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  • Approved for CNN

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    Posted November 30, 2011 by
    Anelia
    Location
    Waverly, Iowa
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    Assignment
    Assignment
    This iReport is part of an assignment:
    GOP presidential primary: Who's your pick?

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    Student challenges Bachmann on marriage

    By Anelia  |  Posted November 30, 2011  |  Waverly, Iowa
     

    CNN PRODUCER NOTE     Anelia shot this video of area students asking questions on bullying and LGBT rights to GOP presidential contender Michele Bachmann during a November 30 townhall meeting she hosted in Waverly, Iowa. 'They were very gutsy as you can see in the video. It takes tons of courage to identify yourself as the "other" in rural Iowa,' this iReporter said of the students. 'It was also interesting that Bachmann, who was in control of the microphone, and could have easily not gone back to the same corner of the room where the first question came from, did not hesitate to go right back in and handle the second question about religion. She misunderstood the question, the girl later told me, but the interaction shows, in a candid way, character on both sides.'
    - jmsaba, CNN iReport producer

    by ANELIA K. DIMITROVA

     

     

    Michele Bachmann showed her titanium spine at a cozy town hall meeting at the Waverly Pizza Ranch Wednesday.

     

    In a true small-town spirit, she kept her remarks short, giving her audience an opportunity to quiz her on issues of interest to them, and even held the microphone so her supporters’ voices could be heard as audibly as hers. 

     

    But she did not hold back when a W-SR student asked her what she would do for the LGBT community as president and challenged her views on marriage.

     

    “All of us as Americans have the same rights, we have the same civil rights,” she told Jane Schmidt, 16, who identified herself as a member of the school’s GSA, the alliance advocating for the rights of gay and straight students.  “There shouldn’t be any special rights or any special set of criteria. We all have the same civil rights. ”

     

    With a mother’s patience and to applause, Bachmann reiterated her position that marriage is between a man and a woman.

     

    This exchange, and a later one, from the same corner, that had to do with bullying and the practicing of religion in schools, demonstrated that even in a hometown format Bachmann does not shy away from controversy.



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