LGBTQNation: Mike Johnson Says His Pals Would Use Trans Laws To Spy On Naked Girls

Mike Johnson is about as anti-LGBTQ rights as you can get, even to the point of saying his high school pals would lie about their own gender to take advantage of transgender-inclusive school policies so they could watch girls undressing and showering in locker rooms.

And this dude has not changed — he avidly supports conversion therapy, even though it’s been proven to cause great harm to teens who undergo this.

But in a recently unearthed video from 2016, the newly-elected House Speaker spouted right-wing lies about trans-inclusivity laws as being dangerous to kids. This is something conservatives have been screeching about for more than a decade, LGBTQNation reports. They love to claim that trans-inclusive bathroom policies will encourage cisgender men to sexually assault women and girls in public toilets, even though there’s never been any evidence to support this. At all.

And besides, men have already been doing this ever since there’s been public bathrooms, so really what’s the big deal?

But in a 2016 interview with KEEL, an a.m. news radio station, John claimed that “Gender identity, no one knows what that means, and even an effort to define … can cause more problems.”

“I went to Captain Shreve High School,” Johnson said. “I graduated in 1990. My Crew, my boys… I can tell you, they would’ve said, ‘hey, next thursday is gender identity day, man. you know, we’re going to self-identify as girls, and we’re going to be in the other locker room.’ it opens it up to high jinks and all sorts of problems.”

So in other words, this dude argues that trans folks don’t deserve rights because his intellectually-stunted buddies don’t care if they violate women’s and girl’s privacy as long as they can get their rocks off. His argument would be hilarious if it wasn’t used as a reason to deny trans people’s civil right to use the bathroom without harassment.

There’s no evidence to even suggest that trans-inclusive bathroom and locker room policies increase safety risks. That’s what a 2018 study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found. More than a few states already have laws banning sexual assault in bathrooms under any circumstances and none of the cities and states that have implemented trans-inclusive bathroom policies have witnessed an uptick in bathroom assaults as a result.

“Research has shown that transgender people are frequently denied access, verbally harassed or physically assaulted while trying to use public restrooms,” one of the study’s autheros jody L. Herman, told NBC News.

This is Republican crackpottery at its worst. Johnson and other transphobic Republicans are ignoring what the studies say and trying to impose their collective will on everyone. Period.

Florida, which is the land of transphobe Republican Governor Ron DeSantis and flailing presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is already all over this. It’s the only U.S. state that explicitly bans trans folks from using bathrooms that are consistent with their gender identity in all schools, including colleges. It also prohibits them from using bathrooms in government-owned buildings and spaces. Fortunately, this law doesn’t apply to private businesses. But that’s about the only good thing you can say about it.

And there are eight other states that have policies that prevent trans people from using K-12 school facilities that correspond with their gender identity. The good news is that the other 41 states, five U.S. states, five U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia do not have bans on trans-inclusive bathroom use, the Movement Advancement Project reports.

While eight other states have policies banning trans people from using K-12 school facilities that match their gender identity, the 41 other U.S. states, five U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia all have no bans on trans-inclusive bathroom use, according to the Movement Advancement Project.

Johnson, who is also on the board of a conservative Christian publishing company that claims monkeypox is the “appropriate penalty for being gay. And his wife Kelly runs a Christian counseling service that compares LGBTQ identities to bestiality. And in a call with the World Prayer Network on October 3, she claimed America is “dark and depraved” because there are too many LGBTQ people.

These two even got upset over nonexistent “lesbian toys” in Disney’s Toy Story 4. And of course, they’ve criticized “woke corporations” like Bud Light and “Satanic” Disney.

That’s who Republicans have elected House Speaker. How ridiculous.