Sinful. Destructive. Morally wrong. Physically dangerous. Inherently unnatural. Deviant. Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson has spared no invective in describing the LGBTQ community. He’s gone as far as saying same-sex marriage will destroy “the entire democratic system.” His legislative record points to an obsession with gay sex.
As speaker, Johnson will have to work with the Democrat-controlled Senate and White House to govern. Yet on LGBTQ rights, he’s shown no willingness to compromise. The bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act passed last year with 39 Republicans and all of the Democrats in the House voting in favor. The law balances protections for same-sex and interracial marriages with religious liberty concerns. But that type of bipartisan compromise didn’t move Johnson, who has said same-sex marriage will lead us down the road to acceptance of pedophilia and marrying animals.
Johnson’s made a career of targeting a small, vulnerable minority in this country for ridicule and exclusion.
Johnson proposed a federal “don’t say gay” bill that restricts any type of LGBTQ content for kindergarten through third-grade classes because the prohibition on “sexually oriented” content is defined as anything related to gender identity or sexual orientation. The Human Rights Campaign has consistently given him zeros on its congressional scorecard.
But even more concerning is what he advocated prior to his election to Congress, when he voiced strong support for the criminalization of gay sex. So-called sodomy laws were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2003.
Many younger Americans are likely unfamiliar with the history of sodomy laws. Here’s a portion of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas that is worth revisiting:
The present case does not involve minors. It does not involve persons who might be injured or coerced or who are situated in relationships where consent might not easily be refused. It does not involve public conduct or prostitution. It does not involve whether the government must give formal recognition to any relationship that homosexual persons seek to enter. The case does involve two adults who, with full and mutual consent from each other, engaged in sexual practices common to a homosexual lifestyle. The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private lives. The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime. Their right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage in their conduct without intervention of the government.”
The decision at the Supreme Court was 6-3, and the ideological balance of the justices has shifted considerably to the right since 2003. It’s not just same-sex marriage that Rep. Mike Johnson — and the ideologically aligned justices on the court — want to do away with, it’s also consensual gay sex.
These aren’t merely Johnson’s views — they are his life’s work. He worked for multiple far-right legal advocacy groups, including Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the most anti-LGBTQ legal groups in the country. Johnson’s made a career of targeting a small, vulnerable minority in this country for ridicule and exclusion. One part of his career omitted from his official biography is his tenure as dean of a law school (never opened) named after Paul Pressler, the Southern Baptist leader who has been accused of sexually abusing a teen boy and soliciting young men for sex (accusations Pressler has denied).
Johnson’s views on the dignity of LGBTQ Americans could not be more out of step with the American public. A recent Public Religion Research Institute survey found that 80% of Americans favor laws that would protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations and housing; even 66% of Republicans favor such provisions. And 69% of Americans favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally, with 49% of Republicans in favor (up from 35% in 2014).
No matter what happens in the dysfunctional Republican House caucus, Americans continue to express strong support for LGBTQ rights. Support for the dignity of LGBTQ people is also increasing in the very Christian communities that Johnson has attempted to marshal against them. Pope Francis is pushing the Catholic Church towards inclusion, and many of the nation’s largest Protestant denominations have embraced equality for LGBTQ Christians.
In response to criticism about his views on LGBTQ rights, Johnson told Fox News on Thursday that people curious about his views should “go pick up a Bible.” Well, Mr. Speaker, I have picked up plenty of Bibles — as a lifelong Christian, as a graduate of Union Theological Seminary, and as a current doctor of ministry student at Iliff School of Theology. Christians disagree about what the Bible says about the dignity of LGBTQ people, but there continues to be a notable shift toward love. I’ve witnessed the moral arc of the universe shift toward justice in my own life as a gay Christian. I was 13 and growing up in Texas when the Supreme Court ruled sodomy bans unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas. I was 25 when same-sex marriage became the law of the land. I was ordained as a deacon by my Baptist church in Kentucky at 28 and married my husband, a Presbyterian minister, at 29. Christians disagree about what the Bible says about the dignity of LGBTQ people, but there continues to be a notable shift toward love. Now we’re faced with a virulently anti-LGBTQ crusader who has risen to a powerful position in the government. Is it a setback? Sure. But more than that, I believe this moment of increasing attacks on LGBTQ rights is a call to all LGBTQ Americans and our allies to be stronger in our advocacy. We have the American public on our side, and Johnson’s rhetoric and actions are radical even in this age of political extremism. To describe his zealotry for hate, I’ll borrow some of those same words that the speaker himself has used for the LGBTQ community: It is sinful, as a matter of Christian ethics, to turn Christ’s message of love into a message of hate and exclusion. It is destructive to the future of Christianity to make anti-LGBTQ views central to what it means to be a Christian. Apart from religion, it is morally wrong to target a small minority as a path to political power. Johnson’s crusade is physically dangerous to the lives of LGBTQ people, especially trans youth. His obsession with our sex lives is inherently unnatural, and his cruel ideology is deviant from the mainstream. Let’s hope that if his heart isn’t opened, his views gain no traction.
Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons
Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons is vice president of programs and strategy at Interfaith Alliance and the author of "Just Faith: Reclaiming Progressive Christianity." 
