Fact Check

Bachmann Threatens to Leave Minnesota Over Marriage Equality

Did Congresswoman Michele Bachmann announce she would leave Minnesota if that state legalized gay marriage?

Published May 14, 2013

Claim:

Claim:   Congresswoman Michele Bachmann announced she would leave Minnesota
if that state legalized gay marriage.


FALSE


Example:   [Collected via e-mail, May 2013]


Congresswoman Michele Bachmann threatened to leave Minnesota today if the state goes ahead with its plans to legalize gay marriage. Is this true? It is showing up on Facebook.



 

Origins:   On 13 May 2013, the Daily Currant published an article about congresswoman Michele Bachmann's threatening to leave her home state of Minnesota if the state legislature enacted a law legalizing gay marriage there:



Congresswoman Michele Bachmann threatened to leave Minnesota today if the state goes ahead with its plans to legalize gay marriage.

In an interview with a local television station, the conservative firebrand said she believes God will destroy Minneapolis once the legislation is enacted, and wants to be far away when the reckoning happens.

"The Bible is very clear on this issue," she told KSTP-TV this morning. "Homosexuality is a sin, and God will punish communities that support it."


By the following day links and excerpts referencing this article were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered it mistaking it for a genuine news article. However, that article was just a bit of political humor which satirized Bachmann's long-expressed political positions on the issue of gay marriage.

As noted in the Daily Currant's "About" page, that web site deals strictly in satire:



The Daily Currant is an English language online satirical newspaper that covers global politics, business, technology, entertainment, science, health and media.

Q. Are your news stories real?

A. No. Our stories are purely fictional. However they are meant to address real-world issues through satire and often refer and link to real events happening in the world


Last updated:   14 May 2013

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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