House Speaker Mike Johnson said LGBTQ+ youth make America ‘dark and depraved’
House Speaker Mike Johnson is also an opponent of LGBTQ+ rights. (Credit: Getty)
Right before he was elected as House Speaker, Mike Johnson said that LGBTQ+ youth had turned American culture “dark and depraved”.
Ever since Republicans voted for Johnson to replace ousted congressman Kevin McCarthy as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, a seemingly endless slew of his past anti-gay actions and statements have come out of the woodwork.
Not only has Johnson made outrageous, almost laughable claims, like blaming homosexuality for the fall of the Roman Empire, but he had previously campaigned for gay sex to be made illegal and for marriage to be protected as a union between a man and a woman.
When questioned on his history of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, which advocacy groups and Democrats have described as “deeply troubling”, Johnson has tried to blow it off, insisting he doesn’t “even remember” most of it.
But, that’s a little bit hard to believe considering one of his most extreme anti-LGBTQ+ claims was made just weeks before he was voted as House Speaker.
Speaking with the World Prayer Network on 3 October, Johnson claimed that America’s culture has become “so dark and depraved that it almost seems irredeemable”, and that young people identifying as LGBTQ+ were to blame.
As part of his prayer, Johnson said, per LGBTQ Nation: “One in four high school students identify as something other than straight.”
He then went on to speak about the city of Sodom, one of two biblical cities that was destroyed by God with sulfur and fire because of its wickedness.
Evangelical Christians interpret that Sodom is a metaphor for homosexuality and that the “wickedness” associated with the biblical city stemmed from gay people.
Wrapping up the call, Johnson said: “We repent for our sins individually and collectively. And we ask that you not give us the judgment that we clearly deserve.”
This comment, on top of everything else that Johnson has said and done to push his anti-gay rhetoric, seriously contradicts his insistence earlier this month that he simply couldn’t be a “hateful person”, because he is a Christian.
“If you truly believe in the Bible’s commands and you seek to follow those, it is impossible to be a hateful person,” he told Fox News.
“The greatest command in the Bible is that you love God with everything you have and you love your neighbor as yourself.”
And yet, Johnson’s hateful rhetoric dates back to at least 2004, when he published an opinion piece in which he described same-sex couples as “inherently unnatural” and “harmful and costly for everyone.”
The speaker has also targetted transgender youth, stating back in July that “a parent has no right to sexually transition a young child”, and campaigned for the overturning of Roe v Wade, describing the once constitutional ruling as giving cover “to the elective killing of unborn children in America.”
Johnson also used his podcast Truth Be Told, which he co-hosted with his wife Kelly, to promote their shared anti-LGBTQ+ ideals.
Before all 69 episodes of the series were taken down from his website, one episode heard by Gambit caught Mike and Kelly praising anti-trans activist Matt Walsh, who had infamously blamed the Club Q mass shooting on “men [who] crossdress in front of children.”
The couple have also targeted Disney for its “openly Satanic programming” and for “forcing a radical woke agenda” on children.
The list just keeps getting longer.
