to speak with the candidate. In a barely audible voice, Elijah says to Michele Bachmann; “My mommy…Miss Bachmann, my mom is gay but she doesn’t need any fixing.” What followed next is a confusing look from Bachmann that can be interpreted in several ways.
The opinion of this video is mixed. On one hand, there are those that are praising young Elijah for standing up to Bachmann’s bigotry in regards to her views on homosexual couples. Others are taking aim at the boy’s mother saying that she used her son in order to get a camera op of a dig at Bachmann. Supposedly it was Elijah that insisted upon confronting Bachmann according to Jennifer, the woman who took the video, in a statement to Chicago Now.
I was the person that recorded this; the mom uploaded.
Sexuality is only political because ignorant people have made it so. To some people, it’s a political stance– to his mom, and him, it’s a part of his life. He loves his mom and her partner.
Back to the story– I was standing in line with Elijah and his mom. His mom was going to say something to her, but she got nervous and told me she wanted to leave. We were about to step out of the line but Elijah cried out, “Nooo!” He grabbed onto her coat and pulled her back in the line, saying he wanted to talk to her.
When we got up to Michele, he got a little stage fright. His mom just didn’t want him to not say it because he was afraid, because she knew he would regret it if he didn’t. I used to do ballet as a child, and before performances, I’d want to no do it– my mom pushed me to perform. Afterwards, I’d run to her and tell her how happy I was. How is this any different? If we were shown a video of a child before a school play, or a recital, being pushed to perform and not give into stage fright, would we get the same reaction? My gut says no.
Okay wait, so it was okay for the mother who is the lesbian to back out of confronting Michelle Bachmann but when the son may not even completely understand what’s going on tries to do so it’s in his best interest to be urged on so he doesn’t regret it later? Lets be clear, Michele Bachmann is a crazy lady. Seeing her confronted about her nonsense invokes feelings of the warm and fuzzy kind. But to be honest, I’m not sure that’s a totally believable back story. It makes more sense that the mother would have stronger opinions about homosexual issues, being that she is one, than an eight-year-old boy. It would be more likely that he just sees her simply as mom and not a gay woman under attack by Bachmann. Not to say that eight year olds can’t have that level of wherewithal it’s
just this story seems a bit flimsy.
Using your children to push your agenda and ideologies when you’re afraid to do so should be where that feeling of regret comes in. To Jennifer’s point about if this were a parent pushing a child to overcome stage fright, this may be a stage however this is no school play. The school play analogy doesn’t compare. The two adults made a conscious decision to go to Bachmann’s meet and greet in order to confront her so clearly this was their agenda not Elijah’s. Labeling him an activist is also a bit of a stretch.
In fairness to Michelle Bachmann, the look on her face could have either been one of confusion at being confronted about the sewage she spews and not knowing what to say or realization that the mother most likely put her son up to this and being a bit shocked that someone would do that.
Sometimes we tend to get a little overzealous when we are passionate about issues especially when we are looking to make a big impact with our point. I’m all for taking Michele Bachmann to task for the agenda she tries to push but while the idea was good the execution needed work.
Ran her out of her own speaking engagement. Now that’s a 10!
Loading ...Additional:
http://www.chicagonow.com/whats-a-boy-to-do/2011/12/michelle-bachman-and-the-young-activist/
http://ohellnawlblog.com/newohnblog/2011/12/06/bad-mother-or-bad-bachmann-internet-at-odds-over-lgbt-mom-using-son-to-embarrass-michelle-bachmann/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8CGeC2M_U
Jaylon Carter is a blogger, social media marketing consultant, former Congressional Campaign Media & Communications Director, national labor union vice block leader, and a Hip Hop artist who performs under the stage name Timid (@timidmc).
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