Human Rights Campaign blasts Mike Johnson for attacking LGBTQ+ ‘rather than doing his job’
Mike Johnson has been told to stop attacking LGBTQ+ people and just “do his job”. (Getty Images)
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has hit out at House Speaker Mike Johnson for repeatedly attacking LGBTQ+ rights “rather than doing his job.”
Johnson was elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives in October after Congressman Kevin McCarthy was ousted in a historic first.
Since then, a seemingly endless stream of Johnson’s past anti-LGBTQ+ actions has resurfaced, proving, as the HRC puts it, that he “has been integral to the national assault on the very existence of LGBTQ+ people” in the US.
In a new statement, the civil rights group goes on to accuse Johnson of planning to use “the power of the Speaker’s gavel and his fundraising influence to keep that assault at the very top of the GOP agenda in the House.”
HRC President Kelley Robinson commented: “House Speaker Mike Johnson, the man second in line to the presidency, is busy leading a parade of hate across the country rather than doing his job.
“While he ignores pressing issues to fundraise off of his virulently anti-LGBTQ+ ideology and headline the stage at white Christian Nationalist awards ceremonies, the American people pay the price.
“His obsession with extremely anti-LGBTQ+ law and policy and his desperation to impose that agenda on the nation are a stain on the GOP and all those who supported him.”
This statement from the HRC comes just days after Johnson issued a fundraising email in which he complained that a growing number of young people were identifying as LGBTQ+.
The email, obtained by Punchbowl News, reads: “One in four high school students identifies as something other than straight. What are they being taught in school?”
Johnson, who is currently the highest-ranking Republican figure in US politics, continues: “Our culture has fallen so far since the founding of our country and it’s just getting worse. I fear America may be beyond redemption.”
The email, sent with the subject line “Does America need more God, Patriot”, goes on to blame the “filth that passes for popular culture these days” for the “depraved culture” we now live in.
Johnson, who is an evangelical Christian, concluded: “We have much to repent for if we want to avoid the judgement we so clearly deserve.”
There had been understandable concerns among LGBTQ+ activists, Democrats, and even many Republicans that Johnson could potentially use his position to target certain progressive rights – particularly reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights.
Johnson had refuted those fears, insisting in an interview with Fox News that he couldn’t possibly be a hateful person because he was, after all, a Christian.
“I’m not trying to establish Christianity as the national religion or something,” he said at the time. “That’s not what this is about.”
Though, judging by his latest email, it’s kind of starting to seem like that *is* what this is about.
Who could have guessed? (Spoiler alert: Everyone. Everyone guessed)
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