Mike Johnson endorsed & promoted a book that called Pete Buttigieg “obnoxiously gay”

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wrote a fawning 300-word forward for a book containing anti-LGBTQ+ insults, a defense of the N-word, and support for fringe conspiracy theories like Pizzagate, the false claim that prominent Democrats were running a pedophile ring in the basement of a pizza restaurant in D.C.

The book, Scott McKay’s The Revivalist Manifesto, also mocked out Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s sexual orientation.

Related:

Mike Johnson “applauds” efforts to make gay marriage & sodomy illegal again

Just last year, he said, “What Justice Thomas is calling for is not radical.”

“Scott McKay presents a valuable and timely contribution with The Revivalist Manifesto because he has managed here to articulate well what millions of conscientious, freedom-loving Americans are sensing,” Johnson wrote in the book’s forward.

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CNN reports that Johnson promoted the book in 2022 on social media and also spent a whole episode of his podcast discussing the book with his wife, Kelly Johnson, and the author.

“I obviously believe in the product, or I wouldn’t have written the foreword. So I endorse the work,” he said of the book on his podcast, calling McKay a “dear friend.”

The book attacks Buttigieg multiple times, including calling him a “queer choice” for the Cabinet, accusing Buttigieg of having “queer sanctimony,” and calling him “openly, and obnoxiously, gay.”

The book even calls him “Gay Mayor Pete Buttigieg.”

In another part of the book, McKay defended conservative podcaster Joe Rogan, saying that his use of the N-word doesn’t mean he engaged in racism. He wrote that former President Barack Obama’s “chief selling point was that he was black.” He wrote that poor voters are “unsophisticated and susceptible to government dependency” and easily manipulated with “bowdlerizing old monuments, or midnight basketball, Black Lives Matter ‘defund the police’ pandering.”

Much of the book is devoted to right-wing conspiracy theories, including Pizzagate. McKay claims that there are coded references to the secret pedophile ring in the pizza restaurant’s basement – the restaurant, in reality, doesn’t have a basement – in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chair John Podesta’s hacked emails, like “hot dogs and pizza,” which he claims are code words for pedophilia.

“The Pizzagate scandal was born, and though some of the most outlandish allegations made in it were clearly disproven, other elements were not; the whole thing just seemed to be dismissed as debunked, and no explanation was ever given,” the book says. On social media, McKay called Podesta a pedophile.

Some other conspiracy theories that McKay supports include the idea that Democratic staffer Seth Rich leaked Democratic National Committee emails in 2016 (they were hacked) and that President Joe Biden is allowing undocumented immigrants to illegally enter the country so that they can vote for him.

Johnson’s long, continuing history of anti-LGBTQ+ comments

Johnson himself is on the board of a conservative Christian publishing company that says MPOX is the “appropriate penalty” for being gay. His wife, Kelly, runs a Christian counseling service that compared LGBTQ+ identities to bestiality on its website. In an October 3 call with the World Prayer Network, Johnson said that America is “dark and depraved” because there are too many LGBTQ+ people.

Mike and Kelly Johnson have complained about the non-existent “lesbian toys” in Disney’s Toy Story 4, criticized “woke corporations” like Bud Light and “satanic” Disney, and praised anti-transgender broadcaster Matt Walsh during Pride Month on their podcast this year.

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.”

He has sought to criminalize private gay sex between consenting adults, called gay marriage the “harbinger of chaos,” and said gay people should not be a protected class because they “are capable of changing their abnormal lifestyles.” He also believed the fall of ancient Rome was caused by “rampant homosexual behavior.” 

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. When recently asked about his numerous anti-LGBTQ positions, Johnson told a Fox News interviewer that he didn’t remember some of them.