A publication focused on gay and transgender issues featured a commentary story arguing that the coronavirus is “God’s punishment” for conservative Christians.
LGBTQ Nation ran an opinion piece by contributor Mark Segal titled “If HIV was God’s punishment for gays, then coronavirus is punishment for conservative Christians” on Wednesday.
In it, Segal said there were “two truths” of the pandemic: “We are all in this together and this will come to an end.” He goes on to say, however, that “religious extremists” have blamed the gay community for spreading the virus.
“Here’s the way it almost always goes. They blame it on the San Francisco liberals. All sins start in that bastion of homosexuals,” he wrote. “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.”
He continued: “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.”
His commentary piece ended with a call of unity, stating: “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.”
