Minnesota Independent

Minnesota Capitol. Photo: Paul Weimer, Flickr

Senate Republicans seek repeal of minors’ consent for health care

By Andy Birkey | 03.28.11 | 7:48 am

Senate Republicans have included a provision in a health and human services omnibus bill that would repeal Minnesota’s minors’ consent laws. Those laws, first enacted in 1971, allow Minnesotans under the age of 18 to access mental and physical health care, as well as substance use care. The bill would strip those laws from the books and only allow a minor to seek those services in the case of incest. The Minnesota Department of Health, the Mayo Clinic, the American Academy of Pediatrics and teen pregnancy prevention groups all testified in opposition.

Minnesota Family Council talks bullying on Anderson Cooper 360

By Andy Birkey | 10.07.10 | 7:50 am

Tom Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council, appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 Tuesday evening to defend his remarks criticizing efforts to create a less hostile climate for LGBT students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District. The district has seen seven suicides so far this year, three of which anti-bullying advocates say involved LGBT students. Tammy Aaberg, mother of Justin Aaberg who took his own life in July, spoke with CNN’s Larry King on Monday as well.

Minnesota Family Council pushes back in Anoka-Hennepin anti-gay bullying controversy

By Andy Birkey | 10.04.10 | 8:37 am

The Minnesota Family Council (MFC) is pushing back against efforts to improve the climate for LGBT students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, where community members are mourning suicides by four LGBT students in the last year. The real issue is “homosexual indoctrination,” not anti-gay bullying, says MFC’s Tom Prichard, who says the students are dead because they adopted an “unhealthy lifestyle.” MFC’s campaign against anti-bullying education comes as national religious right groups mount a similar campaign in the aftermath of nearly half a dozen suicides by LGBT students around the country in the last month.

Minnesota Family Council wants gay marriage at center stage in guv race

By Andy Birkey | 09.13.10 | 12:39 pm

The Minnesota Family Council released poll numbers on Monday that it says shows an advantage for GOP candidate Tom Emmer when the issue of gay marriage is put before voters. Commissioned by the National Organization for Marriage, the poll shows that DFL candidate Mark Dayton has a strong lead over Emmer — 42 percent to 33 percent — until voters learn of each candidates’ position on gay marriage.

‘Death rights’ bills for same-sex couples pass House committee

By Andy Birkey | 03.12.10 | 8:56 am

Three bills that would assist same-sex couples in the event of one partner’s death were passed by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Legislators recalled stories of couples who underwent hardships because of inequality in the law, while Tom Prichard of the Minnesota Family Council called the bills “discriminatory” and said they are “unfair to married couples.”

Jailed for sex outside of marriage? No problem, says Family Council

By Andy Birkey | 12.14.09 | 8:40 am

The Minnesota Family Council told WCCO over the weekend that laws that include fines and jail for sex outside of marriage are a good thing and should be expanded. Minnesota has several laws on the books — laws…

Now Minnesota Family Council is noticing LGBT measures in healthcare bill

By Andy Birkey | 11.10.09 | 3:52 pm

As noted here Monday, social conservatives — distracted by concerns over abortion and the House health care reform bill — missed key provisions in the bill that benefit LGBT Americans. One group that apparently overlooked the measures,…

ELCA eliminates ban on openly gay and lesbian clergy

By Andy Birkey | 08.21.09 | 10:22 pm

After hours of debate at the Minneapolis Convention Center, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voted Friday evening to lift its ban on openly gay and lesbian clergy in committed relationships. Advocates on both sides made passionate pleas, with proponents saying the future of the church depends on a more progressive stance on homosexuality and opponents saying the decision could split the church.

Religious right watch: Health care reform is against God’s design

By Andy Birkey | 08.07.09 | 9:36 am

The religious right is ramping up its campaign against health care reform, even joining with the “tea party” movement to encourage conservative Christians to swamp town hall meetings. Minnesota’s religious right leaders say that the health care reform package is against God’s plan for health care and that Christians should go to community forums and “read them the riot act.”

Religious Right Watch: When ‘religious freedom’ and taxpayer funds collide

By Andy Birkey | 01.16.09 | 9:11 am

For many in the religious right, the prospect of gay and lesbian couples gaining full relationship rights is frightening, and rhetoric is fraught with doomsday scenarios of pastors going to prison, forced homosexuality and men marrying box turtles. But in one such story — about how civil union laws resulted in a church’s being punished for denying a lesbian couple from marrying on church property — the rhetoric doesn’t meet reality.