Samaritan’s Purse is packing up its makeshift hospital in Central Park after the speaker of the New York City Council called on the group to leave the city.
“This group, which is led by the notoriously bigoted, hate-spewing Franklin Graham, came at a time when our city couldn’t in good conscience turn away any offer of help,” said Speaker Corey Johnson on Friday. “That time has passed. Their continued presence here is an affront to our values of inclusion, and is painful for all New Yorkers who care deeply about the LGBTQ community.”
Johnson said that while the coronavirus pandemic is still ongoing, New York should not allow Samaritan’s Purse to offer help to city residents affected by the virus “as a city that values diversity and compassion for all.”
“Mount Sinai must sever its relationship with Samaritan’s Purse. Its leader calls the LGBTQ community ‘detestable’ and ‘immoral.’ He says being gay is ‘an affront to God,’ and refers to gay Christians as ‘the enemy,'” Johnson said. “Samaritan’s Purse requires its volunteers to agree to a written affirmation ‘that marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female.’ Hate has no place in our beautiful city.”
Samaritan’s Purse is in the process of winding down operations at the field hospital it set up in Central Park last month. No new patients will be admitted to the facility starting Monday, and the 40 remaining staff members will stay within the Mount Sinai system and be redeployed to Beth Israel Hospital.
