House Speaker Mike Johnson’s resume hits all of the homophobic touchstones: railing against same-sex marriage, pushing to criminalize gay sex, likening gays to pedophiles.
With that in mind, it should come as no surprise the Louisiana Republican also partnered with a group that pushed anti-gay conversion therapy.
When it comes to demonizing LGBTQ+ people, Johnson knows no bottom!
CNN reports Johnson provided legal advice to an organization called Exodus International, a leader in the “ex-gay” movement. The group also promoted a national school theme day meant to demean homosexuals.
That’s right: As a counter to GLSEN’s “Day of Silence,” which spreads awareness about the impact of bullying on LGBTQ+ youth, Exodus International launched an event called the “Day of Truth.” The idea was for homophobes to counter that silence by distributing anti-gay propaganda.
Sounds pretty repugnant, huh?! Johnson was all-in.
“I mean, our race, the size of our feet, the color of our eyes, these are things we’re born with and we cannot change,” he said in a 2008 radio interview.
“What these adult advocacy groups like the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network are promoting is a type of behavior. Homosexual behavior is something you do, it’s not something that you are.”
Those words definitely sound like homophobic bingo! Notably, Johnson worked with Exodus International from 2006 to 2010, which really wasn’t very long ago!
The 51-year-old was actively promoting the harassment of LGBTQ+ youth well into adulthood.
Johnson consulted with Exodus International on behalf of the conservative anti-gay legal group, the Alliance Defense Fund.
In a recent interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, he tried to spin his record and make it sound like he was just a humble attorney doing his job.
“I was a litigator that was called upon to defend the state marriage amendments,” he said. “I made a career defending the rule of law, I respect the rule of law.”
Still, Johnson made sure to rail against the Obergefell decision, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
“They changed the definition of marriage that had been regarded by every human society for about 5,000 years. But when five justices on the Supreme Court changed it, that became the law of the land,” he said.
A homophobic can only hide for so long before his true colors shine through.
Make no mistake: Johnson’s true colors are vehemently anti-LGBTQ+. In newspaper editorials, he’s called homosexuality an “inherently unnatural” and “dangerous lifestyle” that would lead to legalized pedophilia and possibly even destroy “the entire democratic system.”
In another, he rails against anti-discrimination laws, saying “we don’t give special protections for every person’s bizarre choices.”
CNN dug up an interview in which Johnson blames gay sex for the fall of the Roman Empire.
“Some credit to the fall of Rome to not only the deprivation of the society and the loss of morals, but also to the rampant homosexual behavior that was condoned by the society,” he said in the aforementioned interview.
I bet he’s a “graduate” of said conversion. Just wait for it.
— He’s Incredible Math (@RetroTacoKings) November 2, 2023
Not a good man
— Patsh (@Patsh87174537) November 2, 2023
As a congressman, Johnson has championed a national version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation. He says the “Democrat Party and their cultural allies are on a misguided crusade to immerse young children in sexual imagery and radical gender ideology.”
Back in the mid-2000s, he argued that gay marriage “is the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic.”
Yeesh. His wife, for those wondering, is equally hateful. Kelly Johnson runs an organization called Onward Christian Counseling Services, which compares being gay to bestiality and incest.
When Exodus International dissolved in 2013, its founder publicly apologized for the “pain and hurt” his organization caused.
Johnson, unsurprisingly, hasn’t expressed similar remorse.
abfab
OPINION
CHARLES M. BLOW
I Grew Up in Mike Johnson’s District, Where Kindness Can Mask Cruelty
Nov. 1, 2023
NYT
READ!
COTTONTOP
Just read it. He’s vile.
abfab
”We are a Family that fights for FREEDOM and LIBERTY——————up to a point”.
Vince
I don’t remember, it was years ago, etc. Lol If you truly believed it and it was because of your religious convictions you’d be saying hell yeah.
Kind of shows what true frauds they are.
RIGay
One year to go, people, one year to go.
PLEASE VOTE!
abfab
WE WILL. AND WE WILL WIN.
novadude
And: Heterosexual behavior is something you do, it’s not something that you are.
Because grammar.
What an idiot!
abfab
That would be like saying that Mike Johnson is Beesteeality. No? Yes? I thought that was big down by the bayou.
ZzBomb
I would confidently bet a year’s salary that Johnson is a closet gay. No one rails this hard against something that doesn’t affect them in the least without some degree of a guilt b/c they know, deep down, they are one too.
COTTONTOP
I felt that he was from the first time I saw him, and then I heard him speak. My gaydar went off big time. These closeted republican politicians are the biggest threats to gay equality. Also these idiot gay republicans that vote against their best interests. Horrible, horrible people.
Kangol2
The severe Christian Lady Mike Johnson doth protest waaaaaaaaaay too much about homosexuality, that’s for sure!
COTTONTOP
Agreed
abfab
Recall The Church Lady (Dana Carvey) and the way she accentuated FORNICATION. It’s now Kelly’s word du jour.
COTTONTOP
You nailed it.
abfab
“A kind of Stepford wife”:
It’s more than a prayer keeping Mike Johnson’s wife suddenly out of view.
The new speaker’s Christian right radicalism really comes into view when looking at his marriage
By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
SALON
Fahd
One has to ask what kind of a political party elects this religion-obsessed hater Speaker of the House.
Is he a great Speaker of the House who just happens to have a history of proactive homophobia likely rooted in his repression of his own sexuality?
He´s a disgrace and yet the Repugnic*nts elected him….hell in a handbasket. The Democrats need to work very hard to ensure they regain the House in 2024.
Baron Wiseman
All 208 Democrats in the House voted against Kevin McCarthy. Not a single Democrat voted in favor of keeping him as House speaker.
Perhaps the House Democrats should not have voted unanimously to oust Kevin McCarthy. The Democrats created a House speaker they don’t like and only have themselves to blame.
abfab
Troll.
Josh in OR
“Why didn’t the democrats clean up the mess the Republicans made, like they usually do?! This is all their fault!”
When I was a kid, I used to throw my toys out of my bedroom window when I was mad at my mom. She’d go out, and pick up my toys, and I would watch her from my window, gloating at the power I had over her. I had SHOWED HER.
Then, one day, I got mad and threw my toys out the window…and mom shrugged and went back to what she was doing. You better believe I insisted that she go retrieve my toys before someone came along and stole them! She just looked at me, and said that if I REALLY wanted my toys, I wouldn’t keep throwing them out the window. She wasn’t going to keep cleaning up my mess when it was clear that I didn’t value what I had.
So I shrieked. I cried. I screamed. And my mom simply let me, because I had brought this upon myself by my choices, my actions.
The GOP has been throwing their toys out the window for the last ~50 years. They cannot govern (because they hate the concept of government), they cannot function as adults, but boy can they throw a tantrum, as evidenced by their moving to oust McCarthy for daring to reach across the aisles SORT OF, in order to keep the government running instead of letting it shut down AGAIN, thanks to the GOP’s choices and actions.
And here you are, shrieking and stomping and blaming the adults in the room for refusing to clean up their idiot child’s mess anymore.
dbmcvey
McCarthy promised to follow the agreement he made with Biden and then backed out on it. McCarthy was no less extreme, although perhaps less honest than the current speaker. This makes no difference and the Dems are not to blame for the current Republican disasters.
LumpyPillows
All democrats voted for Hakeem Jeffries. They did not vote against any republican. Very different. It’s not our job to vote for republicans. McCarthy had done nothing to make any democrat believe he would not continue to be divisive and untrustworthy. The nonsense that came out of that man’s mouth was toxic.
Baron Wiseman
“No greater thing could come to our land today than a revival of the spirit of religion—a revival that would sweep through the homes of the Nation and stir the hearts of men and women of all faiths to a reassertion of their belief in God and their dedication to His will for themselves and for their world. I doubt if there is any problem—social, political or economic—that would not melt away before the fire of such a spiritual awakening.”
still_onthemark
“Who is William Jennings Bryan?”
abfab
The copy and paste queen returns sans credit. FDR is now rolling in his grave.
Baron Wiseman
@still_onthe mark
Good guess. It is the Radio Address on Brotherhood Day; February 23, 1936 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
An example of how much the Democratic party has changed. The current God-less Democratic party actually booed the mention of God at their 2012 Democratic Presidential Convention.
dbmcvey
Let’s look how the Republican Party has changed from the party of Lincoln to the Party of the KKK.
Kangol2
Only the Baroness would type something nonsensical like “the current God-less Democratic party.” In fact, the head of the Democratic Party, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, is a practicing Roman Catholic who attends Mass every week. A number of Congressional Democrats are practicing Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. They are not theocratic Christian Dominionists like Mike Johnson and his ilk, thank the gods, but “God-less” the party is not. On top of this, the GOP has as its standard-bearer a truly anti-Christian psychopath, Don the Con, who wouldn’t know the inside of a church or the correct orientation of the Holy Bible if either bit him in his wide tuches.
Baron Wiseman
@dbmcvey
The party of the KKK is the Democratic party, numbskull. The Republican party was founded to stop the expansion of slavery the Democrats were imposing on the Western states.
Baron Wiseman
@Kangol2
It wasn’t the Republicans who booed at the mere mention of God. The God-less Democrats did at their 2012 Democratic convention.
decrans
It’s fitting that Joe Biden attended the funeral of a Democratic standard bearer and actual member of the KKK. But then again, Dickvaney has never allowed actual facts to stand in his way of a good diarrhea stream diatribe.
LumpyPillows
Pandering to religion is nothing new. Religion has been a tool to control people from the start of human communication. Using religion to defend positions that are otherwise indefensible is the core to the evil perpetuated by religion. I mean, seriously, look at Trump, the most ungodly man out there, waving Bibles to control his drones.
Do some churches provide a sense of community and help people? Yes. They aren’t completely evil, but, on the whole, there is nothing a church does that can’t be done without the outdate superstitions tied to religion.
Baron Wiseman
@LumpyPillows
A tool to control people?
Like Communism?
still_onthemark
Christianity CAUSED the fall of the Roman Empire, as St. Augustine realized in his “City of God” written after the sack of Rome in 410.
Romans did great as long as they were indulging in homosexual behavior. After the emperors became Christian, forced everyone else to become Christian, and suppressed “paganism” and homosexuality, Rome FELL!
Baron Wiseman
“I just wish they would get to know me,” he continued, adding, “I’m not trying to establish Christianity as the national religion or something. That’s not what this is about at all.”
He then discussed how the Bible commands to show peace and love toward all people.
“If you truly believe in the Bible’s commands, and you seek to follow those, it’s impossible to be a hateful person because the greatest command in the Bible is that you love God with everything you had, and you love your neighbor as yourself.” – House Speaker Mike Johnson in an interview with Kayleigh McEnany reported by Gabriel Hays 10.31.23
still_onthemark
When I was 8 years old I thought Jesus must have been insane to say that “love your neighbor as yourself” crap. I got upset with a Sunday school teacher about that. My family had mean neighbors who yelled at us kids and even literally tried to poison our dog (or so said my parents), anyway I didn’t see my parents making any effort to “love” these crazy neighbors so why would Jesus say such a crazy, impossible thing?
dbmcvey
In this country we have a Constitution so we don’t follow the Bible’s rules. We don’t stone adulterers, we don’t outlaw wearing mixed fabrics or eating shellfish.
Kangol2
“He then discussed how the Bible commands to show peace and love toward all people.” – Mike Johnson, according to Baron, from FoxNew (of course!)
The record:
“Prior to launching his political career, Johnson, a lawyer, gave legal advice to an organization called Exodus International {an oppressive ex-gay organization] and partnered with the group to put on an annual anti-gay event aimed at teens, according to a CNN KFile review of more than a dozen of Johnson’s media appearances from that timespan.” (HRC, November 1, 2023)
More:
“First, right out of college, he worked for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which the Southern Law Poverty Center has called a hate group. Johnson also is a habitual denier; he denies climate change, denies reproductive rights, denies free and fair elections, and denies LGBTQ+ rights.” (The Advocate, November 2, 2023)
“This is how SLPC describes what ADF and Johnson want for our community: “Recriminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S. and criminalization abroad; has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad; has contended that LGBTQ people are more likely to engage in pedophilia; and claims that a ‘homosexual agenda’ will destroy Christianity and society. ADF also works to develop ‘religious liberty’ legislation and case law that will allow the denial of goods and services to LGBTQ people on the basis of religion. Since the election of President Trump, ADF has become one of the most influential groups informing the administration’s attack on LGBTQ rights.” (The Advocate, November 2, 2023)
“Johnson is vehemently against marriage equality. But he doesn’t stop there. He has let his disdain toward us seep into our bedrooms. While at ADF he wrote an editorial for a local newspaper and “called homosexuality an ‘inherently unnatural’ and ‘dangerous lifestyle’ that would lead to legalized pedophilia and possibly even destroy ‘the entire democratic system,’” as CNN reported.” (The Advocate, November 2, 2023)
Baron Wiseman
@dbmcvey
The United States Constitution doesn’t replace or diminish the Bible nor our Creator. As much as the God-less Democrats wish, the separation of church and state is not in the United States founding documents.
LeBlevsez
Baron Wiseman –
Your recent shift to holy-rollering was swift and stark.
A new directive from the foreman of your troll-farm, perhaps?
LumpyPillows
Mike Johnson’s history is clearly harmful to LGBT people. He’s used his “faith” as a weapon. Christ would not approve.
dbmcvey
The Constitution certainly does diminish and replace the Bible because the Bible is not the rule of law. We don’t have to follow the teachings of the Bible and if we don’t it doesn’t matter because it’s just an old book with a lot of things that can be interpreted many ways.
Also, unlike many religious zealots I’ve read the Bible many times.
Hey Oxymoron, Ezekial 23:20 is the verse for you.
still_onthemark
MAGA Ten Commandments:
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me, except thou shalt followeth thy Orange Jesus over any moral cliff.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, unless thou shalt have purchaseth it on Orange Jesus’s website.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, except when thou shalt attacketh Brandon or thy RINOs.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy, unless thou attendeth a musical production in Denver.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother, and burieth thy mother on thy father’s golf course.
6. Thou shalt not kill, but thou shalt shooteth looters on sight, and puteth alligators in thy moat to keepeth out the Mexicans.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery, but if thou shalt do so with thy **** star, thou shalt payeth her off through an intermediary and falsifieth thy accounting records.
8. Thou shalt not steal, unless thou needeth to steeleth one moreth than a certain number of popular votes or unless thou can hideth thy stollen documents at thy bathroom in thy resort.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness. LOL.
10. Thou shalt not covet – but seeth nos. 2, 4, 7, and 8 aboveth.
– by George Conway
abfab
11. Pull out your gun and start shooting on 5th Ave. I can do this, and nothing will happen to me.
12. Bury the mother of your offspring in a NJ Swamp AFTER HAVING HER PUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS!
LumpyPillows
I am very wary of this new speaker. He hasn’t done anything yet. I’m waiting to see what he will do before castigating him. I know I likely will hear “I told you so”, but I’m going to give him a chance.
dbmcvey
What do you mean he hasn’t done anything yet? He sued the city of New Orleans trying to make it so spouses of gay people couldn’t get benefits, he wrote an Amicus Brief in Lawrence Vs. Texas coming out against decriminalizing homosexual activity between consenting adults, he wrote “Homosexual relationships are inherently unnatural and, the studies clearly show, are ultimately harmful and costly for everyone.” He has said that all sexual activity not for procreation and outside of marriage should be outlawed.
He’s done plenty.
dbmcvey
Kangol’s post above has many other things he’s done.
abfab
he dun gon out to git Kelly sum nee pads cus shes down on her nees so god dam much