Mike Johnson Is the New House Speaker But Is Still the Same Old Homophobe

When I saw that this man became Speaker of the House, the third most powerful man in our government, my jaw hit the floor as a pit grew in my stomach. I mentioned on Threads that I had met him and knew him back in my ex-gay right-wing activist days. Andrew Kaczynski and I talked about this last Saturday. Please read the whole article, but this is the quote from me:

Randy Scobey, a former executive vice president at Exodus, who worked on the Day of Truth in the organization’s collaboration with ADF, called the event one of his biggest regrets.

“It was bullying those who were trying to not be bullied,” said Scobey, who now lives openly as a gay man. “That was one of the public ways that the Alliance Defense Fund worked with us.”

Ties between Exodus and ADF extended beyond the event.

ADF, which has since changed its name to the Alliance Defending Freedom, touted Exodus International in promotional brochures in 2004, crediting it as an organization that “played an instrumental role in helping thousands of individuals come out of homosexual behavior.”

Scobey recalled Johnson as quiet, but firm in his beliefs that homosexuality was wrong. He said Johnson and ADF provided crucial legal advice to Exodus and its “member ministries.”

“We worked with them behind the scenes a lot,” Scobey told CNN, saying the group offered them legal guidance over their ex-gay counseling. “They were very important to us as far as helping us to feel more secure legally and politically.”

Exodus International stopped sponsoring the Day of Truth event in 2010, saying it became adversarial and counterproductive.

I met Johnson on conference calls and at Arlington Group meetings back in the day. I am very concerned about his position and his using it to harm the LGBTQ+ community further. Unlike former president and future convict Donald Chump, this guy is super-smart. Also, unlike Chump, he is willing to bully for immediate action, and if that doesn’t work, he can figure out how to implement his anti-gay agenda incrementally. However, just like Chump, he uses his superpowers for evil.

At the same time, there are people who thought I would never see the truth about the stigmatizing theology that powers this Christian nationalist agenda. I escaped that world and I pray, honestly, he sees the truth that God loves LGBTQ+ people just as they/we are; the way the Divine created us.

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