Hurricane Isaac has caused flooding, deaths, and structural damage all across the Gulf Coast, and large numbers of people are without electricity in the region, but some have predictably found ways to tie the destruction to LGBT people.
The hurricane's landfall coincides with the annual Southern Decadence festival, known as gay Mardi Gras, which attracts an estimated 120,000 LGBT people to New Orleans, according to The Huffington Post. Despite the weather, the event is scheduled to go on as planned.
However, the American Family Association's Buster Wilson said there seems to be a pattern of LGBT-welcoming places like New Orleans and San Francisco experiencing frequent natural disasters such as hurricanes on the Gulf Coast and "the most devastating earthquakes in American history," respectively.
Defend & Proclaim the Faith's Pastor John McTernan wrote Monday that the hurricane's landfall and the scheduling of Southern Decadence is no coincidence. "Isaac, of course, is a biblical name meaning laughter," he wrote. "The fact the events are seven years apart is very significant as this number is biblically important. It is the number of completion: God created the universe in seven days. The church, city and nation have not repented and the homosexual agenda is far worse than it was in 2005."
Previous to Hurricane Isaac, others have shared the same sentiment. The Reverend Grant Storms, a veteran antigay activist who has railed against Southern Decadence, was recently convicted of indecent exposure for masturbating in public. And the Reverend John Hagee used a similar argument that Hurricane Katrina was provoked by Southern Decadence in 2005. He was forced to retract his remark after endorsing Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
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