The tea-party presidential candidate said HBO was dangerously trying to legitimize polygamy
As a state lawmaker in 2006, now-Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) warned that efforts to allow same-sex marriage would open the door to polygamy and "group marriage,'' and she condemned a popular cable television series about a fundamentalist Mormon with three wives.
The interview with a public-affairs television show produced by the Minnesota Senate called Capitol Report was recently posted on YouTube by American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal group that targets conservatives for attack. The media office of the Minnesota Senate confirmed that the interview was authentic.
"There are lawsuits being filed all across the country by individuals to try to overturn marriage laws,'' Bachmann, now a 2012 presidential hopeful, said in the interview. "There are efforts right now to also legitimatize and allow for polygamist marriages and also group marriages, so this issue isn't stopping with just redefining marriage to allow for same sex-couples. There's a new TV show on HBO right now called Big Love, and it's promoting the idea of normalizing polygamy.''
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The March 25 interview occurred shortly before a state Senate committee rejected a bill to ban same-sex marriage in the state constitution. Big Love, which had just begun airing on HBO at the time, ran for five seasons and ended in March.