By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
Johnson popped up at Trump's trial this week in support of the former president. Were Democrats wrong to help him stay in the speakership earlier this month?
When I saw the photo of Donald Trump outside the courtroom whining and complaining about his hush money trial yesterday, with House Speaker Mike Johnson standing behind him, I thought it was photoshopped. But then I realized that I was being pragmatic and rational, which doesn’t exist in the Republican Party today.
Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.
Why wouldn’t Johnson be standing behind Trump in the courthouse, and railing against our judiciary system outside on the courthouse steps? He is not only the country’s leading homophobe and anti-porn activist, he is also the United States’ biggest hypocrite, and that is saying an awful lot.
Seeing Johnson further debase himself by defending Trump – when the evidence against Trump is overwhelming, and hearing Johnson eschew the validity of our court system, made me furious that Democrats came to his defense last week, by thwarting Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s effort to oust Johnson.
For some reason, I – and a lot of other people – let this slip through the cracks, and waved it off. What was House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies and most of his caucus thinking? Johnson has been over-the-top verbose about railing against the LGBTQ+ community. He is a danger to every queer person in the country. He gives haters against us a voice – one that is third in line for the presidency.
And the Democrats, who purport to be the party that defends and includes us, shirked their responsibility to protect us.
Further, Johnson was a leading architect of Trump’s desperate ploy to overturn the election. Johnson more than aided and abetted. He signed, along with 125 of his fellow House Republicans, a legal brief saying there were “unconstitutional irregularities involved in the 2020 presidential election cast doubt upon its outcome and the integrity of the American system of elections.”
Johnson said that the 2020 presidential election in Georgia was rigged because the state’s voting system was set up for massive fraud. He also repeated that there was “merit” to the lie that Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems helped rig the election. (As an aside, when will these companies also sue Johnson for defamation like they did Fox News and Tucker Carlson?)
And Democrats acquiesced and allowed this rabidly queer hater and democracy destructor to keep his seat atop the House.
And what did the Democrats get in return? A speaker who puts the pedal to the medal in helping a want-to-be autocrat take the seat atop the entire U.S. government. Johnson claimed he was at the courthouse yesterday to help a “friend” — in this case Trump who has no friends, only sycophants, which makes Johnson an unabashed bootlicker. Johnson said, with his “I'm better than you” snickered scowl that the case against Trump was “election interference.”
Has Johnson not been following the proceedings of the case like everyone else? No, he has not. And do you know why? Now, some of you might say, “He’s unable to because he and his son have an app on their phones that blocks porn.” And while that is correct, it’s more offensive than that.
Because Johnson would never believe the words of a woman who is an adult film star. Stormy Daniels as a working woman who also worked in adult films is the antithesis of what a woman should be in the eyes of a prude misogynist like Johnson. Can you imagine the contempt that this man has for her? Wonder how he’d feel if Stormy Daniels was Steve Daniels? Don’t worry, I’m not going to get into the psycho-analysis of that scenario.
For the moment, just let yesterday’s scenario sit inside your head for a minute. The self-proclaimed most religious and pious man in the world, Johnson comes to New York City, the hotbed of sin, and defends his “friend” who had an affair, tried to pay the person off, and also “grabs them [women] by the p—-” and who also said, “It's true with stars that they can grab women by the p----?...if you look over the last million years, I guess that's been largely true.” For Johnson, it’s not “I love New York” it’s “Johnson loves Trump.”
His “friend” has also been found liable of sex abuse, liable for defamation against the woman he abused. And Johnson has the nerve to say that LGBTQ+ people are sinners?
Trump is who Johnson defends, speaks out in support of, and shows up for. Johnson, with all the angry sanctimony he can muster, glides in to help the gilded, beguiled, and ungodly Trump. Hell hath no fury like a heathen Johnson.
While the Israel-Hamas war continues, dissent boils here at home, Russia starts to make gains in its war against Ukraine, inflation stagnating, inequality raging, and disorder at the border, our Speaker of the House feels that the most pressing need in the country right now is to spend time outside of a courtroom helping a sexual abuser in a case that involves said abuser trying to pay off his paramour to keep quiet.
And while all this is unacceptable, what might be most intolerable is that the Democrats in the House allowed this grotesque scene to take place yesterday by opting to keep Johnson as speaker.
When I raised this issue last week about Johnson being allowed to stay, a friend of mine said, “Johnson is the evil we know, so it could be worse.” And I thought, “Well, it’s pretty hard to get worse than Johnson.” And today, he proved just how awful he can be.
The next time Marjorie Taylor Greene tries to oust Johnson, we better be paying closer attention to how the Democrats treat a fervent LGBTQ+ foe and an unseemly threat to justice.
Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ and Allied community. Visit Advocate.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. We welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of our stories. Email us at voices@equalpride.com. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists and editors, and do not directly represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.
