You may recall that back in July, John Becker, from Truth Wins Out, a group that works to expose the "ex-gay" movement, paid an undercover visit to Marcus Bachmann for a set of "pray away the gay" therapy sessions which he then wrote up to apply pressure to the Bachmanns for accepting public funds for this discredited and damaging practice.
Before patients at Bachmann & Associates start services, they’re required to sign a paper acknowledging that they’ve been made aware of the clinic’s no-show policy. According to said policy, patients are assessed a $75 no-show fee for each appointment that they miss without giving prior notification. I always booked the maximum number of appointments in advance that I could (3) in order to avoid suspicion — after all, it was to be a 4-6 month course of treatment — so when I went back to Vermont, I called the clinic to cancel them. However, I didn’t want to give them any kind of a heads up about the story that was about to break in the media, so I said that a member of my immediate family “back home in Wisconsin” (they had seen and photocopied my Wisconsin ID) had had a health crisis, and that I needed to go out of state but didn’t know when I’d be back. On the voicemail I left at the clinic, I told them to cancel all three of my appointments and that I’d schedule my next sessions when I knew when I’d be back in the Twin Cities.
Apparently the receptionist only canceled the first appointment, and now Marcus himself is calling to collect for the two outstanding "pray away the gay" sessions.
