CNN K-File Reveals Shocking Tapes of New GOP Speaker Mike Johnson’s Anti-LGBTQ Gay Conversion Rants

CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski — the “K” in KFile — revealed shocking tapes in which Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) ranted about the evils of homosexuality as an adviser to an anti-LGBTQ group in the aughts.

Johnson was elected speaker of the House after 23 days of chaos, and despite a record of supporting ex-President Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election — as well as a disturbing history of anti-gay rhetoric and action.

On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s OutFront, Kaczynski joined anchor Erin Burnett to reveal audiotapes he dug up from Johnson’s time as an adviser to Exodus International:

BURNETT: Tonight, dangerous. That’s how former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney described the new House Speaker Mike Johnson. Cheney once sharing an adjoining office with Johnson on Capitol Hill, so she knows him.

And it comes as CNN’s KFILE has uncovered details about Johnson’s history with a group that promoted conversion therapy, a long debunked theory that gay people could be made straight.

Here’s some of what he said in the past.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): It’s time for an honest conversation about homosexuality. There’s freedom to change if you want to.

BURNETT: CNN KFILE Andrew Kaczynski is OUTFRONT.

So, Andrew, that’s some, you know, pretty unambiguous. But what else did you find?

ANDREW KACZYNSKI: Yeah, so for years, Johnson worked with this group called Exodus International on an anti-gay event aimed at teens. Now, Exodus was a leader in what was called the ex-gay movement. We talked a bit about it in that intro where they claimed that you could essentially change somebody’s sexuality through counseling, through prayer. They basically treated being gay as a mental illness.

Now, Johnson in this group, when he was an attorney at the socially conservative organization called the Alliance Defense Fund, collaborated on this event called the day of truth. And this was actually in response to a pro-gay event called the day of silence. It was to raise awareness about bullying for gay teens. And then, they launched this event the next day, in 2005, that was about basically they pass out cards. They would tell people that you could change your sexual behavior.

They pointed teens to their website, and this had links to Exodus’s ministries, and we actually have some audio of Johnson talking about that event. Let’s take a listen to it.

JOHNSON: Our race, the size of our feet, the color of our eyes, these are things we’re born with and cannot change. But what these adult advocacy groups like the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network are promoting is a type of behavior. Homosexual behavior is something you do. It’s not something that you are.

KACZYNSKI: And I think we should note to that Exodus actually shut down in 2013 there. Their founder issued a long apology, apologizing for the hurt and pain that this sort of thing has caused, and we actually spoke to a former executive when we were working on this story, and he said that the sort of thing was very damaging for gay teens.

BURNETT: So what else did you find on Johnson’s record on gay rights?

KACZYNSKI: So, homosexuality was a very — it was a topic he talked about a lot. When that Lawrence v. Texas ruling came down in 2003, which threw out state sodomy laws, Johnson actually wrote to say that he thought those laws should have stayed in place.

He called homosexuality, we reported last week, inherently unnatural. He called it a dangerous lifestyle. He was very against the same sex marriage, and he actually said it was going to bring down democracy, and then he said people would be marrying their pets, goldfish, cats, things like that, and even shared this sort of odd pseudo-scientific or historical theory that the Roman empire fell —

BURNETT: Because of homosexuality?

KACZYNSKI: Because of homosexuality. We have a clip from that as well.

JOHNSON: Many historians, those who are objective, would look back and recognize, and give some credit to the fall of Rome to not only the deprivation of the society and the loss of morals, but also to the rampant homosexual behavior that was condoned by the society.

KACZYNSKI: So we did reach out to Johnson’s office, we asked about those clips. We asked, is this — does he still believe this stuff? Does he still believe in conversion therapy? We didn’t get a response from them.

BURNETT: All right. Andrew, thank you very much, I appreciate it, the KFILE.

Watch above via CNN’s OutFront.