LGBTQ website says 'coronavirus is punishment for conservative Christians'

An LGBTQ website featured an article that states "coronavirus is punishment for conservative Christians."

LGBTQ Nation is "an online news magazine, reporting on issues relevant to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer community." Mark Segal, who is a contributor to the site, posted an article Wednesday titled, "If HIV was God's punishment for gays, then coronavirus is punishment for conservative Christians."

Segal contends that "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."

To attempt to support his argument, Segal claimed that there are fewer confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths in San Francisco than other international cities that hold religious significance.

"Fundamentalists apparently consider San Francisco the capital of the LGBTQ world," Segal wrote. "Now let's compare and see what God's wrath is. San Francisco has under 1,000 cases and only 12 deaths. All of the headquarters cities of the world's major religions, religions that at one point or another have discriminated against the LGBTQ community, have more cases and more deaths than San Francisco. San Francisco is the least affected of all the cities."

According to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the City by the Bay has 1,012 total positive COVID-19 cases and 17 fatalities as of Wednesday. There are 1,287 confirmed coronavirus cases and 12 deaths in Salt Lake County, Utah, which has a population of 1.1 million.

While the city of San Francisco has a population near 900,000, Moscow (12.5 million), London (9.3 million), Rome (4.2 million), and Mecca (2 million) all have significantly larger populations than the California city. The country of Greece, which has a population of 10.7 million, has 2,207 COVID-19 cases and 105 deaths.