This cat is now the little nerd who can. He's a possessed tiny man who now has immense power and will use that power to bully everyone who doesn't think or act like him and his army of crusading Christo-Fascist Nazi accolytes! Vote them all out!
"The bottom line: People who are so obsessed with homosexuality, to the point of being deeply involved in promoting “ex-gay” therapy as well as leading such efforts, are often trying to suppress something about themselves."
and
"When it comes to human behavior, if you need to work really hard to choose to refrain from doing something—like eating a big bowl of ice cream—then it means you really like it. And when it’s something that religion has taught you is an abomination, you’ll go to extreme lengths, including oppressing others, to battle something deep inside yourself."
I've seen this with people I know, and it's always the same. Johnson fits the profile to a T.
It’s a consistent pattern, isn’t it? Rational human beings who are satisfied and comfortable with their own lives, and have love in their hearts, not hate, have no desire to control others’ lives nor persecute others for who they love. It’s simple.
And more insanely anti-democracy. Every day a new skeleton falls from this jerk’s closet. Maybe the sum total will torpedo him and his grotesque ambitions.
We can hope, but about a third of the country SUPPORTS every one of those insanely anti-democracy skeletons.
It means we'll have to do everything we can to keep Biden in the White House for a second term, give him Democratic Majorities in both houses, AND keep his (and their) feet to the fire so he continues to move Leftward, which is the only way this country can dismantle the Siren Song of the Christofascist Menace....
MR. MD. I would suggest that YOU are a "doubting Thomas" who JUST refuses to see the trees in the forest; the TRUTH is painful at time isn't?
Oh his manner or speech & his 30 years married to a female, OH my lord "Clutch the Pearls" you and the wife have really got definitive evidence now, GROW UP DOC!!!
Hello Donnab, John Fugelsang rants about this all the time, that Jesus did not condemn gay people nor abortion. These white nationalists are totally focused on Old Testament and much less on New Testament, except maybe the book of Acts and the book of Revelation.
Sakina and Donnab! Now that we'll be living in Old Testament times, doesn't this also mean that we can't eat shellfish, and must also dress only in cotton garments? Mike Johnson's self-righteous arrogance just makes me grind my teeth... And to think that there were years when I thought that Republican leaders couldn't get worse than John Boehner. Their race to the bottom is amazing.
Excellent article, Michelangelo. I also ran across another article on Substack regarding Kelly Johnson's credentials, or lack thereof, and how some media are referring to her as "licensed" when maybe she isn't:
I was a straight kid who grew up spending summers in Provincetown & now I have a house here.
Straight people comfortable in their sexuality simply don’t think about gay sex all day. We just don’t. We realize that 🏳️🌈 isn’t just about sex, it’s just another characteristic of who a human being is.
Also growing up here in the 70’s before being out was OK, my parents’ vibrant social circles included some out-ish & a few closeted people, some of whom I knew well. I never understood as a kid why they were so angry about PTown becoming so “out.” One died of AIDs when I was 19; all the others eventually came out. One very close relative died at a very old age still closeted, which broke my heart.
That pattern repeats again & again & causes so many people so much pain. It’s almost a cliché at this point…the Bible-thumping, married conservative who hates gays so much, it’s all he ever thinks about, 24-7.
That’s just not normal.
Imagine what our world would be like if so many of the angry, hate-spewing men who run it were able to just be who they authentically are.
In my humble opinion, people who are obsessed with other peoples private sex lives are sexually depressed about their own orientation or sexually deviant and have a need to interfere in other peoples sex lives to prove they are “normal sexual beings”. It’s so hypocritical from the people who believe in less government intrusion. The Christian Nationalist movement has been part of our history for 247 years. Those that believe in personal freedom, separation of church and state, have always been the underdogs.
The moment I first saw him on my TV, without knowing who he was, I sensed he was closeted. Not sure if I can explain it and I know this is nothing scientific or to be offered as the truth of the matter, but those of us who lived a closeted life for any length of time can perhaps more easily see it in others.
Remember the term "Gaydar"—which was supposedly the way Gay men (mostly) could sense one another?
It's obviously not The Amazing Spider-Man's Spidey-Sense, but it is how you subconsciously pick up on certain cues that the other person is also subconsciously sending out. I couldn't tell you which ones Mike Johnson is sending out, but I agree that that I'm getting some of that, too—but I don't know how much of that is legit, and how much is confirmation bias.
I know three ex-gays from my former Louisiana Exodus groups that all say that Mike did them at highway rest stops - correction - I think one or two of them mentioned a campus, not rest stop.
Acquaintances through the group over ten years back. One of them mentioned some new dean at Louisiana College or LCU (I forget which) and another chimed in. I left the area years ago but exchanged emails occasionally. I'll have to look through old messages.
Great analysis. I wish there was a way for people who aren’t familiar to hear this. Unfortunately people who are unfamiliar with basic sexuality, identity, differentiation between experimental facts vs opinions and appetites generally don’t have a high level of intellectual or emotional curiosity or any curiosity for that matter. I find it encouraging that Mike with his minimal affect presentation is peaking people curiosity about the viciousness of his pursuit of demonizing lgbtq people. The more layers that are peeled away. The more pernicious and malicious people learn about the better. MAGA Mike won’t be the first weird creepy closety type of nutbag that emerges as a “leader” of the GQP party nor the last but I hope his hellacious anti lgbtq history and anti abortion all are examined and exposed much more often.
It’s all about projection and never reflection when you’re dealing with election deniers, insurrectionists, bigots and thieves.
Self awareness and evolvement are not part of their wheelhouse
The moment I heard about his anti-gay stances, I posted a snarky comment asking for odds on how long it would be before Mike Johnson was caught having sex with other men in cheap motels or Men's Rooms. His acting out is so obvious that he may as well run through the National Mall screaming "I'M A DEEPLY CLOSETED HOMOSEXUAL AND I HATE MYSELF FOR IT!"
As you say, it's all so perfectly and predictably laid out: The support for "Conversion Therapy"; the attempts to pass antigay legislation and wrap it in Christofascism; the refusal to acknowledge that a significant percentage of the population isn't heteronormative; and worst of all from his viewpoint, that he's one of-of-OF THEM!!!
So long as he was an obscure House Republican backbencher he could probably get away with "slipping the leash" now and then in whichever way he chose. Now that he's Speaker of the House? He's going to be under a lot of scrutiny—and more pressure than he can possibly imagine. It's also going to be constant pressure as he'll be expected to wrangle the ::cough!:: "moderate" Republicans into accepting the Christofascist agenda the MAGAts are champing at the bit for, and trying to wrangle those Trump Chuds to get the basic job of governing done. None of that is conducive to a deeply self-loathing closeted man's ability to maintain his facade of White Christianist Normalcy—which is and always was bullshit, anyway.
What sucks the worst about this is not that another Self-Righteous Right-Wing Hypocrite (hypocrisy being the worst of all sins, because it enables the rest!) will be exposed to political destruction and public ridicule. It's that he'll undoubtedly blame gay people for exposing him, or "tempting" him...by existing as the gay people which his very makeup refuses to let him accept that he is.
What have you heard, Michelangelo about the rumors that a New Orleans male hooker is going to come out to claim that he had same sex relations with this little punk? Are you finding any truth in that "rumor"?
Here we go again having to deal with an abject homophobe whose battle within himself is displayed in public now that he has attained a higher profile due to a desperate opposition party that allowed a mental case to dictate position elevation. I found the scrubbed price list yesterday during lunch of the Onward Christian Counseling Services fee schedule and unless the wife is a actual psychiatrist or psychologist, the fees are not for the elusive middle class. Back to baby Clark Kent, the after the fact revelations are not reassuring for the holdovers of getting country first legislation introduced let alone passed from the House. Prediction: when he can plausibly explain the adoption of a 14 yo sans marriage, we can begin to then start to really work on that extremism in earnest...
This cat is now the little nerd who can. He's a possessed tiny man who now has immense power and will use that power to bully everyone who doesn't think or act like him and his army of crusading Christo-Fascist Nazi accolytes! Vote them all out!
Thanks Rick......MJ is more like Amenace!
Yes, yes, yes to all of this.
"The bottom line: People who are so obsessed with homosexuality, to the point of being deeply involved in promoting “ex-gay” therapy as well as leading such efforts, are often trying to suppress something about themselves."
and
"When it comes to human behavior, if you need to work really hard to choose to refrain from doing something—like eating a big bowl of ice cream—then it means you really like it. And when it’s something that religion has taught you is an abomination, you’ll go to extreme lengths, including oppressing others, to battle something deep inside yourself."
I've seen this with people I know, and it's always the same. Johnson fits the profile to a T.
It’s a consistent pattern, isn’t it? Rational human beings who are satisfied and comfortable with their own lives, and have love in their hearts, not hate, have no desire to control others’ lives nor persecute others for who they love. It’s simple.
He gives off deep Mike Pence vibes.
Pence-ish but way gayer.
And more insanely anti-democracy. Every day a new skeleton falls from this jerk’s closet. Maybe the sum total will torpedo him and his grotesque ambitions.
We can hope, but about a third of the country SUPPORTS every one of those insanely anti-democracy skeletons.
It means we'll have to do everything we can to keep Biden in the White House for a second term, give him Democratic Majorities in both houses, AND keep his (and their) feet to the fire so he continues to move Leftward, which is the only way this country can dismantle the Siren Song of the Christofascist Menace....
100%
Oh Girl, go troll somewhere else. Who in the end is “groomin’ who? You have no power here begone, before somebody drops a house on you!
MR. MD. I would suggest that YOU are a "doubting Thomas" who JUST refuses to see the trees in the forest; the TRUTH is painful at time isn't?
Oh his manner or speech & his 30 years married to a female, OH my lord "Clutch the Pearls" you and the wife have really got definitive evidence now, GROW UP DOC!!!
I guess the GOP couldn't find a more ignorant person for speaker of the house. Mike Johnson is living in the 5th century.
Hello Donnab, John Fugelsang rants about this all the time, that Jesus did not condemn gay people nor abortion. These white nationalists are totally focused on Old Testament and much less on New Testament, except maybe the book of Acts and the book of Revelation.
Hi Sakina! They are completely nuts! Let them live as primitive people lived thousands of years ago. The rest of us don't and won't live that way.
Sakina and Donnab! Now that we'll be living in Old Testament times, doesn't this also mean that we can't eat shellfish, and must also dress only in cotton garments? Mike Johnson's self-righteous arrogance just makes me grind my teeth... And to think that there were years when I thought that Republican leaders couldn't get worse than John Boehner. Their race to the bottom is amazing.
Give them credit, they DID try their best.
Excellent article, Michelangelo. I also ran across another article on Substack regarding Kelly Johnson's credentials, or lack thereof, and how some media are referring to her as "licensed" when maybe she isn't:
https://open.substack.com/pub/warrenthrockmorton/p/what-is-a-licensed-pastoral-counselor?r=spb3a&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thanks for calling this out Sakina.
Excellent, Michael.
I was a straight kid who grew up spending summers in Provincetown & now I have a house here.
Straight people comfortable in their sexuality simply don’t think about gay sex all day. We just don’t. We realize that 🏳️🌈 isn’t just about sex, it’s just another characteristic of who a human being is.
Also growing up here in the 70’s before being out was OK, my parents’ vibrant social circles included some out-ish & a few closeted people, some of whom I knew well. I never understood as a kid why they were so angry about PTown becoming so “out.” One died of AIDs when I was 19; all the others eventually came out. One very close relative died at a very old age still closeted, which broke my heart.
That pattern repeats again & again & causes so many people so much pain. It’s almost a cliché at this point…the Bible-thumping, married conservative who hates gays so much, it’s all he ever thinks about, 24-7.
That’s just not normal.
Imagine what our world would be like if so many of the angry, hate-spewing men who run it were able to just be who they authentically are.
They’d be a lot less angry, that’s for sure.
In my humble opinion, people who are obsessed with other peoples private sex lives are sexually depressed about their own orientation or sexually deviant and have a need to interfere in other peoples sex lives to prove they are “normal sexual beings”. It’s so hypocritical from the people who believe in less government intrusion. The Christian Nationalist movement has been part of our history for 247 years. Those that believe in personal freedom, separation of church and state, have always been the underdogs.
Can he convert Lindsay Graham? Josh Hawley? Tim Scott? Or maybe he did already ...
He converted at least two of them - from bottoms to tops.
Tom Cotton?
The moment I first saw him on my TV, without knowing who he was, I sensed he was closeted. Not sure if I can explain it and I know this is nothing scientific or to be offered as the truth of the matter, but those of us who lived a closeted life for any length of time can perhaps more easily see it in others.
Remember the term "Gaydar"—which was supposedly the way Gay men (mostly) could sense one another?
It's obviously not The Amazing Spider-Man's Spidey-Sense, but it is how you subconsciously pick up on certain cues that the other person is also subconsciously sending out. I couldn't tell you which ones Mike Johnson is sending out, but I agree that that I'm getting some of that, too—but I don't know how much of that is legit, and how much is confirmation bias.
Astute observation about the “formerly” closeted (for any length of time) being able to see it more easily in the closeted.
My first reaction as well. Not because I wanted it to be… I just guess my gaydar or lightbulb went off! 💡
I know three ex-gays from my former Louisiana Exodus groups that all say that Mike did them at highway rest stops - correction - I think one or two of them mentioned a campus, not rest stop.
Get them to come forward... staying silent in the face of this abomination is abetting evil!
Maybe one or two of them would agree to be interviewed by Michelangelo?
Acquaintances through the group over ten years back. One of them mentioned some new dean at Louisiana College or LCU (I forget which) and another chimed in. I left the area years ago but exchanged emails occasionally. I'll have to look through old messages.
Great analysis. I wish there was a way for people who aren’t familiar to hear this. Unfortunately people who are unfamiliar with basic sexuality, identity, differentiation between experimental facts vs opinions and appetites generally don’t have a high level of intellectual or emotional curiosity or any curiosity for that matter. I find it encouraging that Mike with his minimal affect presentation is peaking people curiosity about the viciousness of his pursuit of demonizing lgbtq people. The more layers that are peeled away. The more pernicious and malicious people learn about the better. MAGA Mike won’t be the first weird creepy closety type of nutbag that emerges as a “leader” of the GQP party nor the last but I hope his hellacious anti lgbtq history and anti abortion all are examined and exposed much more often.
It’s all about projection and never reflection when you’re dealing with election deniers, insurrectionists, bigots and thieves.
Self awareness and evolvement are not part of their wheelhouse
Oh geeze… here we go… those obsession with homosexuality and who claim to hide behind the Bible. 🙄
Funny you should say that....
The moment I heard about his anti-gay stances, I posted a snarky comment asking for odds on how long it would be before Mike Johnson was caught having sex with other men in cheap motels or Men's Rooms. His acting out is so obvious that he may as well run through the National Mall screaming "I'M A DEEPLY CLOSETED HOMOSEXUAL AND I HATE MYSELF FOR IT!"
As you say, it's all so perfectly and predictably laid out: The support for "Conversion Therapy"; the attempts to pass antigay legislation and wrap it in Christofascism; the refusal to acknowledge that a significant percentage of the population isn't heteronormative; and worst of all from his viewpoint, that he's one of-of-OF THEM!!!
DRAMATIC CHIPMUNK!
https://youtu.be/y8Kyi0WNg40?si=DmHXjmz_yoy0ulh3
So long as he was an obscure House Republican backbencher he could probably get away with "slipping the leash" now and then in whichever way he chose. Now that he's Speaker of the House? He's going to be under a lot of scrutiny—and more pressure than he can possibly imagine. It's also going to be constant pressure as he'll be expected to wrangle the ::cough!:: "moderate" Republicans into accepting the Christofascist agenda the MAGAts are champing at the bit for, and trying to wrangle those Trump Chuds to get the basic job of governing done. None of that is conducive to a deeply self-loathing closeted man's ability to maintain his facade of White Christianist Normalcy—which is and always was bullshit, anyway.
What sucks the worst about this is not that another Self-Righteous Right-Wing Hypocrite (hypocrisy being the worst of all sins, because it enables the rest!) will be exposed to political destruction and public ridicule. It's that he'll undoubtedly blame gay people for exposing him, or "tempting" him...by existing as the gay people which his very makeup refuses to let him accept that he is.
What have you heard, Michelangelo about the rumors that a New Orleans male hooker is going to come out to claim that he had same sex relations with this little punk? Are you finding any truth in that "rumor"?
Here we go again having to deal with an abject homophobe whose battle within himself is displayed in public now that he has attained a higher profile due to a desperate opposition party that allowed a mental case to dictate position elevation. I found the scrubbed price list yesterday during lunch of the Onward Christian Counseling Services fee schedule and unless the wife is a actual psychiatrist or psychologist, the fees are not for the elusive middle class. Back to baby Clark Kent, the after the fact revelations are not reassuring for the holdovers of getting country first legislation introduced let alone passed from the House. Prediction: when he can plausibly explain the adoption of a 14 yo sans marriage, we can begin to then start to really work on that extremism in earnest...
Haven’t they leaned from picking an unknown: Hastert????