Politics

Counseling service run by Mike Johnson’s wife compared LGBTQ+ identities to bestiality & incest

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Fox News.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Fox News. Photo: Screenshot

Kelly Johnson, wife of rabidly anti-LGBTQ+ Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), reportedly runs a Christian counseling service that categorizes LGBTQ+ identities as “sexual immorality,” and compares them to incest and bestiality.

While the website for Onward Christian Counseling Services appears to have been disbanded, Huffington Post obtained a copy of the company’s 2017 operating agreement, which states that “the Bible teaches that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one’s sex, or disagreement with one’s biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God.”

The agreement also emphasizes the belief that marriage should only exist between a man and a woman and that sex should never occur outside of marriage.

According to Mother Jones, the company’s website was taken down after Johnson was elected Speaker.

The Johnsons are staunch evangelical Christians who are engaged in a covenant marriage. Couples in such marriages can only divorce after they’ve been married at least two years and only based on specific situations, such as adultery or if one member of the couple commits a felony. According to People, it is only legal in three states for couples to enter this type of marriage.

The Speaker also allows his religion to dictate the way he legislates. He has said that the Bible is his worldview and that he does not believe the Constitution requires the separation of church and state.

Since being elected Speaker, Rep. Johnson has also been repeatedly called out for his intense anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs.

Johnson previously served as a senior attorney and national spokesman for the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (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. He told the Baptist Message that he was “on the front lines of the ‘culture war’ defending religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and biblical values, including the defense of traditional marriage.”

Last December, Johnson 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.

Additionally, a series of early 2000s editorials written by Johnson revealed his long-held belief that the mere existence of homosexuality should be criminalized.

“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.”

He also called  same-sex marriage “the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic.”

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