WASHINGTON — The new speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson, elected Wednesday by his GOP colleagues after a weeks-long stalemate, last year vowed to promote anti-porn, anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-sex-education legislation if he ever had the authority.
Last October, Fox News’ Peter Kasperowicz interviewed Johnson — an evangelical conservative who refused to certify the results of the 2020 election — to help him promote his Stop the Sexualization of Children Act. According to the reporter, the bill aimed to “prevent taxpayers from funding events they say expose kids to sexualized themes and ‘radical gender theory’ programs at young ages.”
During the interview, Johnson — an evangelical conservative who refused to certify the results of the 2020 election — told Fox News, “The Democrat Party and their cultural allies are on a misguided crusade to immerse young children in sexual imagery and radical gender ideology.
“This commonsense bill is straightforward,” he added. “No federal tax dollars should go to any federal, state or local government agencies, or private organizations that intentionally expose children under 10 years of age to sexually explicit material.”
According to Johnson’s proposal, “state and local library systems, museums, and other educational institutions that receive Federal grants have purchased sexually-oriented literature and materials that target preadolescent children and teach them about concepts like masturbation, pornography, sexual acts, and gender transition.”
The bill also claimed that “private organizations, State government agencies, and local government agencies have made use of Federal grants to host and promote sexually oriented events like drag queen story hours and burlesque shows.”
Johnson specifically targeted Planned Parenthood, threatening to defund it because it supposedly “pushes local officials and school boards to teach radical gender theory.”
When the reporter commented that the legislation had almost no chance of being passed under the then-Democratic leadership, Johnson vowed that things would be different were he and his party in power.
“We do not anticipate that Democrats will schedule a vote on this commonsense proposal while they run the floor, but we intend to keep pressing the issue in a Republican majority,” Johnson told Fox News at the time.
The Fox News article is currently archived on Johnson’s official House webpage.