As you’ve probably heard by now, Home Speaker Mike Johnson has stated some horrible stuff in regards to the LGBTQ+ group over the past twenty years, together with calling homosexuality “inherently unnatural” and a “harmful way of life” and claiming that legalizing homosexual marriage would result in individuals marrying their pets. But, requested about his feedback throughout an interview with Fox Information shortly after he was elected Home Speaker, Johnson replied, “I don’t even bear in mind a few of them.” Did he disavow the issues he has stated? No, however claiming to barely even bear in mind them seemed to be a calculated political transfer to counsel that it’s attainable he not believes the hateful, seemingly extraordinarily homophobic remarks he made within the early 2000s. However, shock! It feels like Johnson nonetheless holds the exact same views now that he did again then, and we all know this as a result of he voiced very comparable ones simply final month.
The New York Instances reviews that on October 3—simply three weeks earlier than he was elected Home Speaker—, Johnson participated in a prayer name the place he declared that American society was “so darkish and wicked it nearly appears irredeemable” as a result of fewer individuals go to church than they used to and one-quarter of highschool college students are “one thing aside from straight.” (Because the Instances, notes, Johnson “seemed to be citing a survey from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention through which a couple of quarter of highschool college students in 2021 recognized as lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, questioning or different.”) “We’re dropping the nation,” Johnson stated. He added: “The one query is: Is God going to permit our nation to enter a time of judgment for our collective sins? Or is he going to provide us another probability to revive the foundations and return to him? We have to flip to him. We’d like a revival.”
Once more, these are issues Johnson stated final month. May he have modified his beliefs within the ensuing 6.5 weeks? Uh, positive, however most likely extra probably, he nonetheless thinks America goes to hell in a handbasket as a result of solely 75 % of highschool children are straight.
In keeping with the Instances, on the conclusion of the decision, Johnson—who as soon as labored with a conversion remedy group that claimed it may flip homosexual individuals straight—“choked up” as he stated a prayer. “We repent for our sins individually and collectively,” he stated. “And we ask that you just not give us the judgment that we clearly deserve.”
