New Speaker Mike Johnson suddenly can’t remember his anti-LGBTQ+ comments

Newly elected House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) claims he does not remember “some of” the many, many anti-LGBTQ+ comments he’s made over the course of his career.

Johnson’s history of opposing LGBTQ+ rights has been well documented and stretches back to the early 2000s, when he worked as a senior attorney and national media spokesman for anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (then called the Alliance Defense Fund). Between 2003 and 2005, Johnson also wrote several editorials for Shreveport, Louisiana, paper The Times, criticizing the Supreme Court for striking down anti-sodomy laws, opposing same-sex marriage, and arguing against non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people.

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New House speaker nominee Mike Johnson is an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist who once worked for a hate group

He once criticized an advocacy organization for perpetuating the message “that homosexuality is good for society.”

During a Thursday night interview, Fox News host Sean Hannity questioned Johnson about those editorials, which resurfaced this week, as well as his anti-LGBTQ+ work with Alliance Defending Freedom.

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“You have been getting hammered on this, and I want to ask you about it,” Hannity said. “I wanna know exactly where you stand. Some of these comments were 15 years ago.”

Johnson has previously said that same-sex marriage will lead to “chaos and sexual anarchy” and “place our entire democratic system in jeopardy by eroding its foundation.” He claimed legalizing same-sex marriage would lead to “pedophiles” seeking legal protections for having sex with kids and people trying to marry their pets. He has also said, “Homosexual relationships are inherently unnatural … ultimately harmful and costly for everyone.”

“I don’t even remember some of them,” Johnson claimed.

Johnson went on to explain that in the early 2000s, he was “called upon” to defend amendments to state constitutions across the country banning same-sex marriage

“I think it was over 35 states, somewhere in that number, that the people went to the ballot in their respective states, and they amended their state constitutions to say marriage is one man, one woman,” Johnson said. “Well, I was a religious liberty defense lawyer, and I was called to go in and defend those cases in the courts.”

“Let me state this very clearly – and there’s been questions about this,” he continued. “Let me say where I am. Anybody that knows me will tell you this is true: I am a rule-of-law guy. I made a career defending the rule of law. I respect the rule of law. When the Supreme Court issued the Obergefell opinion, that became the law of the land, okay? I respect the rule of the law, but I also genuinely love all people, regardless of their lifestyle choices. This is not about the people themselves. I am a Bible-believing Christian.”

Other Republicans have referred to same-sex marriage as “the law of the land,” a factual statement that doesn’t express any support for the law or for the rights of same-sex couples. Johnson’s record suggests that he’d support overturning the law, something that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has also expressed support for.

Johnson also noted that anyone who wanted to understand his worldview could pick up a Bible and read it.

However, he did not address his more recent work opposing LGBTQ+ rights, which has included introducing a federal version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, falsely accusing President Joe Biden of breaking federal law by displaying the Progress Pride flag outside the White House, and claiming that parents do not have the right to provide their children with access to gender-affirming healthcare. Nor did he address his role in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.