Mike Johnson became House speaker

In the wake of an unprecedented three-week void without a House speaker, Republicans on Wednesday elected Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson. While he is recognized within some Washington circles for his deeply conservative stances, Johnson, who was most recently the House GOP conference's vice chair, remains relatively obscure beyond the Capitol.

But prior to joining Congress in 2017, he spent years building his career and profile by denouncing gay people and fighting against gay rights, which he staunchly opposes, citing his Christian faith and views on liberty.

An ABC News examination of public records, news reports and documents shows the extent to which Johnson dedicated earlier phases of his career to limiting gay rights, including same-sex marriage and health care access, and through anti-gay activism on college campuses.

In comments from over fifteen years ago, long before he became a lawmaker and while acting as an attorney and spokesman for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a Christian advocacy group, Johnson described homosexuals as "sinful" and "destructive" and argued support for homosexuality could lead to support for pedophilia. He also authored op-eds that argued for criminalizing gay sex.

"There is clearly no 'right to sodomy' in the Constitution," Johnson wrote in a 2003 column in a Louisiana newspaper. "And the right of 'privacy of the home' has never placed all activity with the home outside the bounds of the criminal law."

In 2005, during nationwide Day of Silence protests aimed at addressing anti-gay bias in schools, Johnson and the ADF spearheaded a counterprotest dubbed the "Day of Truth." Defending the counterprotest, Johnson at the time said anti-gay protesters were "sharing the truth out of love and compassion," adding that the "truth" was