Mother of Suicide Victim Takes on Bachmann

The mother of a gay Minnesota teen who committed suicide after being harassed in a school district now under federal investigation is asking Rep. Michele Bachmann to speak out against bullying.

Tammy Aaberg, whose 15-year-old son, Justin (pictured), hanged himself in 2010, will deliver a petition Thursday with 130,000 signatures to Bachmann, whose district covers much of the Anoka-Hennepin School District, where Justin was a student.

The district is currently under investigation by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education for a pervasive anti-LGBT climate. Bachmann has not spoken out on multiple student suicides nor on mounting claims that the school district’s "neutrality" policy creates a hostile atmosphere for gay youth. State public health officials have called the region a "suicide contagion area."

Of Bachmann’s silence, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi told The Advocate in July, “I would think that if she wanted to be the president of the United States, she would understand that this is a larger issue than whether someone is gay or not, but as to whether someone is harassed and bullied to the point of seeing no way out.”