Trudy Ring

Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the House, is little-known nationally, but he’s as anti-LGBTQ+ as any of the more prominent members of his party — perhaps even more so. The Human Rights Campaign calls him “the most anti-equality speaker in U.S. history.”

Johnson was elected speaker Wednesday, winning 220 votes to Democrat Hakeem Jeffries’s 209. The speaker is usually drawn from the House’s majority party, although he or she does not have to be, and sets the agenda for the House, which can do no business without a speaker.

Johnson, in his fourth term representing a northwestern Louisiana district, has received a zero on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard in every term. He voted against the Equality Act, the Respect for Marriage Act, and numerous other pro-equality bills. He has introduced legislation inspired by Florida’s “don’t say gay” law and led a hearing in opposition to gender-affirming care for minors.

Before entering politics, he was an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit law firm dedicated to promoting causes championed by the religious right, especially opposition to LGBTQ+ equality and abortion rights. While at ADF in 2006, he touted the so-called Day of Truth, the far right’s response to Day of Silence, which is a protest against bullying of LGBTQ+ youth. Day of Truth, he said, is “another perspective on the homosexual lifestyle, which many people believe is morally wrong and physically dangerous.”

In 2004, he had written an editorial for a Louisiana newspaper opposing marriage equality. “If we change marriage for the homosexual activists, we will have to do it for every deviant group,” he wrote. “Polygamists, polyamorists, pedophiles, and others will be next in line to claim equal protection.” And in 2003, as an attorney with ADF, he represented clients who sued the city of New Orleans in an effort to stop it from providing domestic-partner benefits. He also defended Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriage before the state’s Supreme Court.

ADF filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of sodomy laws, which the high court ended up overturning in the Lawrence v. Texas ruling in 2003. When the decision came down, he wrote an editorial criticizing it in the Shreveport, La., Times, saying, “States have many legitimate grounds to proscribe same-sex deviate sexual intercourse.” The editorial was unearthed by CNN.

Between ADF and the U.S. House, he served one term in the Louisiana House. “He dedicated his one and only term to rolling back LGBTQ+ rights.,” HRC notes in a press release. “In 2015, he authored House Bill 707, a License to Discriminate bill that would have prevented the state government from enforcing nondiscrimination provisions when professionals or businesses discriminate against same-sex couples based on religious beliefs.”

In the U.S. House in 2022, he introduced a bill called the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act of 2022, which would have prohibited the use of federal funds “to develop, implement, facilitate, or fund any sexually-oriented program, event, or literature for children under the age of 10, and for other purposes.” Inspired by Florida’s “don’t say gay” law, it would have banned discussion of topics related to identity as well as more explicit content. It went nowhere, as the House then had a Democratic majority.

This year, he led a hearing on gender-affirming care for minors. It was titled “The Dangers and Due Process Violations of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ for Children.” In his opening statement, he said, “We see adults inflicting harm on helpless children to affirm their worldview: that is, that gender is fluid, sex can be surgically altered, and that there are no lasting consequences as a result of these gender transition procedures. … Something has gone terribly wrong, and today we hope to shed light on what that is and how we can address the problem.”

During the speaker vote, U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, a Minnesota Democrat, clapped back against Johnson’s opposition to marriage equality by shouting “Happy anniversary to my wife!” Craig is the first lesbian mother in Congress and the first out LGBTQ+ Congress member elected from her state. 

Johnson is also, like most House Republicans, opposed to abortion rights and supportive of gun rights. And he voted against certifying the results of the last presidential election. He is a close ally of Donald Trump.

Johnson will succeed Republican Kevin McCarthy of California, who was ousted as speaker this month. His election came after several other Republican House members, including Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, and Tom Emmer, were nominated as speaker and ended up being voted down or withdrawing. They were almost universally anti-LGBTQ+, although Emmer did vote for the Respect for Marriage Act, which wrote marriage equality into federal law. For that, Emmer was criticized by some conservatives. Johnson’s comment on whether Emmer’s vote should be an issue was “You know how I voted on it. Everybody votes their conscience but I’ve always been very resolute on that issue,” according to Punchbowl News.

LGBTQ+ groups denounced Johnson’s elevation to speaker. “From his more than a decade working as an attorney for the virulently anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom, to his stint as an archenemy of LGBTQ+ equality in the Louisiana legislature, and through his tenure as a hard-right bomb-thrower in Congress, Mike Johnson has a scorched earth history as someone who seeks to drive people out of our society purely on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity,” says HRC’s press release.

“The MAGA House majority has selected the most anti-equality speaker in U.S. history by elevating Mike Johnson — this is a choice that will be a stain on the record of everyone who voted for him,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in the release. “Johnson is someone who doesn’t hesitate to express his disdain for the LGTBQ+ community from the rooftops and then introduces legislation that seeks to erase us from society. Just like Jim Jordan, Mike Johnson is an election-denying, anti-LGBTQ+ extremist, and the lawmakers who appeared to stand on principle in opposing Jordan’s bid have revealed themselves to be just as out-of-touch as their new leader.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families is proposing a rule aimed at assuring that LGBTQ+ and intersex youth in foster care are placed in supportive homes, the federal government announced Wednesday.

“The proposed rule would require that every state’s child welfare agency ensure that LGBTQI+ children in their care are placed in foster homes where they will be protected from mistreatment related to their sexual orientation or gender identity, where their caregivers have received special training on how to meet their needs, and where they can access the services they need to thrive,” says a White House fact sheet.

The rule also “would require that caregivers for LGBTQI+ children are properly and fully trained to provide for the needs of the child related to the child’s self-identified sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression,” adds an HHS press release.

The proposed rule will be published online and will be subject to 60 days of public comment before becoming final. It is in keeping with an executive order President Joe Biden issued directing HHS to protect LGBTQ+ and intersex youth in the foster care, where they are overrepresented because of family rejection and abuse. But they often face mistreatment in foster care as well, and the new rule is aimed at preventing that.

The Administration for Children and Families is issuing another proposed rule, this one designed to expand access to legal representation for children in foster care, parents, and kinship caregivers by allowing state and tribal child welfare agencies to use federal funds to provide legal services. It will also let these agencies provide legal representation to parents seeking restraining orders and young people exiting the foster care system.

It has put out a final regulation that allows a child welfare agency to adopt simpler licensing or approval standards for foster homes that include one of the child’s extended family members, such as grandparents, aunts, and uncles. It also requires that states provide these caregivers with the same level of financial assistance that any other foster care provider receives.

“This is a historic package that underlines the Biden-Harris Administration’s steadfast commitment to putting children’s well-being first,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in the release. “This package allows kin to step into a critical caretaker role, proposes necessary legal representation to keep families together, and a safe and accepting environment in which children can thrive. The Administration is providing vital resources to remove barriers for child welfare agencies to provide supports necessary to accomplish that mission.”

The proposal was welcomed by LGBTQ+ advocacy groups.

“LGBTQ+ youth face higher risks of rejection and abuse than their peers – a reality being made worse by the wave of right-wing hate that has plunged our community into a state of emergency,” said a statement from David Stacy, the Human Rights Campaign’s vice president of government affairs. “This proposed rulemaking is an important step toward ensuring LGBTQ+ youth in foster care, who make up nearly one in three of the children in the foster care system, have the safe, healthy, and affirming environments they need in order to thrive. We applaud the Biden-Harris Administration for proposing such a critical new rule and look forward to working together to protect these young people.”

“All young people in foster care, including those who happen to be LGBTQ, deserve affirming, supportive environments to call home,” Kasey Suffredini, interim senior vice president of prevention at the Trevor Project, noted in a press release. 

Suffredini referenced research conducted by the Trevor Project that showed queer young people in foster care report higher odds of attempting suicide than youth outside the foster care system. The group also found that LGBTQ+ youth in foster care are more likely to be subjected to the harmful and discredited practice of conversion therapy.

“The proposed rule specifically carves out protections against this abusive practice and, instead, calls on foster families to provide support and respect to LGBTQ young people, through access to mental health and medical care, honoring who young people know they are, and using names and pronouns that match who they are. Especially at a time when we continue to see so many lawmakers pushing politicized policies that harm these youth, it gives us hope to see an informed, data-driven effort to protect and support the health and well-being of LGBTQ young people,” Suffredini said.

Delaware has become the 17^th state to ban the “gay and trans panic” defense. 

Gov. John Carney signed a bill to this effect into law September 24. It states in part, “In any prosecution or sentencing for an offense, a defendant is not justified in using force against another based on the discovery of, knowledge or belief about, or the potential or actual disclosure of the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or sex assigned at birth.”

State Rep. Eric Morrison, a gay man, was chief sponsor of the bill in the House of Representatives, and Sen. Sarah McBride, a transgender woman, was primary sponsor in the Senate. Delaware’s other LGBTQ+ legislators, Reps. Marie Pinkney, DeShanna Neal, and Kerri Evelyn Harris, were involved in the effort as well, as was Equality Delaware.

Much of the work to pass the bill centered on educating legislators, Morrison tells The Advocate.“Many of them were absolutely shocked that this existed,” he says. “Once you educated them about that, they said this is outrageous.”

The panic defense seeks to justify a defendant’s action on the basis that the defendant lashed out due to being deeply upset about nonforcible sexual advances from or sexual contact with an LGBTQ+ person. It hasn’t been used a lot in Delaware, but Morrison says he knows of at least five instances. It’s hard to track because it’s usually used as a secondary defense in conjunction with a plea of self-defense or insanity, he says.

“Gay and trans panic defenses are rooted in antiquated ideas that being LGBTQ is a mental illness, and rely on the assumption that it is reasonable for a perpetrator to react violently to discovering the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity or to a romantic advance by an LGBTQ victim,” notes a 2021 report from the Williams Institute, a think tank on LGBTQ+ issues at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law. “Since the 1960s, the gay and trans panic defenses have appeared in publicly reported court opinions in approximately one-half of the states.”

The Delaware bill had widespread support in both chambers of the legislature, Morrison says, but a question arose in the House about why it didn’t address panic defenses involving other aspects of a victim’s identity, such as race or religion. But the panic defense is specifically an LGBTQ+ issue, he says, and he and others sought to keep the spotlight on LGBTQ+ people.

Another state that banned the defense recently was New Hampshire, where Gov. Chris Sununu signed that bill into law in August. In addition to the 17 states, the District of Columbia has banned it.

Ten years ago, the American Bar Association passed a resolution saying all states and the federal government should outlaw the defense. Legislation has been introduced at the federal level but has not advanced.

Delaware has been a leader in pro-LGBTQ+ legislation, having been an early adopter of marriage equality and civil rights protections for trans people. But this is the first pro-LGBTQ+ law it enacted since 2018, when it barred licensed professionals from subjecting minors to conversion therapy.

Michigan has just become the 22^nd state to ban the use of conversion therapy on minors.

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed two bills into law Wednesday — House Bill 4617, defining conversion therapy, which seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, and House Bill 4616, which bars licensed therapists from subjecting minors to the practice and lays out penalties for violation, including discipline by public health regulators.

Both take effect in 90 days.

“Today, we are banning the horrific practice of conversion therapy in Michigan and ensuring this is a state where you can be who you are,” Whitmer said in a statement. “As a mom of a member of the community and a proud, lifelong ally, I am grateful that we are taking action to make Michigan a more welcoming, inclusive place.”

Conversion therapy has been condemned as ineffective and harmful by every major medical and mental health organization. Research has indicated it heightens the risk of suicide among LGBTQ+ young people.

Equality Michigan praised the laws’ passage. “Governor Whitmer has demonstrated unwavering commitment to the wellbeing and safety of Michigan’s LGBTQ+ youth and is sending the powerful message that every young person in our state deserves to grow up free from the damaging effects of this dangerous practice,” Executive Director Erin Knott said, according to MLive. “By affirming that LGBTQ+ youth should be embraced, supported, and loved for exactly who they are, Michigan is paving the way for a brighter and more inclusive future for everyone who lives, works, and visits here.”

Praise also came from the Human Rights Campaign. “This comes on the heels of Governor Whitmer establishing the first ever, state-wide LGBTQ+ Commission this past June, in addition to signing into law a bipartisan amendment to the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) that explicitly includes protections for sexual orientation and gender identity,” said a press release from the group. “All of this progress is not only due to decades of organizing by pro-LGBTQ+ groups and activists, it’s a direct result of the will of Michigan voters in the 2022 midterm elections, who rejected a dangerous, anti-LGBTQ+ campaign by radical politicians.”

“By signing the conversion therapy ban into law today, Governor Whitmer continued to demonstrate that she is a champion for LGBTQ+ equality,” Sarah Warbelow, vice president of legal at HRC, said in the release. “So-called conversion therapy is a dangerous and discredited practice that will hopefully never see the light of day again here in Michigan.”

Warbelow added that voting matters “because it directly led to days like today.” She referenced Whitmer’s establishment of an LGBTQ+ Commission last month and other pro-LGBTQ+ legislation supported by the governor. 

In addition to the 22 states, the District of Columbia and numerous cities and counties bar licensed therapists from subjecting minors to conversion therapy.