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LGBTQ Site Says Coronavirus ‘Is Punishment for Conservative Christians’
A writer for a popular LGBTQ website argued this week the novel coronavirus is God’s “punishment for conservative Christians.”
Mark Segal, a contributor for LGBTQ Nation, penned an article published Wednesday, “If HIV was God’s punishment for gays, then coronavirus is punishment for conservative Christians.”
The crux of his piece hinges on the old (though hardly widespread) argument among some that HIV was somehow God’s direct punishment for homosexuality. With that fringe perspective in mind, Segal wrote:
God must now be angry with religious people by striking the headquarters of the world’s religions with the COVID-19: Rome, headquarters of Catholics; Athens, the headquarters of Greek Orthodoxy; Moscow, the headquarters of Russian orthodoxy; London, home of the Anglican communion; Mecca, home of Muslims; Jerusalem, home of Jewish faith; and Salt Lake City, home of the Mormons.Trying to back up his claim, Segal suggested San Francisco — a city “fundamentalists apparently consider … the capital of the LGBTQ world,” he wrote — has fewer COVID-19 cases and deaths than major international cities that hold religious significance.
“Now let’s compare and see what God’s wrath is,” he wrote. “San Francisco has under 1,000 cases and only 12 deaths. All of the headquarters cities of the world’s major religions, religions that at one point or another have discriminated against the LGBTQ community, have more cases and more deaths than San Francisco. San Francisco is the least affected of all the cities.”
As of 9 a.m. Friday, the City by the Bay, with a population just shy of 900,000 people, had 1,019 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 17 deaths, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health. By comparison, Salt Lake City, Utah, which has a population of around 1.2 million people, has 1,388 confirmed cases and 13 deaths.
If HIV was God’s punishment for gays, then coronavirus is punishment for conservative Christians
When it comes to the pandemic, I can offer two truths: we are all in this together and this will come to an end, even though we don’t know when that will be or what life will be like afterwards.
Despite those truths, religious extremists are blaming the virus – as they do with all the ills of the world – on the LGBTQ community. But if you take their own hateful rhetoric the facts actually show the reverse.
Related: Trump-endorsed news outlet says it’s God’s “judgment” that a gay activist died from coronavirus
Here’s the way it almost always goes. They blame it on the San Francisco liberals. All sins start in that bastion of homosexuals.
Fundamentalists apparently consider San Francisco the capital of the LGBTQ world. This all started with the AIDS crisis when evangelicals said that God proved his anger at homosexuals by putting that plague on their capital city.
Now those conservative Christians are saying that COVID-19 is God’s revenge on a world that accepts gays.
So, according to their logic, if God showed his anger on the issue of LGBTQ equality by striking San Francisco with AIDS, then God must now be angry with religious people by striking the headquarters of the world’s religions with the COVID-19: Rome, headquarters of Catholics; Athens, the headquarters of Greek Orthodoxy; Moscow, the headquarters of Russian orthodoxy; London, home of the Anglican communion; Mecca, home of Muslims; Jerusalem, home of Jewish faith; and Salt Lake City, home of the Mormons.
Now let’s compare and see what God’s wrath is. San Francisco has under 1000 cases and only 12 deaths. All of the headquarters cities of the world’s major religions, religions that at one point or another have discriminated against the LGBTQ community, have more cases and more deaths than San Francisco. San Francisco is the least affected of all the cities.
As the extremists always say: God’s plagues are aimed at those who utter hate speech against their chosen followers. It turns out, in this case, the chosen people is the LGBTQ community.
And that’s not getting into how churches have become hotbeds of coronavirus transmission while some church leaders defy social distancing rules to continue holding services, with some tragic results.
I don’t take any of this lightly. We’re going through a tough time unlike any other. Times like this are times to band together.
So, to those preachers still spreading hate, I say: stop blaming people and start helping people. Your homophobic sermons only harm your followers by spreading misinformation.
The truth is, we’re all here to help one another. That’s how you get through a moment like this.
We in the gay community have understood that since day one. We know the value of working together, and we’ve seen that it works.
