First, the secular liberal media mocked House Speaker Mike Johnson for working with his son to avoid sinful sexual Internet sites. Now ABC News is piling on the Jesus-freak thing with an old video of Johnson and his daughter at a purity ball. Here's the headline online:
ABC reporter Will Steakin reported that they suddenly "unearthed" an old German TV news outlet profiled the future speaker of the House and his then-teenage daughter.
"This looks like a wedding," a news reporter says in German in a 2015 n-tv news segment that was unearthed by ABC News. "But they are not bride and groom -- but rather father and ... daughter," the reporter adds, referring to Johnson and his then-13-year-old daughter, Hannah.
The German news segment documented Johnson and his family preparing for and then attending a purity ball, a controversial formal dance event, popular among some conservative Christians, that gained notoriety in the early 2000s
"Notoriety"?? Steakin wrote the German story "shows Johnson's daughter vowing to him to live a life of purity, as well as her signing a pledge." The congressman and his wife Kelly were both interviewed for that German segment.
Since growing in popularity in the 1990s and early 2000s, purity balls and purity pledges have faced increased scrutiny from both inside and outside the Christian community, ranging from criticism that the practice places too much of a burden on young women to accusations that the balls themselves objectify young girls.
Linda Kay Klein, author of the book Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free, told ABC News that purity balls are not as common as other hallmarks of the purity movement, like purity rings, and that they tend to be more popular among more conservative Christian factions.
"In my book I talk about eternal girlhood," Klein said. "There's this way in which purity culture attempts to create this eternal girlhood among girls -- you never really grow up, you never really have headship over your own life. You ultimately are there to be guided by and to support and to champion and to be led by somebody greater than you: a man."
"People often think about it from a purity ball perspective, like, 'Oh, that's creepy.' You've got the father with the daughter in a wedding-like ballgown," Klein said. "But I actually find myself also thinking about what that means when you have your headship transferred over to your husband and what the girl has internalized from that."
Steakin added the regrets of ex-Christian author Joshua Harris, who now hates his book I Kissed Dating Goodbye, so much that he "has pulled his once-popular book from circulation and has apologized for any role it may have played in causing harm."
No expert takes an opposing expert view that teenagers delaying sexual activity or observing abstinence until marriage results in personal and societal benefits: fewer teenage pregnancies and healthier marriages.
If a member of Congress took their teenage daughter to a Drag Queen Story Hour or pushed them into “gender-affirming care” to try and become a boy, ABC wouldn’t find that “controversial” or “notorious.” It would be painted as admirable, as good parenting.
In fact, back in 2021, ABCNews.com ripped into Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for fighting with a liberal congresswoman with a "trans daughter." See the contrast with the Johnson headline:
In this report by Marlene Lenthang and Benjamin Siegel, conservatives are "transphobic" and liberals are never "controversial."
Illinois Rep. Marie Newman displayed a transgender pride flag outside her Capitol office in a dig against controversial Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who made transphobic comments about her daughter.
The two lawmakers have clashed over the Equality Act, a bill that the House of Representatives will vote on Thursday that seeks to ban discrimination against the LGBTQ community.
Newman, a Democrat, choked on tears as she spoke on the House floor on Tuesday, saying the bill would offer protections for transgender people, including her daughter Evie.
"My own daughter, who years ago bravely came out to her parents as transgender. I knew from that day on my daughter would be living in a nation, where in most of its states, she would be discriminated against merely because who she is," Newman said. "And yet it was the happiest day of my life and my daughter has found her authentic self."
Greene opposed the Equality Act, with ABC reporting she claimed it "would force her daughter to compete in sports and share locker rooms with 'biological' men."
Following Greene's comments, Newman put up the blue and pink transgender pride flag outside her office, located directly across the hall from Greene's.She claimed Greene "tried to block the Equality Act because she believes prohibiting discrimination against trans Americans is 'disgusting, immoral, and evil.'"
Greene fired back by putting up her own sign that said: "There are TWO genders: Male and Female "Trust the Science!"
...Greene's comments drew public scorn from fellow members of Congress, who denounced her actions as transphobic.
"There's no lower low than going after someone's kids. What a horrible performance by Congress' worst transphobic conspiracy theorist. Stay (Q)lassy, Marjorie," Democratic Virginia Rep. Jennifer Wexton tweeted.
Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal defended Newman, saying, "From the mom of one trans kid to another, we will pass the #EqualityAct —for Evie, for Janak, for thousands more to be able to fully be who they are."
Republican Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, said, "This video and tweet represents the hate and fame driven politics of self-promotion at all evil costs. This garbage must end."
The last Democrat Speaker was brought in to close the ABC story emphatically: "In a press conference Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Greene's actions a 'sad event ... demonstrating the need for us to have respect' for the LGBTQ community."
