The Mike Johnson hits keep on coming — in early October, the soon-to-be speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives took part in a prayer call in which he said American culture was “dark and depraved,” partly because so many young people identify as something other than straight. He cited the decline of national church attendance and the rise of LGBTQ+ youth as supposed evidence for the so-called dark period. Discussing the risk of divine retribution, Johnson invoked Sodom, the Old Testament city destroyed by God for its wickedness with a rain of burning sulfur. Johnson has a lengthy track record of challenging LGBTQ+ rights. As an attorney for the Alliance for Defending Freedom, he advocated for sodomy laws and the criminalization of homosexuality. The speaker's more conservative views have come under scrutiny in recent weeks, as he now leads a House where he'll have to exercise a great degree of bipartisanship to keep the chamber running given the GOP's razor-thin majority. The call occurred just hours before Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker and three weeks before Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, was elected to succeed him. The call was hosted by Jim Garlow, co-founder of the World Prayer Network and founder and CEO of Well Versed, a Christian right organization. #Queer Up The USA View