Newly elected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Mike Johnson has a history of harsh anti-gay language from his time as an attorney for a socially conservative legal group in the mid-2000s. In editorials that ran in his local Shreveport, Louisiana, paper, The Times, Johnson called homosexuality an inherently unnatural and dangerous lifestyle that would lead to legalized pedophilia and possibly even destroy the entire democratic system. At the time, Johnson was an attorney and spokesman for Alliance Defense Fund, known today as Alliance Defending Freedom, where he also authored his opposition to the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas – which overturned state laws that criminalized homosexual activity between consenting adults. In September 2004, Johnson supported a Louisiana amendment banning same-sex marriage saying it could lead to people marrying their pets. In another 2004 column, Johnson predicted same-sex marriage could doom America, calling “it the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy.” In 2022, Johnson also introduced a bill that some describe as a national version of what critics have called Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Now, Johnson is the speaker of the House at a time when a majority of Americans are strongly supportive of gay rights. #Queer Up Politics