Mike Johnson is board member of a group that said mpox is penalty for being gay
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) serves on the board of a Christian publishing house that called mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, an “an inevitable and appropriate penalty” for being gay.
A spokesperson for the fundamentalist Christian congressman said does not agree with the statements, which were spoken by Living Waters Publications founder and CEO Ray Comfort during a podcast last year. “Speaker Johnson joined the board of Living Waters years ago in support of its mission of spreading Christian gospel,” the spokesperson said, adding that the speaker had not seen and was not aware of the remarks about mpox.
Still, Johnson’s tenure on the board, for over a decade — first reported on Wednesday by Politico — comes amid intense scrutiny of his extreme, far-right, anti-LGBTQ views.
For example, shortly after he was elected speaker, CNN revealed Johnson had authored editorials in defense of criminalizing gay sex between consenting adults.
