By Rhuaridh Marr on March 24, 2020 @rhuaridh
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 Law reports.
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.
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By Randy Shulman on April 6, 2022 @RandyShulman
There is a moment in Ryan J. Haddad's stunning, insightful, potently honest one-person show Hi, Are You Single? in which the actor, after a string of awkward, strikingly rude encounters at gay bars, turns to the audience, and offers a shattering revelation.
"I never had to apologize for the space I was taking," he says of his family life in Cleveland, Ohio.
"If you are born and you have a disability and your family is ashamed of that, or looks down on that, or pities you, or thinks the only value you have is the inspiration that you offer just by existing, then you're going to have a rougher time of moving through the world," says Haddad, who has cerebral palsy, a disability that limits his motor functions and musculature. "Because that's not what we are. And that's not what disability should be."
By John Riley on May 13, 2022 @JohnAndresRiley
A Florida high schooler who is suing the state over its "Parental Rights in Education" law -- dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" law -- says school officials are trying to censor his graduation speech to ensure he doesn't talk about LGBTQ topics or his past activism.
Zander Moricz, a graduating senior form Pine View School in Osprey, Florida, who will be attending Harvard next year, has served as class president for all four years of high school. That position entitles him to give a speech at his graduation ceremony on May 22.
But Moricz claims, in a statement posted to Twitter earlier this week, that Pine View Principal Stephen Covert has warned against any mentions of activism or politically-charged topics in his graduation speech.
By John Riley on April 25, 2022 @JohnAndresRiley
A 31-year-old Florida man who was blinded after a vicious home invasion and assault claims he was ambushed by the family of the man he had been dating because they believed he had "turned" the 21-year-old gay.
The victim, whose identity is being kept anonymous for his own protection, claims he had been dating 21-year-old Oleh Makarenko for nearly nine months when Makarenko and his family members forcibly entered his house on Aug. 6, 2021. The attackers, which included Makarenko's mother and father, beat him so severely that he was left lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
As a result of the injuries sustained during the attack, the victim temporarily lost his memory and went permanently blind. He decided to press charges six months later after he gained his memory back, reports the New York Daily News.
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