A Republican lawmaker from Glencoe, Minn., founded a group that created a video that claims there’s an enzyme in sperm that causes AIDS, that gay men die at an average age of 41, that HIV is transmitted casually, and that the United Nations is responsible for making sodomy legal. Those claims are all offered in opposition to an anti-bullying bill poised to pass the Minnesota Legislature.

The Pro-Marriage Amendment Forum, a group created in 2011 by Republican Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, and “ex-gay” activist Kevin Peterson, has crafted a video called “Sodomy, Health, Money, and HF-826.”

“Sodomy, Health, Money, and HF-826” targets HF 826, the Safe and Supportive Minnesota Schools Act, which aims to make Minnesota’s anti-bullying laws stronger. The video produced by Gruenhagen and Peterson makes claims that contradict sound public health science. TheColu.mn made requests for comment to both Gruenhagen and Peterson, but were not returned.

The video was first discovered by Bluestem Prairie who reported that a Republican candidate for the State House has been distributing it among activists. In fact, it appears that at least one activist aired the program on public access television in the Twin Cities area.

In the first segment of the video, the unnamed narrator claims that the United Nations was responsible for the overturning of sodomy laws in the United States.

“In Lawrence vs Texas, the court used international law to interpret the U.S. Constitution discovering a new constitutional right to engage in homosexual conduct. Lawrence was not the first time the court had used international law to interpret our constitution so it is the United Nations that is intent on stealing our nation’s sovereignty and overturning our state laws from you.”

The narrator takes the viewer on an in-depth and fact-challenged lesson on the human reproductive cycle and then makes the claim that AIDS is caused by an enzyme in sperm entering the digestive system.

“When sperm enters the digestive system, it is quickly absorbed into the blood. It is the enzyme in the sperm that causes the immune system to fail. AIDS stand for acquired immune deficiency syndrome.“

He continues, “Sodomy is a voluntary act to destroy the immune system that protects us from disease, various cancers and other health issues.”

Contrary to the claims in the video, HIV universally recognized by the medical community as causing AIDS.

In the second segment, the narrator claims that gay men die at an average age of 41.

[sws_grey_box box_size=”100″]In the AIDS community, according to a recent study of 5246 obituaries in 16 homosexual newspapers coast to coast, the average age of men dying from AIDS is 39. The average age of homosexuals dying from all other causes is more revealing: 41. Only 1 percent die of old age. Less than 3 percent of all homosexuals surveyed are over the age of 55. People that regularly engage in sodomy live less than half their age. People who are casual with sodomy are susceptible to a breakdown of their immune system causing various sicknesses and cancers. Once again treating the symptoms and not the triggers to the syndrome and it gets worse. As the immune system is destroyed, viruses can set in, commonly called HIV. Because of the time involved and the slow progression of symptoms, most people do not even know they are dying and spreading their deadly disease to the healthy population. [/sws_grey_box]

“Do you really want to spread it further in Minnesota?” the narrator asks. “The sodomite lifestyle is a voluntarily slow complicated suicide.”

The video is taking its cues from discredited researcher Paul Cameron. The numbers were cooked up by looking at obituaries in LGBT newspapers in the 1980s and early 1990s.

But, even in using flawed data, the PMA Forum was inaccurate with the use of data. Cameron put the average age of death at 42 not 41.

In the next segment, the narrator says that the phrase “sexual orientation” and the words “gay, lesbian and bisexual” cause the same reaction in children as watching pornography.

[sws_grey_box box_size=”100″] What has been indoctrinated to students who are now parents and legislators by the Minnesota Department of Education? The Minnesota Department of Education published its own program to direct teachers for developing a support system for gay lesbian and bisexual youth. It was made under the guise and play on words to “prevention and risk reduction. Use accurate language and information in instruction.” How can the teacher do that when when they are directed to deceive? They must comprise the facts to achieve an alternate behavior. In other words lie to you. “Modify materials as needed. Example: use sexual orientation rather than sexual preference as the latter connotes being gay, lesbian or bisexual is preferred or say unsubstantiated language like it is a choice it is not.” These suggestions and images they are referring to are triggers for the hormone dopamine in children like pornography in adults. The actual images have since been included in the common core curriculum as we will see. these are examples that are intended to deceive children. [/sws_grey_box]

“The promotion of sodomy in the classroom is getting more and more intense and deceptive as we will soon see,” the narrator added. “How is teaching sodomy as involuntary and normal behavior safe for children? It is not.”

The video continues with an inaccurate discussion of the transmission of HIV.

[sws_grey_box box_size=”100″] A little rash can turn into a full blown infection one that can be spread by blood borne pathogens. Blood borne pathogens are diseases in anything made with the use of blood such as saliva, tears, sweat, etc. This is why barriers are used by EMTs, nurses, doctors, police, etc., when coming in contact with a person. Don’t think HIV can be spread except by contact during sex? Try telling an EMT, nurse, of doctors not to put on barriers before working with a patient or working in the lab. This is a public health issue. Is teaching sodomy under the protection of law and bullying healthy, normal and safe for children and the public? No, it is not, and if someone tells you differently, they are lying to you and maybe getting paid to do so. This is a public health issue. [/sws_grey_box]

Later, the narrator added, “The gay agenda only recognizes the religion of humanism or atheism.”

The claims made in the video are incorrect. According to virtually every private and public institution focusing on HIV including the Centers for Disease Control, AIDS.gov, and National Center for Biotechnology Information, HIV cannot be transmitted through saliva, tears or sweat.

[sws_grey_box box_size=”100″]Gay marriage or Sexual Orientation is not about gays, bi’s, heterosexuals, marriage, right, wrong, etc., that is just a diversion. It is deceitful and most cases a downright lie. It is about legalizing sodomy, causing avoidable pain, suffering and death, and financial ruin, while making the elite doctors, lawyers, pharmaceutical companies rich…It is a public health assault by the elite to the unsuspecting public to reprogram the public under the Affordable Healthcare Act commonly known as ObamaCare. [/sws_grey_box]

The narrator added, “The practice of sodomy is spreading death, blame-shifting it to someone else after the child dies is too late. Now is the time to act.”

Then he says, “Even a few years ago, how many parents thought sodomy would be legalized and mandated to be taught it is a safe, normal sexual behavior? However horrible you may think things are, the situation is much, much worse. In the name of health, children are systematically being reprogrammed and stolen from you to serve the government, the rich, and elite. Only you can stop this assault. The children and your freedom are at stake.”

Much like the Minnesota Child Protection League, the PMA Forum believes that somehow an anti-bullying bill will mandate sexual health education material be used in schools.

The roots of PMA Forum

Gruenhagen has a long history speaking out against sodomy which he often conflates with the LGBT community.

In 1993, Gruenhagen, an insurance agency manager at the time, explained his views on homosexuality, according to Star Tribune archives.

“Sodomy – whether practiced between a man and a woman or two men – is wrong,” Gruenhagen said. “It’s a medically proven unhealthy lifestyle. When you know the medical facts about sodomy, you would not practice it. It’s wrong. That’s why we have a state law against the practice of sodomy.”

As the blog, Bluestem Prairie notes, Gruenhagen tried to get a resolution passed at the Minnesota School Board Association to have what he calls “sodomy as an orientation” banned from schools:

[sws_grey_box box_size=”100″]BE IT RESOLVED, THAT THE MINNESOTA SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION URGES THE LEGISLATURE TO SUPPORT LEGISLATION PROHIBITING THE TEACHING OF SODOMY AS AN ORIENTATION TO OUR CHILDREN IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOL. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, AT AN AGE APPROPRIATE LEVEL, STUDENTS SHOULD BE TAUGHT THE PUBLIC HEALTH RISKS AND THE MEDICAL FACTS OF THE PRACTICE OF SODOMY, WHETHER PRACTICED BETWEEN TWO MEN, OR A MAN AND A WOMAN. ANY CURRICULUM WHICH PRESENTS INDIVIDUALS WHO PRACTICE THE MEDICALLY PROVEN UNHEALTHY BEHAVIOR OF SODOMY IN A SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE CONTEXT SHALL BE PROHIBITED IN THE CLASSROOM. STUDENTS WILL ALSO BE TAUGHT THAT IT IS COMPASSIONATE AND IN ACCORD WITH OUR PUBLIC HEALTH LAWS TO HELP PEOPLE STOP A BEHAVIOR THAT SPREADS SICKNESS, DISEASE, PAIN, SUFFERING AND DEATH. THERE IS NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT WHICH GIVES PEOPLE THE FREEDOM TO PRACTICE BEHAVIOR THAT SPREADS INFECTIOUS DISEASES. WE HAVE ALWAYS HAD PUBLIC HEALTH LAWS IN OUR COUNTRY. [/sws_grey_box]

In an April 17, 2002 letter to the Jordan Independent, Gruenhagen lamented the research of Dr. Alfred Kinsey: “He also believed that 10 percent of the population was homosexual, and that homosexuality (sodomy) should be classified as a sexual orientation and not as an unhealthy perversion and psychological disorder.”

On Feb. 17, 2004, the Hutchinson Leader published a letter from Gruenhagen that read: “[T]he practice of sodomy is an addictive, sexual perversion that spreads sickness, disease, pain, suffering and death, whether practiced by heterosexuals or homosexuals. The public health laws in our country have always prohibited sodomy because of the medical consequences. It is a historical fact that all 13 colonies had laws against sodomy, even for married heterosexuals.”

Despite these claims, he was elevated to the Glencoe-Silver Lake School Board by the voters. In fact, he garnered the most votes of any candidate in that race.

In another letter to the Hutchinson Leader, published on Jan. 30, 2007, Gruenhagen lamented “sodomy as orientation.”

Gruenhagen was endorsed by the Republican Party of Minnesota in 2010 and won election to the Minnesota House.

On Oct. 17, 2011, Gruenhagen and Peterson founded the PMA Forum and began to tour the state arguing against marriage equality for same-sex couples, according to an archived copy of the group’s website.

The duo appeared at churches and Tea Party groups.

In a letter to the editor of the Winthrop News published on Oct. 24, 2012, resident Dana Melius was embarrassed by Gruenhagen’s PMA Forum presentation.

“During my first exposure to Gruenhagen at a ‘Pro-Marriage Amendment’ forum in Waconia, he labeled gays and lesbians as ‘unhealthy sexual perverts’… for a sitting legislator to cast such hurtful, discriminatory and misguided words at an open public forum is not just embarrassing, it’s disgusting.”

With the defeat of the anti-gay marriage amendment in 2012 and the legalization of marriage for same-sex couples in 2013, Gruenhagen’s PMA Forum has switched gears to battle stronger anti-bullying laws in Minnesota. The group is targeting HF 826, the Safe and Supportive Minnesota Schools Act.

Republican activists have been circulating PMA Forum’s video around Minnesota. On such activist is Bob Frey, a candidate for the Minnesota House.

Bluestem Prairie was the first to report on Frey and the video:

[sws_grey_box box_size=”100″]According to a source in the district, Frey is distributing a DVD that contains “Sodomy, Health, Money, and HF826,” a video created by the Pro-Marriage Amendment Forum. The unnamed narrator of the video claims that the anti-bullying bill now being considered by the Minnesota legislature is part of a plot by elites to infect school children with AIDS so that doctors and drug companies can profit from their suffering.
Long an associate of anti-sodomy crusader Representative Glenn Gruenhagen, Frey serves as Gruenhagen’s campaign committee chair. Gruenhagen and Frey led Citizens For Academic Excellence, a group that fretted about historical documents being altered and the evils of school-to-work, multiculturalism, diversity and violence prevention.
His son Mike Frey, pastor of the Northern Light Baptist Church, serves as Frey’s campaign committee chair; the pastor testified against marriage equality last year in testimony called “outrageously inaccurate” by the Huffington Post.[/sws_grey_box]

Despite Gruenhagen’s anti-LGBT advocacy, he’s been endorsed by the Republican Party of Minnesota for reelection in 2014.