I’m delaying a few pre planned posts to talk about the events that took place in Orlando. Sorry if anyone has cone for reviews, ect. They will be done at a later date I promise. As you can probably guess this post will mention violence in the LGBT+ community.
What happened on Saturday was a tragedy. 49 people who were mainly Latinx, died because they went to a venue they thought was safe. 53 people were injured because of this and it shouldn’t have happened.
The gunman had been to the club several times, had been on grindr and his wife was aware. His family are horrified by his actions and have constantly said that it wasn’t because of his faith. He wasn’t even practicing. He was a person who was either struggling with his own identity or someone who was against the LGBTQ community.
Several vigils have been going on, and many more are to come. We need to remind ourselves that this was a hate crime, that it wasn’t mainly white people that died, and that it was people in our own queer community that have and are still suffering because of hate crime.
I’m going to quote what I wrote in Facebook on Monday.
People who are going vigils tonight, please remember that this was an attack on lantinx people as well as trans, non binary and queer people.
Please do not say that this was just a “gay” attack because it wasn’t.
Please do not erase non binary and trans people in this.
Please do not make this white centred. It wasn’t.
Some people will want to make sure they are loud and proud trying to fight against hate, but we must remember that people are still in shock, that people died because someone hated queers and not because they were Muslim. We need to remember the people who are still getting murdered right now because of hate crime.
Some people need time to reflect. And we should all give that space to anyone who needs that.
Tyler Charles Austen 