Michele Bachmann: Hate crime protection for LGBT people is 'tyranny' in 'God's form of government'

Former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) argued recently that the government was guilty of "tyranny" because of a law that enables the prosecution of hate crimes against LGBT people.

Last week, the Trinity Broadcasting Network aired part of conservative historian David Barton's "Foundations of Freedom" DVD series, which included Bachmann's thoughts on a 2009 hate crimes law that added sexual orientation as a protected class.

"That's what's so brilliant about our form of government and God's form of government, that we are equal before the law," Bachmann explained in a video clip obtained by Right Wing Watch. "God's says He's not a respecter of persons, He's not partial, so why should we, why should government be partial? ... A creator God created us equal."

"That is revolutionary!" she exclaimed. "It shows that when God made you, when God made me, when God made the viewers, we are so valuable to him that he lifted each one of us up before him, yet equal."

Barton, however, argued that equal protections could not be extended to "groups" like LGBT people.

"It's tyranny," Bachmann agreed. "So when you're part of a favored group, then you get special benefits that nobody else gets."

"That's the very form of tyranny because when government supposedly gives something — government has nothing to give, they have to take it away from other people," she added. "So when they give it to that certain group, that means, by definition, they're taking it away from you."

Watch the video below, uploaded by Right Wing Watch.