I wonder if anybody remembers that episode of Star Trek: Next Generation where the Enterprise visits a planet where homosexuality is the norm and heterosexuality the taboo. The First Officer falls in love with some gal and she then reports herself to the authorities and they straighten her out and make her homosexual, like she’s supposed to be. It was an interesting way to view homophobia, being in the closet, and taboo behaviors in general.
Mike Johnson, the newly elevated Great White Hope and MAGA prince, is not only an election denier, he’s a gay-bashing theocrat. He and wifey have done many podcasts together wherein they discuss the “truth” of a great many things, gay life among them.
Wow. It reminds me of when straight people would ask me "when did you realize you were gay?". I always answered by asking them "when did you realize you were straight?".
— Hillery (@superstar64) November 3, 2023
Being straight is something I always took for granted. Not sure when I realized it, personally. But I know I liked looking at handsome guys on the TV set from a very early age. I had an appreciation of male beauty probably from the age of five or six and that’s way before puberty, obviously.
So that means that he and other straight people can “change” themselves to gay “if they want to”??
— Leslie McC (@LeslieM3355) November 3, 2023
One would think so. And that’s something I personally wouldn’t want to feel pressured to do. The way you’re hard wired is the way you’re hard wired. That should be respected. In any kind of a sane culture, it is. But Xian theocratic culture is anything but sane. And it’s anything but Xian, is the sublime irony. Xianity is supposed to be, at baseline, a religion based on love, acceptance and inclusion — and if you can’t manage inclusion, tolerance would be a good middle ground. Homophobia is the antithesis of Xianity.
Question here for you, Mikey. What if they don't want to "change"? What then? How will you live with this glaring spot on the fabric of American marriages? I hope you get questions on this topic. I'm sure with all of your "thinking" you've thought of a plan. Be good to hear it.
— Michela (@allender_ann) November 4, 2023
“I will admit it’s a little bit difficult driving the family minivan to drop our kids off at daycare passing the dome of the Capitol knowing that the Speaker of the House sitting under that dome doesn’t even think our family ought to exist,” Buttigieg, the first Senate-confirmed LGBTQ Cabinet secretary, said on CNN News Central.
In editorials uncovered by CNN’s KFile, Johnson called homosexuality an “inherently unnatural” and “dangerous lifestyle” that would lead to legalized pedophilia and possibly even destroy “the entire democratic system.”
And in another editorial, “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.”
He also 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.
Johnson told Fox News’ Sean Hannity, “I don’t even remember some of them,” when asked last week to respond to the editorials he wrote during a lengthy interview. Calling himself a Bible-believing Christian, Johnson went on to say he genuinely loves all people “regardless of their lifestyle choices” and that he respects the rule of law.
“I was a litigator that was called upon to defend the state marriage amendments. If you remember back in the early 2000s there was over 35 states somewhere in that number that the people went to the ballot in their respective states and they amended their state constitutions to say marriage is one man, one woman. Well, I was a religious liberty defense lawyer and I was called to go in and defend those cases in the court,” he said.
Appearing on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” Thursday, Buttigieg maintained he’ll “work with anybody who can help us get good transportation available to the American people,” while suggesting he’d be willing to host Johnson at his home.
“Maybe we’ll just have him over because our little house isn’t that far from the Capitol,” Buttigieg said.
Maybe Pete should have Mike and Kelly Johnson over. At least then the Speaker could tell Buttigieg to his face, and to his husband’s face, how the Buttigieg family doesn’t deserve to be a family and how God Almighty is offended by them.
With any luck, Johnson will be instrumental in turning out the 2024 vote and we won’t have to listen to his drivel, from the past or present day, past January, 2025. Until then, what a long strange trip it’s going to be.
“And in another editorial, “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.”” EXCUSE ME… Your “orientation” is inborn. You are hardwired to be attracted to whom you are attracted. Your RELIGION is a CHOICE, something “you DO”. Yes, it’s a free country yet we have to live with the “special protections” given to YOUR oppressive, bizarre “CHOICE”. STFU.
Exactly. No one is born an evangelical. Or a,Muslim. Or a Hindu. You may be raised as one but you are free to walk away and CHOOSE a different faith.
Hey,Preacher of the House,,when did you know that you were a hateful bigot?
Here’s the question that SHOULD be asked of Johnson and all like him. Just where in their bibles does their Jeebus talk about being gay, much less condemn it? Name the passage of scripture. Of course since Jeebus as you say talked about love for all god’s children there is no bit of scripture where he condemns homosexuality. Hell, even in the fire & brimstone OLD Testament it gets little mention. A couple of places I think. And isn’t the whole point of Christianity is that Jesus ministry was about teaching people to forget about all that Old Testament fire & brimstone, “wrath of god” stuff?
It’s sooooo easy to get these fanatics to start stammering when you press them on citing Jesus’ teachings about homosexuality!
I am an atheist; however, based on “their teachings” I have long said that g0d from the old testament was a republican, while jesus from the new testament was a democrat.
When I think about new RELIGIOUS FANATIC, MAGA EXTREMIST, INSURRECTIONIST TRAITOR Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson & his family… I feel really sorry for his kids. I sure hope that none of them find themselves oriented & attracted to someone of the same sex. They will certainly be in a world of trouble & rejection by their parents if they are. I already feel really sorry for the daughters considering their father’s backward ideas about the role of females in the world & the lack of healthcare they might be in desperate need of in their futures.
“I wonder if anybody remembers that episode of Star Trek: Next Generation where the Enterprise visits a planet where homosexuality is the norm and heterosexuality the taboo. The First Officer falls in love with some gal and she then reports herself to the authorities and they straighten her out and make her homosexual, like she’s supposed to be. It was an interesting way to view homophobia, being in the closet, and taboo behaviors in general.”
No criticism intended, Ursula, but anybody who does remember that episode as you described is NOT remembering it because the planet’s population would be better described as “gender-neutral” and that expressing any kind of gender-specific identity was repugnant. The episode was written at the time as an analogy for the lesbian and gay community (sorry but, when the story was written, trans identities were incredibly rare and the term “trans” was most commonly used to refer to transvestites and transsexuals who’d actually undergone sex change operations, like Renee Richards and Christine Jorgensen; bisexuals, of course, existed but their very identity meant they didn’t have to hide the way lesbians and gay men so routinely had to outside of “gay ghettos” in big cities–sorry, but I digress) since the “punishment” for any member of the planet who did begin exhibiting a gender-specific identity was forced into a kind of “conversion therapy.”
At the time, the story was received by the gay community as a back-handed compliment–that people shouldn’t be punished for falling in love against society’s “normal” expectations. But, it was also heavily criticized for the fact that the alien who falls for Riker “conveniently” ends up presenting as “female” which sort of neutralized the story’s basic premise. Gay male and lesbian fans alike felt the story’s moral would’ve been much more effective if the alien wound up presenting as “male”; that would’ve been more interesting storywise since Riker’s own sexuality and comfort would’ve become the central focus; the aliens punished their people who expressed either way but Riker was shown as so heteronormative that his disgust at the society was because he had also fallen for the “woman” and “she” was being wrongly punished for it and the Federation shouldn’t be so ready to let the Prime Directive stand for such actions. (For what it’s worth, Jonathan Frakes who played/plays Riker believed the alien character should’ve been played by a male actor but producers felt working with women allowed for less likelihood of offending delicate conservative sensibilities with the story line.)
Anyway, I’m going to finish reading the rest of the article now.
Joseph, you wrote my comment. The inhabitants of that planet were asexual. There were no genders. People who exhibited a gender were not polished, they were ‘repaired’ (my word), if you will.
Where I digress is “that the alien who falls for Riker “conveniently” ends up presenting as “female” which sort of neutralized the story’s basic premise.” The character Will would have not fallen for a male and TNG fans would have had a hard time swallowing it.
It was a powerful episode and ahead of our time.
LeslieMC’s comment about “So that means that he and other straight people can ‘change’ themselves to gay ‘if they want to’??” reminds me of a joke some of my gay friends liked to make:
“What’s the difference between a straight guy and a gay guy?”
“A six-pack of beer and a dark room.”
(Just to note, the booze option could be changed out to “a bottle of Jack” or “a round of tequila shots” or whatever the teller’s preferred choice of liquor happened to be.)
why is this still a fight, I mean really
it’s tiresome.
Spartan women wore her hair shortened
so her men would find her attractive
because,
guys went to War, For some reason
not many Girls around.
think, think, this isn’t a recent thing
it never was, however
I’m OK with rocking boats,
guitar solo…
I read elsewhere that Johnson attributed the fall of the Roman Empire to blatant homosexuality.
All I can say is that it took a very long time for that to happen and, when the Empire finally did fall, it had been Christian for a thousand years.
The timeline is like this:
Beginning of Roman Empire – 27 BC
Christianity is state religion – 380 AD
Fall of Western Empire – 486AD
Fall of Eastern Empire – 1453
So it was a bunch of Christians who were running the show and managed to collapse the Western Empire in 100 years of being in charge of it.
They did manage to keep the Empire actually going for 1,500 years before it finally collapsed (to a bunch of Muslims)
It’s a knife that cuts both ways. If being gay is just in the doing, then so is being straight. And doesn’t that open your field of possibilities, Mike?
The best conversion therapy I know of is when one of your kids turns out to be gay. It works on the parents, who realize it’s how you are born and that love isn’t affected.
How does mike know that what you are isn’t what you do? How would anyone know who a person is except by what they do?
Mike needs to discuss his opinion with white racists who’re always saying that the racist things they do is no indication of who they are.
That’s why MLK’s statement about judging folks by the content of their character. How does one do that except by watching what they do and listening to what they say?
Its true that it’s harder to judge someone based on their skin color. That’s how they came into the world. But behavior accrues over time, and has meaning.