Pete Buttigieg strongly defends same-sex marriage and families in response to Mike Johnson's past comments

Treasury Secretary Pete Buttigieg nails the simple point the haters want us to forget about same-sex marriage and our families.

In this climate of renewed attacks on LGBTQ people, we need more people publicly defending our families and especially our kids. That's the one thing which always annoys me when people weaponize parenting and families to demonize our community - they deliberately omit that we are parents, and our families matters just as much as theirs. 

That's why we need more people like Treasury Secretary Pete Buttigieg to bring that point home. In response to Speaker of the House Mike Johson's past ugly comments about our marriages, Buttigieg proves that representation matters. It's the difference between being made invisible and pushing back forcefully when someone tries to render us invisible.

Wow. Pete Buttigieg just responded to Mike Johnson saying his same-sex marriage is the “dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy” that will destroy the country. pic.twitter.com/a1SDKuodc1

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) November 3, 2023

'Timeline - 33 times people and institutions have been threatened and harassed after being targeted by Libs of TikTok' & other Fri midday news briefs

TIMELINE: The impact of Libs of TikTok told through the educators, health care providers, librarians, LGBTQ people, and institutions that have been harassed and violently threatened​ - Thirty-three incidents of people, hospitals, schools, etc getting threatened and harassed after being targeted by Chaya Raichik and Libs of TikTok.

PragerU buys 'takeover' ad on X as part of $1M campaign to promote polarizing 'Detrans' film - Absolutely trashy attack on the trans community. But it will not work. 

Mike Johnson Says the Gays Ended Rome in Newly Released Audio Recordings - It just keeps coming from our new Speaker of the House. 

Hungary bans teens from visiting World Press Photo exhibition over LGBTQ images - Laaaawd!

Chaya Raichik plays the victim after USA Today about Libs of TikTok

Chaya Raichik isn't smiling after the recent USA Today article about Libs of TikTok

The USA Today just posted a very good expose on Libs of TikTok and its founder Chaya Raichik. And Raichik isn't happy about it. 

It deserves a full read, but allow me to post some excerpts:

 . . . USA TODAY has confirmed dozens of bomb threats, death threats and other harassment after Libs of TikTok’s posts since February 2022, based on exclusive new research from the progressive analysis group Media Matters for America. Numerous news reports have covered individual threats, noting the target had also been mentioned by Libs of TikTok. 

But the new analysis of years of tweets, including archives of many Raichik has since deleted, shows the pattern is more extensive and pervasive than has been previously known – and that threats, specifically against schools, have ratcheted up significantly in the past two months. 

. . .Asked for her reaction to the established pattern of harassment that follows her tweets, Raichik has a simple — and standard — response: She’s merely re-posting what institutions and individuals have already, themselves, chosen to put out to the world on social media, she says. “If an individual posts publicly on TikTok, the goal of TikTok is to get views,” Raichik said. “That's why people post on TikTok — they want to become famous, they want clicks, views.” 

 But Raichik doesn’t just re-post other people’s content. First, her posts almost always include some kind of commentary. One in October, for example, featured an Instagram video of a New York music teacher, joyfully waving a Progress Pride flag while the message “Happy National Coming Out Day — Black, Gay and Thriving” appears at the bottom of the screen. “An actual elementary school teacher in NY,” reads Raichik’s comment on the video. 

 . . . Other posts either directly or indirectly encourage Libs of TikTok’s followers to contact the original poster directly. In a post last April for example, Raichik sarcastically told her followers “definitely do not keep up the pressure” on a school district in Oregon that supported transgender students using their chosen pronouns. Asked about that post, she acknowledged it was a call to action, but only to “tag” or mention the account on social media. “I’ve done that a couple times, where I told people to tag accounts on Twitter,” she said. “That is nowhere near telling people to call in bomb threats.”

Libs of TikTok also doesn’t post solely public material. Posts regularly include clandestine photos and videos that have been sent to Raichik or her network, presumably without the permission of a hospital, school clinic or library.

And some of the material she posts is doctored or fake – something Raichik acknowledged in her interview with USA TODAY. In April 2022, she reposted photographs and claims purporting to show an elementary school teaching children about a lifestyle some people believed depicts a fetish for animal costumes. The original post was an easily debunked hoax, and Raichik later deleted her tweet.

Raichik took to Twitter to whine about the possibility getting harassment and threat because of the article.

The irony is both sad and delicious.  Raichik complains that an article which simply details her exploits could make her the victim of harassment and threats. Meanwhile her deliberate targeting of schools, hospitals, and individuals has been linked to genuine harassment and bomb threats.  And when asked about these incidents, Raichik implies that she is merely posting the exploits of her targets.

GURL HUSH.

Granted, I don't support bomb threats, or any type of threats and I hope that Raichik doesn't receive any because of the article.  But then again, I don't weep for the vindictive snake which gets a taste of the venom she spits at others.

'Anti-LGBTQ+ Twitter accounts use Gaza conflict misinformation to gain influence' & other Thur midday news briefs

Anti-LGBTQ+ Twitter accounts use Gaza conflict misinformation to gain influence​ - These people are bloodsuckers and vultures. They will go after anything which they think will give them clout. And Elon Musk does nothing but encourages them. He is a complete bastard. 

Democrats Demand Biden, Leaders to Reject Anti-LGBTQ+ Riders in Any Funding Bill- Reject every last one.

Idaho's Anti-Transgender School Restroom Law Blocked by Court - At least for now. 

US to terminate economic ties with Uganda over ‘gross violations’ of human rights - Bye.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson collaborated with anti-LGBTQ group to promote fraudulent 'ex-gay' therapy

“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 . . . 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.” - Speaker of the House Mike Johnson in 2008 when he collaborated with now defunct "ex-gay" group Exodus International.

No matter how hard he attempts to conceal his homophobic past, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is finding out that some things won't stay buried.

From CNN:

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson closely collaborated with a group in the mid-to-late 2000s that promoted “conversion therapy,” a discredited practice that asserted it could change the sexual orientation of gay and lesbian individuals. 

 Prior to launching his political career, Johnson, a lawyer, 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, according to a CNN KFile review of more than a dozen of Johnson’s media appearances from that timespan. Founded in 1976, 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. The group shut down in 2013, with its founder posting a public apology for the “pain and hurt” his organization caused.

 Conversion therapy has been widely condemned by most major medical institutions and has been shown to be harmful to struggling LGBTQ people. At the time, Johnson worked as an attorney for the socially conservative legal advocacy group, Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). He and his group collaborated with Exodus from 2006 to 2010.

 For years, Johnson and Exodus worked on an event started by ADF in 2005 known as the “Day of Truth” – a counterprotest to the “Day of Silence,” a day in schools in which students stayed silent to bring awareness to bullying faced by LGBTQ youth.

 . . . Johnson promoted the event heavily in the media – through radio interviews, comments in newspapers, and an editorial. In interviews, he repeatedly cited the case of a teen who went to school after the Day of Silence wearing a shirt that read, “Be ashamed. Our school has embraced what God has condemned” and “Homosexuality is shameful.” 

The teen was suspended and ADF represented him in legal action over the incident. The case was dismissed because the teen graduated, and the court found he no longer had standing to challenge the dress code. “Day of Truth was really established to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda in public schools,” Johnson told a radio host in 2008.

According to CNN, Johnson's office didn't respond to a request for comment.

Editor's note - I've written several posts on this laughable event known as the Day of Truth. Here is just a few:

Exodus International dropping support of anti-gay event Day of Truth

Religious right 'Day of Truth' peddles same old lies to youth

Whatever happened to the Day of Truth?

Day after the Day of Truth - another Day of Silence

Day of Truth? Give me a break!!

Flashback: How conservatives used junk science to denigrate LGBTQ people (dedicated to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson)

When Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was employed by the Alliance Defending Freedom, this is the way he tried to cast the lives of LGBTQ people (particularly gay men).

.

The selection of Rep. Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House provides a wonderful opportunity to remind folks about the nature of anti-LGBTQ propaganda. Particularly how it was done in the past. Before getting elected to Congress, Johnson was a spokesman for the Alliance Defending Freedom. During that time, he made many statements and published many pieces attacking the LGBTQ community.

In editorials that ran in his local Shreveport, Louisiana, paper, The Times, Johnson called homosexuality a “inherently unnatural” and “dangerous lifestyle” that would lead to legalized pedophilia and possibly even destroy “the entire democratic system.” And, in another editorial, he wrote, “Your race, creed, and sex are what you are, while homosexuality and cross-dressing are things you do,” he wrote. “This is a free country, but we don’t give special protections for every person’s bizarre choices.”  

The "homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle" narrative was once used extensively by anti-LGBTQ groups, the religious right, and conservatives to denigrate us and undermine our equality. And it was very calculating. 

Knowing full well that they could not oppose our rights on a purely religious basis, groups like ADF and their spokespeople like Johnson crafted a framework of lies by picking apart various aspects of our lives and falsely recasting them as cautionary tales.  And they molded it together with a heavy dose of junk science, cherry-picked science, and out-and-out lies to claim that homosexuality was dangerous and should not be "encouraged" for any reason.

The creation of this blog in 2006 was to specifically challenge this false narrative and I'm proud to say it has been very successful. Because of  Johnson's selection as Speaker of the House, I am reposting a piece I wrote over 10 years ago which broke down many of these lies and demonstrated just how skillfully they were being used:

Seeing that this post is over 10 years old, some of the links may no longer be in existence. However I stand by everything I wrote:

 Chinese general Sun Tzu in The Art of War once said:

It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles . . .

With that thought in mind, I have tried to educate myself and others on the manipulations of the religious right. You see it's not enough to call them "homophobes" or "haters" anymore than it is not enough for a prosecutor in a trial to point at a defendant and call him guilty.

There must be some proof of the charges.

I have a theory that in this so-called cultural battle, our fight isn't totally with those who have a personal religious belief that homosexuality is a sin. It's not an idea that I prescribe to but I am of the opinion that people with differing beliefs can co-exist up to a point.

Granted there are some people who are rabidly anti-gay, but this piece isn't about them.

My theory and all of my focus have been on the religious right organizations who manipulate people's religious beliefs and personal fears to make the lgbt community the boogeymen or the "big nasty other" in American society.

I've posted in the past about their distortion techniques. I've posted about discredited researcher Paul Cameron and his relation to the religious right as to how these groups continue to use his bad data.

Today, I want to show how these groups have their own ways of distorting credible research.

I have read countless religious right papers and studies and have discovered that in many if not all of them, many of the same studies are being distorted.

It’s as if the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, the American Family Association and other affiliate groups have some type of file cabinet with an assortment of legitimate studies that they can pull out and distort. I want to show you just a few. Some you have already seen these before but a refresher course never hurts anyone:

Distortion - Lgbt homes are not ideal homes to raise children because gay supportive researcher Judith Stacey said so in her study:

“A study conducted by Judith Stacey and Timothy Biblarz, sociologists at the University of Southern California, revealed that children raised by homosexual couples ‘seem to grow up to be more open to homoerotic relationships.’ The study showed that 12 percent of girls raised in lesbian homes became active lesbians themselves—increasing the likelihood of lesbianism by more than 400 percent.” - Fast Facts, Gay Adoption, Coral Ridge Ministries

Researcher Judith Stacey thinks that children do well in homosexual homes. She says her study found that girls brought up by lesbians show greater interest in masculine activities and dress and seek non-traditional female jobs. Boys in lesbian homes are more feminine and more nurturing. Children in these homes also become sexually active with same-sex partners. - Children In Homosexual Homes Become Sexually Confused, Traditional Values Coalition

Truth - Judith Stacey had gone on record numerous times decrying how her research in lgbt homes have been distorted. According to respectmyresearch.org:

. . . Stacey and Biblarz noted preliminary evidence of some “modest and interesting” differences between children raised by heterosexual parents and children raised by lesbian and gay parents, but they affirmed that “parental sexual orientation has no measurable effect on the quality of parent-child relationships or on children’s mental health or adjustment.”

In addition, via this link, she calls Focus on the Family to the carpet for distorting her work.

Distortion - Lesbian and gay relationships are generally violent Part 1:

A study in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence examined conflict and violence in lesbian relationships. The researchers found that 90 percent of the lesbians surveyed had been recipients of one or more acts of verbal aggression from their intimate partners during the year prior to this study, with 31 percent reporting one or more incidents of physical abuse.” - Comparing the Lifestyles of Homosexual Couples to Married Couples, Family Research Council

There is a higher rate of violence in lesbian and homosexual relationships than in married, heterosexual relationships. A study in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence examined conflict and violence in lesbian relationships. The researchers found that 90% of the lesbians surveyed had been recipients of one or more acts of verbal aggression from their intimate partners during the year prior to this study, with 31% reporting one or more incidents of physical abuse. - Same-Sex Parenting is Harmful to Children Says REAL Women of Canada, Lifesite News

Truth - According to the Journal of Interpersonal Violence’s own web page:

The Journal of Interpersonal Violence offers the most up-to-date information on domestic violence, rape, child sexual abuse and other violent crimes . . . Focusing on both victims and perpetrators, the journal examines theoretical links between all types of interpersonal violence, exploring the similarities and differences between these types of crimes.

In other words, the Journal of Interpersonal Violence tracks domestic violence, as well as other violent crimes.

Those surveyed in journal articles are the victims of violence, verbal or otherwise, because this is what the journal is designed to track.

However, what religious right groups are doing here is the equivalent of taking a study of domestic violence in the African-American community published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence and using it to allege that black relationships are indicative of violent behavior.

Distortion - Lesbian and gay relationships are generally violent Part 2:

Homosexual households are also more prone to domestic violence. For example: “The incidence of domestic violence among gay men is nearly double that in the heterosexual population,” according to D. Island and P. Letellier in Men Who Beat the Men Who Love Them - Gay Marriage is Not Only Wrong, It’s Socially Destructive, Concerned Women for America

"The bottom line is, a man involved in homosexual behavior is 500 times more likely to be the victim of violence, violent assault at the hands of his own homosexual ‘lover’ --a ‘love crime’ -- than he is to be a victim of a so-called ‘hate crime’ committed against him by someone who doesn’t like the fact that he’s involved in that kind of lifestyle,” Glenn says.

Glenn’s data are based on research found in the book Men Who Beat the Men Who Love Them: Battered Gay Men and Domestic Violence - Domestic Assaults, Not Hate Crimes, Pervading Homosexual Community, Agape Press (One News Now) 


Truth - Patrick Letellier said this about the distortion of his work:

Instead of making use of current literature or statistics, Glenn selects two passages from our book, from pages 12 and 50, and links them together (I quote him verbatim here, the mis-use of quotation marks is his):

"Island and Letellier also estimate that 'domestic violence may effect and poison as many as 50 percent of gay couples, while 'we believe [heterosexual domestic abuse] is closer to 20 percent." In fact, as we clearly state in our book, the 50% figure is an estimate provided to us by an anti-violence project, and in the paragraphs following our mention of that figure, Dr. Island and I refute it and come up with what we believe is a more reasonable - and significantly lower - estimate of about 21%.

Sometimes context really is everything. What Glenn also fails to mention is that the estimate of 20% that Dr. Island and I make (regarding heterosexual battering) was a challenge to other researchers who claimed that as many as 80% of heterosexual men batter their partners. Here's the whole quote: "We disagree. No body of data supports their contentions. We believe that far too many husbands in America are violent, but their proportion is closer to 20% than 80%."

Distortion - Homosexuals have a lot of sex partners and their relationships do not last Part 1.

Studies indicate that the average male homosexual has hundreds of sex partners in his lifetime, a lifestyle that is difficult for even "committed" homosexuals to break free of and which is not conducive to a healthy and wholesome atmosphere for the raising of children. A. P. Bell and M. S. Weinberg, in their classic study of male and female homosexuality, found that 43 percent of white male homosexuals had sex with five hundred or more partners, with 28 percent having 1,000 or more sex partners - Homosexuality, Placing Children at Risk, Family Research Council

Point of fact - FRC removed this study from its webpage. A representative of the organization told me that the information contained in the study was outdated. Recently, FRC reposted the study to its page without explanation.

Alan P. Bell and Martin S. Weinberg studied 574 white male homosexuals, 100 percent of whom had already had at least three sexual partners, 97 percent at least ten, 75 percent at least one hundred, and 28 percent at least one thousand. - House Dems Try to Hide Homosexual Agenda on “Bullying” Bill, American Family Association of Michigan

Truth - Bell and Weinberg’s study was compiled in the 1970s. They used the study to write the book Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity among Men and Women. In Homosexualities is this statement:

“. . . given the variety of circumstances which discourage homosexuals from participating in research studies, it is unlikely that any investigator will ever be in a position to say that this or that is true of a given percentage of all homosexuals.”

Distortion - Homosexuals have a lot of sex partners and their relationships do not last Part 2

“Well, what does a homosexual marriage look like? Well the longest term that we have to take a look at it is in the Netherlands. And one sociologist made a study of that and found out that the average marriage between two men lasts 1.5 years. Furthermore, they don’t even believe really in monogamous marriages. On average, the average married homosexual man has 8 other sexual partners per year. So those year and a half marriages involved also sex with 12 other men during that time.” - The late Rev. James Kennedy, Coral Ridge Ministries 


“The journal AIDS reported that in the Netherlands, where “gay marriage” has been legal since 2001, HIV and other diseases are soaring among homosexual men. The study notes that “partnered” homosexuals have “outside” lovers, and are contracting the AIDS virus at alarming rates.” - The Real Costs of Gay Marriage and Civil Unions, Concerned Women for America


Truth - The study referenced in these two examples was conducted by one Maria Xiridou of the Amsterdam Municipal Health Service. Her study did not look at gay marriage but was to "access the relative contribution of steady and casual partnerships to the incidence of HIV infection among homosexual men in Amsterdam and to determine the effect of increasing sexually risky behaviours among both types of partnerships in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy."

For this study, Dr. Xiridou received her information from the Amsterdam Cohort Study of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and AIDS Among Homosexual Men. To gain this information, researchers studied 1,800 gay men between the years of 1984- 2000. Same sex marriage was legalized in the Netherlands in 2001, thus making the information irrelevant to points about gay marriage. Information for the Amsterdam Cohort Study is found here.

And last but certainly not least . . .

Distortion - Gays have a short life span

“In a major Canadian centre, life expectancy at age twenty for gay and bisexual men is eight to twenty years less than for all men. If the same pattern of mortality were to continue, we estimate that nearly half of gay and bisexual men currently aged twenty years will not reach their sixty-fifth birthday. Under even the most liberal assumptions, gay and bisexual men in this urban centre are now experiencing a life expectancy similar to that experienced by all men in Canada in the year 1871.” - Getting it Straight, Family Research Council

One epidemiological study found that “gay” men lose 8-20 years off their lifespan. - Several reasons to oppose same sex marriage, Concerned Women for America

According to a study that appeared in the International Journal of Epidemiology, homosexual behavior risks cutting years off the lives of “gay” men. Examining the homosexual community in Vancouver, Canada, the study said: “In a major Canadian centre, life expectancy at age 20 years for gay and bisexual men is 8 to 20 years less than for all men. . .” - Sexual suicide, The American Family Association

Truth - As I have said numerous times, in 2001, the researchers of this study complained about how it was being misused. They explained what they actually meant and how it is not feasible to use their work to claim that gay men have a "short life span."

Point of fact - In 2008, Matt Barber of the Liberty Counsel addressed the researchers’ complaints by claiming that they were pressured to make this statement. However (surprise, surprise) Barber did not give any further detail as to who pressured them or when this alleged pressure supposedly happened.

The point here is not just to call attention to this misinformation but also spell out what it means. These inaccurate interpretations of the mentioned studies are not indicative of just one religious right group, they are indicative of a large number if not all religious right groups.

The problematic issue of lgbt rights is bad enough when one debates it on a religious and ethical level, but when science is added, the stakes are higher.

Religious right groups push the idea that lgbt rights are bad not only on a moral level but also that there is "scientific proof" that lgbts rights are bad on a medical level.

But they gain the proof through either intentional or unintentional misreadings of studies and constant repetition of those studies even when their errors are pointed out.

In short, the lgbt community has to do more than just label religious right groups as “haters,” “bigots,” and “homophobes.” This labeling provides transitory visibility and simple cosmetics to a problems that is deeper than anyone can imagine.

The religious right have skillfully crafted a body of inaccuracies about the lgbt community backed by misinterpreted studies. And this body is easily transported to almost every other so-called traditional value groups across state and country lines. It can also be used by legislators who already have anti-gay biases but are looking for "justification" for their prejudices.

Someone standing in front of Congress, state legislatures, school boards, or speaking on talk shows and saying that “Studies done by eminent researchers and physicians have found that homosexuality includes a level of promiscuity, relationship abuse, and a shorter life span and therefore gays should not be allowed to adopt children or have the right to marry, ” has more weight than just espousing a personal religious and moral opinion against homosexuality.

Now someone could easily say “so these studies have been used incorrectly. The theory that homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle is still sound.”

But if the theory that “homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle” is true, then why do these religious right groups have to distort data to prove it’s veracity?

House Speaker Mike Johnson supported criminalizing gay sex

New GOP Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is an unabashed homophobe.

In case you haven't heard, new GOP Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is a MAGA-boosting, election denying, far-right homophobic zealot who wants to completely ban abortion and impose legislative erasures on the lives and health of LGBTQ people, particularly the trans community.

We will be hearing a lot about House Speaker Mike Johnson in the coming days and months as we watch him marshal over the hot mess known as the GOP majority in the House of Representatives. But for the purpose of this blog and the issues it deals with, let's talk about Johnson's long history of homophobia. And it is vicious. CNN just published a huge article on it.

The following is an excerpt. I encourage folks to read the entire piece:

 In editorials that ran in his local Shreveport, Louisiana, paper, The Times, Johnson called homosexuality a “inherently unnatural” and “dangerous lifestyle” that would lead to legalized pedophilia and possibly even destroy “the entire democratic system.” And, in another editorial, he wrote, “Your race, creed, and sex are what you are, while homosexuality and cross-dressing are things you do,” he wrote. “This is a free country, but we don’t give special protections for every person’s bizarre choices.” 

 At the time, Johnson was an attorney and spokesman for Alliance Defense Fund, known today as Alliance Defending Freedom, where he also authored his opposition to the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas – which overturned state laws that criminalized homosexual activity between consenting adults. 

 ADF wrote an amicus brief in the case which supported maintaining criminalization. “States have many legitimate grounds to proscribe same-sex deviate sexual intercourse,” Johnson wrote in a July 2003 op-ed, calling it a public health concern. “By closing these bedroom doors, they have opened a Pandora’s box,” he added.

 . . . In the mid-2000s, Johnson’s anti-gay rhetoric was harsh. In September 2004, Johnson wrote in support of a Louisiana amendment banning same-sex marriage saying it could lead to people marrying their pets. 

 “Homosexual relationships are inherently unnatural and, the studies clearly show, are ultimately harmful and costly for everyone,” he wrote. “Society cannot give its stamp of approval to such a dangerous lifestyle. If we change marriage for this tiny, modern minority, we will have to do it for every deviant group. Polygamists, polyamorists, pedophiles, and others will be next in line to claim equal protection. They already are. There will be no legal basis to deny a bisexual the right to marry a partner of each sex, or a person to marry his pet.”

Unfortunately, the CNN article omitted the fact that the Alliance Defending Freedom is now considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (for amplifying the rhetoric Johnson espoused no doubt). Still, the article is much needed.

I don't fear Johnson's ascension as Speaker. To the contrary, I welcome it. Now more people can see what I have been talking about on this blog for the past 17 years.  In fact, it was the kind of rhetoric which Johnson spewed which led to create this blog. 

Johnson is a throwback to the days when junk science and cherry-picked studies about gay sex and LGBTQ lives were popular with the conservatives. None of that passive-aggressive mess they presently engage in. None of those weasel words such as 'sexualization' or 'grooming' they presently use. In the days in which Johnson worked at the ADF, conservatives openly labeled all of us degenerates and spun awful lies about how they imagined we were having sex, making sure to include wild embellishments from carrots to gerbils.

The irony is that when I now tell younger gays folks all about it (particularly the part about talking openly and affirmatively about criminalizing gay sex), they either laughed or espoused disbelief.

But anti-LGBTQ propaganda was real then as it is now. What's more, it continues to be dangerous.  It's not about religious beliefs or protecting kids. It's not about protecting morality and values. It's about lies, hatred and demagoguery disguised as simple religious beliefs. 

 And now it has a special spotlight in the House of Representatives for us all to see and hear.