A religious leader blamed coronavirus on the gays. Now an LGBTQ org is suing him.

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An LGBTQ organization is suing a prominent religious leader for blaming marriage equality for coronavirus.

Last month, Patriarch Filaret went on TV in Ukraine and blamed coronavirus on marriage equality. Filaret is the founder and primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, one of the biggest branches of Christianity in the country that claims it has 15 million followers in the nation of 42 million people.

Related: Rabbi blames coronavirus on Pride parades

On Ukraine’s Channel 4, Filaret said that coronavirus was “God’s punishment for the sins of men, the sinfulness of humanity.”

Lest anyone think that he was referring to non-queer sins, he specified: “First of all, I mean same-sex marriage.”

Coronavirus first emerged in China, which has not legalized marriage equality. In March, Iran and Italy led the world in cases of coronavirus. Neither of those countries recognize marriage equality.

Ukraine’s constitution defines marriage as between one man and one woman, too.

Human rights advocates called out the statements, which they said were “dangerous” because blaming an epidemic on a disempowered minority that is already disproportionately affected by hatred and violence could get people hurt.

“Such statements,” said Maria Guryeva of Amnesty International Ukraine, “are very harmful because…

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