Speaker Mike Johnson wanted to criminalize sodomy & called gay marriage the “harbinger of chaos”

A series of early 2000s editorials written by the newly elected and virulently anti-LGBTQ+ Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) reveal his long history of targeting the LGBTQ+ community, as well as his beliefs that the mere existence of homosexuality should be criminalized.

In a local Louisiana paper, Johnson wrote a 2003 op-ed blasting the Supreme Court for striking down anti-sodomy laws in the historic LGBTQ+ rights case of Lawrence v. Texas. Johnson said the ruling “dealt a devastating blow to fundamental American values and millennia of moral teaching.” He referred to gay sex as “same-sex deviate sexual intercourse” and said it was a public health concern due to “the exponential spread of STDs and HIV.”

He also said that gay people should not be a protected class because they “are capable of changing their abnormal lifestyles.”

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“By closing these bedroom doors,” he concluded, the Supreme Court has “opened Pandora’s box.”

At the time, Johnson was working for the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), known then as the Alliance Defense Fund.

In another op-ed written in 2005, Johnson argued against non-discrimination policies for LGBTQ+ people, describing the “homosexual lifestyle” as “behavior patterns that are proven to be destructive to individuals, to families, and to society at large.”

“Your race, creed and sex are what you are, while homosexuality and cross-dressing are things you do,” he said. “This is a free country, but we don’t give special protections for every person’s bizarre choices.”

In a third editorial written in 2004, Johnson argued against same-sex marriage, calling LGBTQ+ relationships “inherently unnatural” and said it could lead to letting people marry their pets.

And in another, written in 2004, he called same-sex marriage “the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic.”

House Republicans elected Johnson as speaker on Wednesday. He received three votes above the 217 threshold needed to assume the role. He was the fourth candidate for the position, following the failed nominations of Reps. Steve Scalise (R-LA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Tom Emmer (R-MN).

Johnson previously served as a senior attorney and national spokesman for the ADF, filing lawsuits against same-sex marriage, same-sex adoption, and same-sex marital benefits. ADF also led a campaign against GLSEN’s annual anti-bullying Day of Silence. Johnson said the day’s anti-bullying message “cloaked” the “real message… that homosexuality is good for society.”

While serving in the Louisiana state legislature from 2015 to 2017, Johnson introduced a so-called “religious freedom” bill to legalize discrimination against married same-sex couples.

Last December, he introduced a federal version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law called the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act.” The bill threatens to cut federal funding to libraries, school districts, hospitals, government entities, or other organizations for “hosting or promoting any program, event, or literature involving sexually-oriented material,” including “any topic involving gender identity, gender dysphoria, transgenderism, sexual orientation, or related topics.”

In a July hearing, Johnson — who serves as the chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, said that parents don’t have the right to provide their children with access to gender-affirming healthcare, something he falsely called a form of “abuse and physical harm,” even though every major American medical association has endorsed it as safe, effective, and essential to the well-being of trans youth.

A statement issued by Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said, “The MAGA House majority has selected the most anti-equality Speaker in U.S. history by elevating Mike Johnson — this is a choice that will be a stain on the record of everyone who voted for him.”