Rick Wiles (Photo: Right Wing Watch) and Richard E Weber (Photo: Facebook)
The death of an LGBTQ lawyer who contracted COVID-19 coronavirus was God’s “judgment,” according to a Trump-approved pastor.
Richard E. Weber, a board member of the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York, died last week due to complications from the virus, Bloomberg Lawreports.
The 57-year-old helped manage LeGaL’s free legal clinic, and LeGaL executive director Eric Lesh described him as “kind,” “always smiling,” and someone who brought “joy and exuberance” to others.
“He was a loving, kind and caring human being who gave generously of his legal talents and his energy to the LGBTQ community,” he told New York Daily News.
But Weber’s death has been branded “a judgment” from God by End Times broadcaster Rick Wiles, Right Wing Watch reports.
Speaking on his “TruNews” program, the conservative figure — who was recently granted press credentials by the White House — called coronavirus a “plague” and tied Weber’s death to his work for the LGBT Bar Association.
“He was a senior lawyer for the LGBT Bar Association of New York,” Wiles said. “The lawyers who sue churches, the lawyers who sue ministries…one of their senior lawyers for the gay rights movement died today in New York City of the coronavirus.
“There is a judgment, I’m telling you, a plague is underway,” he continued. “Get under the blood of Jesus Christ. Do not be in opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ and his church!”
He added: “There is a plague underway. There is a death angel across the world, and your only safety is in Christ.”
Wiles has a history of anti-LGBTQ, anti-Semitic, and bigoted statements, and made headlines earlier this year after saying that coronavirus will “purge” gay people.
Again calling coronavirus a plague from God, he said it was sent to “purge a lot of sin off this planet.”
Wiles’ comments are part of a trend of conservative figures blaming gay people for coronavirus or suggesting it was sent by God because of LGBTQ acceptance.
Last week, a Tennessee pastor said coronavirus was a “reckoning” from God because of marriage equality.
That same week, a guest host on The Rush Limbaugh Show said gay people are the reason San Francisco was placed on lockdown.
Conservative author Mark Steyn said the city’s mayor didn’t want “all the gays dropping dead” in a “big gay apocalypse,” and said gay people are “the ones with all the compromised immune systems from all the protease inhibitors and all the other stuff.”
And earlier this month, an Orthodox rabbi in Israel and an American pastor both claimed that coronavirus was divine punishment for allowing LGBTQ people to exist.
WATCH THE HOUSTON-PICKET VIDEO. WARNING: GRAPHIC VIOLENT CONTENT
A video posted to social media shows a gay wedding planner being beaten by bouncers at a Texas nightclub.
Norman Reggi Houston-Pickett claims he was attacked by security guards at a Hamburger Mary's in Houston on March 4 while out with friends.
He told Houston-based FOX affiliate KRIV that he and some friends were attending an LGBTQ-themed event featuring drag performances on the night in question.
Houston-Pickett claims he and his friends were told they'd have to wait before leaving the club.
In a now-viral email, a gay man gave his Republican-voting family an ultimatum.
He warned them that they could not continue to vote for the GOP and maintain their relationship with him.
Ryan Short, 42, of Seattle, sent the email to his family, who reside in Dallas, Texas, following a conversation with his dad, Richard, an 80-year-old war veteran who votes Republican.
"We were just having one of our random catch-ups and he just casually said, 'I'm still Republican,'" Short told Insider.
Short asked if his dad still supported the party despite its recent rhetoric against LGBTQ people, to which his father responded, "Yes."
Patrick Wojahn, the 47-year-old gay mayor of College Park, Maryland, has been arrested on numerous child pornography charges, according to the Prince George's County Police Department.
Prince George's County Police Chief Malik Aziz and Jessica Garth, the chief of the Special Victims and Family Violence unit of the Prince George's County State's Attorney's Office, announced Wojahn's arrest at a news conference on Thursday morning.
According to Aziz, on Feb. 17, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified the police department that a social media account on the app Kik, which was operating in the county, possessed and distributed suspected child pornography. Reportedly videos and an image were uploaded to the account in January.
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