US columnist says God sent Hurricane Matthew to stop Orlando’s first post-Pulse Pride celebrations
By Will Stroude
Hurricane Matthew, is one of the most powerful storms to his the Caribbean in several years, with over 300 people killed in Haiti and floods and strong wings experienced in other parts of the region. While America has gotten off relatively lightly, the chaos has meant that Orlando’s Pride celebrations have been postponed for safety reasons.
Conservative columnist Andrew Bieszad has theorised that the hurricane, rather than being a tragic natural disaster, is actually God’s wrath, sent to to punish Orlando for, you guessed it, homosexuality.
“Florida is a nice place, but it unfortunately has become a lot like California, representing both the best and the worst that America has to offer,” he wrote on conservative website Shoebat.
“This is especially true in the area of homosexuality. While there are many conservative and religious Floridians, there are a tremendous amount of sodomites and immoral activity that takes place there.
“Given the serious moral decay of America that we see taking place before our eyes and the increasing disrespect for even the most basic of Christian morality, looking at this storm I began to wonder if perhaps, in some way, it was connected to this crisis,” he wrote.
His theory was (obviously) a little light on evidence, so he went looking for a justification for the divine retribution: “Sure enough,” he wrote, “I found that both Orlando and Savannah are having massive sodomite pride parades this month, especially in Orlando, which is sponsoring this very weekend as the hurricane is about to hit a massive ‘coming out’ parade.”
The comments are particularly tasteless considering Orlando’s Pride celebrations come only a few months after the devastating anti-LGBT attack on Pulse Nightclub. But hey, never let one of the worst mass shootings in american history get in the way of a little bigotry, right?
The Advocate reports that Orlando Pride will be rescheduled for November.
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