New Revelation: Anti-LGBTQ+ Speaker of the House Johnson Partnered with 'Conversion Therapy' Group

Before he became a politician, newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson worked closely with Exodus International, a major player in the discredited field of "conversion therapy," CNN recalled.

Johnson "closely collaborated" with Exodus "in the mid-to-late 2000s," CNN detailed, going on to reveal that Johnson "gave legal advice to an organization called Exodus International and partnered with the group to put on an annual anti-gay event aimed at teens," namely the so-called "Day of Truth," an anti-LGBTQ+ event created by the Alliance Defending Freedom – a Southern Poverty Law Center-tracked anti-gay hate group – that was intended as a rebuttal to the Day of Silence that queer teens and their allies observe annually as a way of drawing attention to the bullying endured by LGBTQ+ youth.

CNN recounted that "Exodus International was a leader in the so-called 'ex-gay' movement, which aimed to make gay individuals straight through conversion therapy programs using religious and counseling methods."

"Exodus International connected ministries across the world using these controversial approaches," CNN said. "The group shut down in 2013, with its founder posting a public apology for the 'pain and hurt' his organization caused."

The pseudo-scientific practice "has been widely condemned by most major medical institutions and has been shown to be harmful to struggling LGBTQ people," CNN added.

By the time Exodus International shuttered, Johnson had gone on to work as legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, where his anti-LGBTQ+ efforts continued unabated.

"While working for Alliance Defense Fund, Johnson authored his opposition to the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, which overturned state laws that criminalized homosexual activity between consenting adults," UK newspaper the Daily Mail said in a recent article.

"In September 2004, the lawmaker voiced his support of a Louisiana amendment banning same-sex marriage," the Mail added, quoting the Republican lawmaker as having written that "Homosexual relationships are inherently unnatural and, the studies clearly show, are ultimately harmful and costly for everyone" – though which studies he was referring to is unclear.

Since Johnson won the Speaker's gavel last week following the unprecedented removal of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a string of revelations about his virulently anti-LGBTQ+ past work has come to light, such as the examples the Daily Mail reported on.

CNN added to the litany, recalling that comments Johnson made in 2008 while promoting the "Day of Truth," in which he suggested that LGBTQ+ people are who they are as a matter of choice.

"I mean, our race, the size of our feet, the color of our eyes, these are things we're born with and we cannot change," CNN recalled Johnson as saying during a radio appearance. "What these adult advocacy groups like the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network are promoting is a type of behavior. Homosexual behavior is something you do, it's not something that you are."

Johnson also claimed in remarks that year that the "Day of Truth was really established to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda in public schools."

But a former Exodus International executive who also worked with ADF, Randy Scobey, "called the event one of his biggest regrets," CNN reported.

"It was bullying those who were trying to not be bullied," Scobey – now openly gay – explained. "That was one of the public ways that the Alliance Defense Fund worked with us."

"In print, radio and on television, Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, frequently disparaged homosexuality, according to KFile's review," the CNN article went on to add. "He advocated for the criminalization of gay sex and went so far as to partially blame it for the fall of the Roman Empire."

Ironically, Johnson himself has played a role in helping perpetuate lies relating to the 2020 election – lies that critics warn sow doubt about the electoral process and could help destabilize democracy. The Mail noted that Johnson "opposed the certification of the 2020 presidential election results and took the lead in filing a brief in a lawsuit that sought to overturn Biden's victory.

"The congressman was also a member of Trump's impeachment defense team," the newspaper noted.

More alarmingly, Johnson "led the House Republicans in promoting a baseless legal theory that state legislatures have sole power to select and appoint electors," an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times recalled.

"This so-called 'independent state legislature' theory maintains that a state legislature can allocate its electors however it wants, regardless of the popular vote and a law that requires that electors go to the presidential candidate who won the popular vote."

"The hope was that Republican-controlled legislatures in states won by Biden would allocate their electors to Trump and give him the presidency."

Johnson has doubled down on his anti-LGBTQ+ views, telling Fox personality Sean Hannity in an interview following his election to the speakership, "Go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it – that's my worldview."

"That's what I believe, so I do not apologize for it."