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Jun 28, 2024 · “Sadly, it’s no surprise that Speaker Johnson and MAGA Republicans are once again attacking transgender kids,” David Stacy, vice president of government affairs for the LGBTQ+ advocacy group...
Oct 26, 2023 · Instead, extreme MAGA Republicans elected a speaker who has dedicated his career to attacking LGBTQI+ people and pushing an anti-equality agenda.
- Overview
- Amicus briefs and op-eds
- Entering public office
- A ‘dangerous’ House speaker for LGBTQ rights?
The unexpected elevation of fourth-term Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana to speaker of the House on Wednesday swiftly prompted unforgiving criticism and fresh scrutiny on the once obscure representative’s views on LGBTQ rights.
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, said Johnson would be “the most anti-equality” speaker in U.S. history.
“This is a choice that will be a stain on the record of everyone who voted for him,” Robinson said in a statement Wednesday. “Johnson is someone who doesn’t hesitate to express his disdain for the LGTBQ+ community from the rooftops and then introduces legislation that seeks to erase us from society.”
Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., one of the few openly gay members of Congress, appeared to take a jab at Johnson during the speaker vote on the House floor Wednesday, yelling, “Happy wedding anniversary to my wife!” before voting for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
Even outspoken conservative Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had gripes with Johnson’s ascension to power.
“So we just elected a raging homophobe to speaker…..?” McCain wrote on X. “Way to break stereotypes and win over hearts and minds!”
In the early 2000s, Johnson worked as an attorney and spokesperson for the evangelical Christian legal group Alliance Defense Fund, now known as the Alliance Defending Freedom. For decades, ADF — designated a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a designation the Arizona-based group disputes — spearheaded legal efforts to criminalize same-sex sexual activity, block efforts to legalize same-sex marriage, allow for businesses to deny service to LGBTQ people, and ban transgender people from using restrooms that correspond with their gender identities.
During his ADF tenure, Johnson sued the city of New Orleans in 2003 on behalf of the group over a local law that gave health care benefits to the partners of gay city workers.
That same year, he wrote a prominent amicus brief in the Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas, arguing in favor of allowing states to criminalize same-sex consensual sex. The brief argues that sex between men should be banned because it is more likely to spread sexually transmitted diseases than sex between men and women and therefore poses “a distinct public health problem.”
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Shortly after the high court’s 2003 ruling in the landmark case, where it struck down the nation’s remaining anti-sodomy laws, Johnson wrote an editorial for The Times of Shreveport, Louisiana, in which he suggested decriminalizing gay sex could lead to the legalization of prostitution and illicit drug-use.
“There is clearly no ‘right to sodomy’ in the Constitution, and the right of ‘privacy of the home’ has never placed all activity within the home outside the bounds of the criminal law,” Johnson wrote at the time. “What about drugs, prostitution and counterfeiting? Make no mistake, the Lawrence decision opens the door to the undermining of many important laws and is ultimately a strategic first shot for the homosexual lobby’s ultimate prize — the redefinition of marriage.”
In 2015, Johnson ran unopposed for a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives. During his short stint as a state lawmaker, he introduced the Marriage and Conscience Act, which critics argued would allow people to discriminate against same-sex married couples. Johnson defended the bill at the time, arguing that it only prevented the state from taking action against business owners who exercised their beliefs on same-sex marriage, The Advocate reported. The bill was never brought for a vote.
SarahJane Guidry, executive director of Forum for Equality, a Louisiana LGBTQ rights group, said Johnson’s tenure in the state House was “short but impactful.”
“He really did pave the way for the types of conversations, types of legislation and types of attacks that we’re seeing in Louisiana today, whether it’s the ban on gender-affirming health care, or the ban on trans youth playing sports,” Guidry said. “His track record, while he wasn’t here very long, definitely had a long impact.”
The Republican Party, she added, “is really making sure that those very vocal opinions that Speaker Johnson has made in the past and is currently making are the interests of the party going forward, and I find that to be a very scary situation, for not only Louisiana, but the country to be in.”
Shortly after Rep. John Fleming, R-La., announced in 2015 that he would be leaving the House to run for a vacant Senate seat, Johnson declared his candidacy for the House and was elected.
As a member of Congress, Johnson chaired the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus of conservative House members. Reports in 2019 found that the committee was pressuring Amazon to rescind its ban on books by an author who is considered “the father of conversion therapy.”
Gabriele Magni, an assistant professor of political science at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and director of the school’s LGBTQ Politics Research Initiative, said Johnson’s ascension to leadership could be “dangerous” for LGBTQ rights. He said Johnson will be able to prioritize, fund raise for and give greater visibility to anti-LGBTQ policies in unparalleled ways as the 56th House speaker.
“These are going to become even more mainstream positions within the Republican Party because they’re not the positions of the minority, but they are the priority of the leadership, someone who is second in line to the presidency,” Magni said.
Johnson’s most recent Republican predecessors as speaker, McCarthy and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, maintained anti-LGBTQ standpoints as well, though Johnson has put far more focus on the issue.
Throughout his time in Congress, Ryan opposed same-sex marriage, the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and voted against the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The Hate Crimes Prevention Act, enacted in 2009 by the Obama administration, extended federal hate crimes laws to cover sexual orientation, gender identity and disabilities.
McCarthy voted against the Equality Act, federal legislation that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, in 2021. As speaker, McCarthy — whose speakership became the shortest in more than 140 years — also did little to quell a chorus of increasingly bigoted rhetoric from several firebrand Republican House members.
One of those lawmakers, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga, appeared to celebrate Johnson’s election as speaker on Wednesday specifically for his stances on LGBTQ issues.
Sep 18, 2024 · They tried to block transgender kids from competing in sports, to prevent Pride flags from flying at federal facilities, to protect those who discriminate against same-sex couples and to...
Oct 26, 2023 · Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the House, is little-known nationally, but he’s as anti-LGBTQ+ as any of the more prominent members of his party — perhaps even more...
Oct 27, 2023 · To find a new speaker, House Republicans emptied their clown car and anointed the last man standing: the untested, minimally experienced, full-MAGA Rep. Mike Johnson. Oct. 26, 2023
Oct 26, 2023 · A spokesperson for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s reelection campaign, Ammar Moussa, called Johnson a “loyal foot soldier to ban abortion nationwide,” and said his election “cements the extreme MAGA takeover of the House Republican Conference.”.
