Mike Johnson to accept award from group that calls LGBTQ+ people satanic groomers

Since becoming House Speaker, Mike Johnson (R-LA) has tried to downplay his extreme anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs. But next week he will deliver the keynote speech at a gala for the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL). There, he will receive the NACL American Patriot Award for Christian Honor and Courage — proof that he remains just as anti-LGBTQ+ as ever.

NACL is an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+, Christian nationalist group that provides carbon-copy “biblical” legislation for conservative lawmakers to introduce nationwide. The group claims to have over 1,000 supporting members and elected officials in all 50 states. It also has ties to other massively influential anti-queer conservative groups.

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.”

The group’s founder, Jason Rapert, has said LGBTQ+ people and their allies are a satanic cult of child groomers who want to turn kids queer. He also thinks the separation of church and state is a “myth.” As a recently-named appointee to Arkansas’ library board, Rapert plans on defying courts and prosecuting librarians who refuse to ban books with queer content.

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“For far too long,” Rapert has said, “we have allowed one political party in our nation to hold up Sodom and Gomorrah as a goal to be achieved rather than a sin to be shunned…. We need to take authority so that in our school boards, our city councils, our state legislatures, and in Congress, [so] that we’ve got people that love God and want to do what is right in the sight of God and man.”

Rapert said that two of NACL’s main priorities this year have been blocking “radical LGBTQ indoctrination in our public schools” and halting “radical transgender ideology and irreversible genital mutilation of minor children.”

This is Jason Rapert, the founder of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers. House Speaker Mike Johnson is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the NACL's upcoming gala. https://t.co/5jmyrbXeUy https://t.co/hiFEa8XIed

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) November 28, 2023

To join NACL, legislators must agree that the Bible is the “supreme and final authority” that requires “everlasting conscious punishment” of “the unjust.” They must also agree that “godless” “atheists and anti-Christian groups” are “trampling on the Christian liberty we have enjoyed in this country for centuries.” NACL’s members must pledge that marriage is the “sacred union exclusively between one man and one woman” and to oppose “unhealthy influences” like pornography, prostitution, and gambling, Rolling Stone reported.

Rapert’s group is also associated with the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), two influential anti-LGBTQ+ groups that regularly draft legislation and legal challenges to roll back queer rights nationwide.

NACL’s board of directors has included hate group leader Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick; Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel; and former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, father of Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

At the last National Association of Christian Lawmakers meeting, one of the speakers defended the practice of imposing "the death penalty for sodomy." House Speaker Mike Johnson is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the NACL's upcoming gala. https://t.co/5jmyrbXeUy https://t.co/JCaUwDkXvN

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) November 28, 2023

Johnson’s speech at NACL’s gala is notable seeing as he has tried to distance himself from his numerous past anti-LGBTQ+ statements, saying he doesn’t remember some of them.

However, Johnson has deep ties to the Christian nationalist movement. He worked for the ADF, which included work for a now-defunct anti-LGBTQ+ Christian group that promoted so-called “conversion therapy.” He wrote several editorials in the early 2000s criticizing the Supreme Court for striking down anti-sodomy laws. His editorials also opposed same-sex marriage and argued against non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people.

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.”

More recently, as a member of Congress, Johnson introduced a federal version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, falsely accused President Joe Biden of breaking federal law by displaying the Progress Pride flag outside the White House, and claimed that parents do not have the right to provide their children with access to gender-affirming healthcare.

Johnson still sits 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.

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