In Michele Bachmann’s home district, evangelicals have been waging war against gay teens. After a rash of suicides, the kids Above: A candlelight are fighting back vigil in Minneapolis for the victims By Sabrina of gay bullying. Right: An anti-suicide Rubin Erdely memorial poster. SCHOOL50 | Rolling Stone | rollingstone.com February 16, 2012 OFFebruary 16, 2012 HATErollingstone.com | Rolling Stone | 51 SCHOOL OF HATE very morning, brittany geldert Alliance club, as a safe haven for mis- where woodlands abruptly give way to stepped off the bus and bolted through the fits like them, although the club’s prog- strip malls and then fall back to placid double doors of Fred Moore Middle School, ress was stalled by the school district that, woodlands again, and the landscape is among other things, was queasy about the dotted with churches. The district, which her nerves already on high alert, bracing for club’s flagrant use of the word “gay.” Reli- spans two counties, is so geographical- the inevitable. gious conservatives have called GSAs “sex ly huge as to be a sort of cross section of “Dyke.” clubs,” and sure enough, the local religious America itself, with its small minority Pretending not to hear, Brittany would right loudly objected to them. “This is an population clustered at its southern tip, assault on moral standards,” read one re- white suburban sprawl in its center and walk briskly to her locker, past the sixth-, cent letter to the community paper. “Let’s sparsely populated farmland in the north. seventh- and eighth-graders who loitered stop this dangerous nonsense before it’s It also offers a snapshot of America in eco- in menacing packs. too late and more young boys and girls nomic crisis: In an area where just 20 per- “Whore.” are encouraged to ‘come out’ and practice cent of adults have college educations, the Like many 13-year-olds, Brittany knew their ‘gayness’ right in their own school’s recession hit hard, and foreclosures and homosexual club.” unemployment have become the norm. seventh grade was a living hell. But what Brittany admired Sam’s courage, and For years, the area has also bred a deep she didn’t know was that she was caught in tried to mimic her insouciance and sto- strain of religious conservatism. At church- the crossfire of a culture war being waged icism. So Brittany was bewildered when es like First Baptist Church of Anoka, pa- by local evangelicals inspired by their high-profile congressional represen- one day in November 2009, on the school rishioners believe that homosexuality is bus home, a sixth-grade boy slid in next to a form of mental illness caused by family tative Michele Bachmann, who graduated from Anoka High School and, her and asked quaveringly, “Did you hear dysfunction, childhood trauma and expo- until recently, was a member of one of the most conservative churches Sam said she’s going to kill herself?” sure to pornography – a perversion cur- in the area. When Christian activists who considered gays an abomina- Brittany considered the question. No able through intensive therapy. It’s a point tion forced a measure through the school board forbidding the discus- way. How many times had she seen Sam of view shared by their congresswoman roll her eyes and announce, “Ugh, I’m Tragedy in the Michele Bachmann, who has called ho- sion of homosexuality in the district’s public schools, kids like Brittany gonna kill myself” over some insignificant Suburbs mosexuality a form of “sexual dysfunction” were unknowingly thrust into the heart of violating the districtwide policy requir- thing? “Don’t worry, you’ll see Sam tomor- that amounts to “personal enslavement.” of a clash that was about to become inter- ing school personnel to stay “neutral” on row,” Brittany reassured her friend as they Above: Thirteen-year-old Samantha In 1993, Bachmann, a proponent of school twined with tragedy. issues of homosexuality. All Brittany knew got off the bus. But as she trudged toward Johnson’s suicide after being bullied was prayer and creationism, co-founded the Brittany didn’t look like most girls in was that she was on her own, vulnerable her house, she couldn’t stop turning it over the start of a wave of what one child New Heights charter school in the town of blue-collar Anoka, Minnesota, a former and ashamed, and needed to find her best in her mind. A boy in the district had al- psychologist says was a “suicide cluster,” Stillwater, only to flee the board amid an logging town on the Rum River, a conven- friend, Samantha, fast. ready committed suicide just days into a lethal contagion when “kids feel that the outcry that the school was promoting a re- tional place that takes pride in its annual Like Brittany, eighth-grader Samantha the school year – TJ Hayes, a 16-year-old normal response to stress is to take your ligious curriculum. Bachmann also is affil- life.” Left: Johnson’s best friend, Brittany Halloween parade – it bills itself the “Hal- Johnson was a husky tomboy too, outgoing at Blaine High School – so she knew such Geldert, became suicidal after Sam’s death. iated with the ultraright Minnesota Family loween Capital of the World.” Brittany was with a big smile and a silly streak to match things were possible. But Sam Johnson? Council, headlining a fundraiser for them a low-voiced, stocky girl who dressed in Brittany’s own. Sam was also bullied for Brittany tried to keep the thought at bay. last spring alongside Newt Gingrich. baggy jeans and her dad’s Marine Corps her look – short hair, dark clothing, lack Finally, she confided in her mother. There was another common thread: on gays are not only discriminatory, but Though Bachmann doesn’t live within sweatshirts. By age 13, she’d been taunt- of girly affect – but she merrily shrugged “This isn’t something you kid about, Four of the nine dead were either gay or also foster an environment of unchecked Anoka-Hennepin’s boundaries anymore, ed as a “cunt” and “cock muncher” long off the abuse. When Sam’s volley ball team- Brittany,” her mom scolded, snatching the perceived as such by other kids, and were anti-gay bullying. The Department she has a dowdier doppelgänger there in before such words had made much sense. mates’ taunting got rough – barring her kitchen cordless and taking it down the reportedly bullied. The tragedies come at a of Justice has begun a civil rights inves- the form of anti-gay crusader Barb Ander- When she told administrators about the from the girls’ locker room, yelling, “You’re hall to call the Johnsons. A minute later national moment when bullying is on every- tigation as well. The Anoka- Hennepin son. A bespectacled grandmother with abuse, they were strangely unrespon- a guy!” – she simply stopped going to prac- she returned, her face a mask of shock one’s lips, and a devastating number of gay school district declined to comment on lemony-blond hair she curls in severe- sive, even though bullying was a subject tice. After school, Sam would encourage and terror. “Honey, I’m so sorry. We’re teens across the country are in the news any specific incidences but denies any dis- ly toward her face, Anderson is a former often discussed in school-board meetings. Brittany to join her in privately mocking too late,” she said tonelessly as Brittany’s for killing themselves. Suicide rates among crimination, maintaining that its broad district Spanish teacher and a longtime The district maintained a comprehensive their tormentors, and the girls would pa- knees buckled; 13-year-old Sam had gay and lesbian kids are frighteningly high, anti-bullying policy is meant to protect researcher for the MFC who’s been fight- five-page anti-bullying policy, and held rade around Brittany’s house speaking in climbed into the bathtub after school and with attempt rates four times that of their all students. “We are not a homophobic ing gay influence in local schools for two diversity trainings on racial and gender Valley Girl squeals, wearing bras over their shot herself in the mouth with her own straight counterparts; studies show that district, and to be vilified for this is very dec ades, ever since she discovered that sensitivity. Yet when it came to Brittany’s shirts, collapsing in laughter. They’d be- hunting rifle. No one at school had seen one-third of all gay youth have attempt- frustrating,” says superintendent Den- her nephew’s health class was teaching harassment, school officials usually told come as close as sisters in the year since her suicide coming. ed suicide at some point (versus 13 percent nis Carlson, who blames right-wingers homosexuality as normal. “That really her to ignore it, always glossing over the Sam had moved from North Dakota fol- No one saw the rest of them coming, of hetero kids), and that internalized ho- and gay activists for choosing the area as got me on a journey,” she said in a radio sexually charged insults. Like the time lowing her parents’ divorce, and Sam had either. mophobia contributes to suicide risk. a battleground, describing the district as interview. When the Anoka- Hennepin Brittany had complained about being quickly become Brittany’s beacon. Sam Against this supercharged backdrop, the victim in this fracas. “People are using district’s sex-ed curriculum came up for called a “fat dyke”: The school’s principal, was even helping to start a Gay Straight am’s death lit the fuse the Anoka-Hennepin school district finds kids as pawns in this political debate,” he re-evaluation in 1994, Anderson and four looking pained, had suggested Brittany of a suicide epidemic that itself in the spotlight not only for the sheer says.