Did House Speaker Mike Johnson say that "homosexual relationships" were "more satisfying than hetero relationships"? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Johnson ever publicly made that statement. The fake quote may have been inspired by an opinion column Johnson wrote in 2004 that supported a same-sex marriage ban in Louisiana, his home state.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on November 4, 2023. The post opened "Yes, the new Republican House Speaker REALLY said this..." and featured a meme with a picture of Johnson and text that read:
'In university, I did extensive studies of homosexual relationships. Study after study, some were larger than others. My studies clearly show that, although they are more satisfying than hetero relationships, they are bad. Society cannot give its stamp of approval to such a fun lifestyle. If we change marriage for this happy, minority, we will have to do it for every happy group.'
-- House Speaker Mike Johnson
This is how the post appeared on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Nov 16 19:57:22 2023 UTC)
The post cited no source for the purported quote, nor did it give any indication when or where Johnson supposedly made the comments.
Lead Stories found no evidence that Johnson ever made such a statement. A Google search (archived here) of the beginning of the quote did not return any results that corroborated the claim; in fact, there were only six relevant results, which all explicitly disproved the claim. A Google image search (archived here) of the meme does not reveal where the quote originated but the results also do not indicate that the quote is authentic -- most versions of the image were found on social media.
The fake quote may have been inspired by wording in a 2004 op-ed (archived here) Johnson wrote that was published in The Shreveport Times in Louisiana. In the op-ed, titled "Marriage amendment deserves strong support," he argued that voters should support a proposed Louisiana amendment to ban same-sex marriage. At one point in the piece, he said:
Homosexual relationships are inherently unnatural and, the studies clearly show, are ultimately harmful and costly for everyone. Society cannot give its stamp of approval to such a dangerous lifestyle. If we change marriage for this tiny, modern minority, we will have to do it for every deviant group.
Lead Stories reached out to Johnson's office regarding the post, and we will update this story if a response is received.
Lead Stories previously debunked another fake quote attributed to Johnson, saying that "Every woman has a duty to birth at least one able-bodied worker."
