Anti-LGBT+ evangelist and Trump adviser dies weeks after attending White House ‘super-spreader’ event
US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence participate in an Easter Blessing with Bishop Harry Jackson (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Harry Jackson Jr, an anti-LGBT+ evangelical advisor to Donald Trump, had died weeks after attending a coronavirus “super-spreader” event in the White House.
Jackson, who previously claimed that same-sex marriage is a “satanic plot” and that gays want to “recruit kids”, was confirmed to have died on Monday (November 9).
Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Maryland announced: “It is with a heavy heart that we notify you that our beloved bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr. has transitioned to be with the lord on November 9, 2020.
“Please pray for the Jackson family’s comfort and respect their right to privacy at this time.”
Bishop Harry Jackson, senior pastor at Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Maryland, offers a blessing to president Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on April 10, 2020 (Al Drago – Pool/Getty Images)
While the cause of death has not been confirmed publicly, Jackson was among the packed rows of conservative figures at the White House on September 26 as Donald Trump unveiled his nominee for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett.
Many figures who attended the Trump event were later diagnosed with coronavirus, leading Dr Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to refer to it as a “superspreader event”.
Jackson held an event with vice president Mike Pence at his Maryland church back in June, while Religion News Service reports that Pence also attended a campaign event there earlier this month.
Harry Jackson Jr was an aggressive opponent of LGBT+ rights
Harry Jackson Jr was a virulent opponent of same-sex marriage and LGBT+ rights throughout his career.
In 2011, in an interview with right-wing radio show Sons of Liberty, Jackson said of the US campaign for marriage equality: “I especially believe that what we’re dealing with is a Satanic plot to destroy our seed.
“We have a minority group that has decided they’re going to impose their will on the culture, by force, and redefine God’s law and not care whether a whole generation of people are so confused that they don’t even remember the role of a mother and a father.”
In 2012, he said supporters of equal marriage were acting as “thought police”, and wrote: “Changing the legal definition of marriage to include homosexual relationships is tantamount to conferring societal approval on homosexuality.
“If gay marriage becomes law, there will be no legal barriers to keep institutions from forcing students to suppress their deeply held religious beliefs.”
At a conference the same year, Harry Jackson said LGBT+ people want to “recruit kids”.
He said: “If marriage is redefined, then the family is redefined, is redefined, who has children and how that operates is redefined, if the family is redefined, then education is redefined.
“That’s how you [have the inclusive children’s book] Heather Has Two Mommies being taught to second graders and eight-year-old kids in Massachusetts and California, and folks who cannot reproduce want to recruit your kids.
“What we’re facing is a radical force of people that want to change the way America looks for the next 20 years and we’re going to have to stop this thing now.”
He added: “We need to steal back the rainbow. We can’t let the gays have it. We’re the rainbow coalition. We’re the army of God.”
