Mike Johnson, Anti-LGBTQ+ Speaker of the House, Will Not Run Again for GOP Leadership
Johnson has a history of supporting and introducing legislation targeting LGBTQ+ people.
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana will not seek re-election to House leadership in the next Congress after Tuesday’s devastating Republican loss that saw Democrats take both the House and Senate.
Johnson, who won his congressional district on Tuesday and has been a close ally of President Donald Trump, will remain in Congress, but will not run to be House minority leader next year when the new Congress begins, the Associated Press reports, citing sources with knowledge of his decision.
Ahead of the midterm elections, Johnson had been adamant that the GOP would buck the polls that showed Democrats favored to win across the board.
The Louisiana lawmaker became speaker in 2023 after Republicans ousted the previous speaker, Kevin McCarthy of California, in a first-of-its-kind move in Congress.
Johnson became the consensus selection after other Republican members failed to gain enough support.
As Speaker, he’s attacked LGBTQ+ rights multiple times, specifically targeting trans people.
In November 2024, shortly after Delaware Democratic U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride became the first transgender person elected to Congress, Johnson passed a policy barring trans people from using Capitol and House office restrooms that didn’t align with their gender assigned at birth. He announced the transphobic policy on Trans Day of Remembrance. He also refused to say that McBride was a woman.
In legislation, he supported bills that would ban gender-affirming care for youth, including one that would criminalize providing gender-affirming care to trans youth.
He also supported anti-LGBTQ+ legislation before he was Speaker.
In 2022, he introduced a national “don’t say gay” bill. He’s also voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, which federally protects marriage equality. While he was part of the Louisiana legislature, Johnson introduced a bill that would allow for the discrimination of married queer couples. He also has argued that queer people are not a protected class because he argued they could change “their abnormal lifestyles.”
