cw: homophobia, hate crime, racism, mass shooting, murder, guns, death, AIDS mention, family mention, transmisogyny, blood mention
As many of you know, there was a mass shooting this weekend at Pulse, one of the most popular LGBT clubs in Orlando, Florida. Forty-nine people have been killed, fifty-two people have been injured, and thirty hostages have been rescued.
The shooter, Omar Mateen, allegedly became angered after he saw a gay couple kissing in public and went on to declare that he intended "to shoot gay people".
Unfortunately, I don't know much else beyond this:
1. Pulse's owner's brother died in the AIDS crisis and the club was named after his heartbeat, in an attempt to keep his spirit alive.
2. Pulse was one of the most popular LGBT bars in Orlando, especially with the city's black and Latinx communities, and had been hosting Latino Night when the shooting took place.
3. Yes, Mateen came from a predominantly Muslim family and his parents are Afghani. However, Mateen himself is NOT a practicing Muslim and even if he were, that would not be an excuse to demonize Islam or its followers.
4. Shut up, my people are just trying to grieve and I've been crying on and off all day, I know that you don't actually care about us, and I don't want your Islamophobia or anti-Arab racism.
5. This isn't about mental illness either. Stop throwing disabled people and PoC under the bus in order to deflect from your sins and the oppression that YOU are complicit in.
6. You don't get to harm Muslims, some of whom are LGBT themselves, and then pretend you care about a coalition against oppression whose United States branch was founded by women of color and which has been very much against Christian supremacy for decades now.
7. Gay and bisexual cis men (I don't know if trans men are included as well), as well as any trans woman or CAMAB nonbinary person who has had sex with someone who has a penis within the last three years, are legally barred from donating blood.
8. If you live in Central Florida and are able to donate, do so immediately. There are lives at stake.
9. It's fucked-up that the media has been disrespectfully using LGBT deaths to demonize Islam - especially since they've never used black deaths to say anything about antiblack racism, white supremacy, or Christianity.
10. My heart feels like it's being slowly broken.
11. I'm terrified for my safety and that of my LGBT friends and family, especially trans and GNC people, because fuck that could be any of us. If not now then maybe tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. It only takes one homophobe with a gun.
12. If you're a non-LGBT aro and/or ace (or really, if you're non-LGBT regardless of whether you're ace, aro, both, or neither) and you "joke" about violence toward gay people or bringing a gun to Pride out of entitlement to my community, I hope you see the recent news footage and all your homophobia haunts you for the rest of your life.
13. Except I know it won't. You probably also make "jokes" about "What if there was a disease that killed allos dur hur?" or something like that, while knowing damn well that there was a disease that did (and yes, we know that by "allos" you mean LGBT people. You always mean LGBT people, you always treat us lIke disgusting sinners or predators, and you always repulse me). It's called AIDS and the US federal government let millions die from it - only thirty years ago.
14. I'll probably write a memorial poem soon.
15. Mike Huckabee and all other cishet conservatives, some of whom have proposed putting LGBT people in concentration camps, can shove their fake sympathy up their collective ass. I don't want your 140-character limit "love". What I want is for this to never happen again. What I want is hate crime laws, blood donations, gun control, and actual regard for my and my community's humanity.
And more than anything, what I want is for the Pulse shooting to have never happened. What I want is for fifty people to be alive again, laughing, smiling, breathing, and being proud and safe and happy. What I want is for fifty-two people to not be at risk of dying because more than half of the LGBT community is unable to save our siblings' lives. What I want is for people to support us without furthering the oppression of someone else. What I want is safety and freedom and justice.
But clearly, all of that is impossible.
As many of you know, there was a mass shooting this weekend at Pulse, one of the most popular LGBT clubs in Orlando, Florida. Forty-nine people have been killed, fifty-two people have been injured, and thirty hostages have been rescued.
The shooter, Omar Mateen, allegedly became angered after he saw a gay couple kissing in public and went on to declare that he intended "to shoot gay people".
Unfortunately, I don't know much else beyond this:
1. Pulse's owner's brother died in the AIDS crisis and the club was named after his heartbeat, in an attempt to keep his spirit alive.
2. Pulse was one of the most popular LGBT bars in Orlando, especially with the city's black and Latinx communities, and had been hosting Latino Night when the shooting took place.
3. Yes, Mateen came from a predominantly Muslim family and his parents are Afghani. However, Mateen himself is NOT a practicing Muslim and even if he were, that would not be an excuse to demonize Islam or its followers.
4. Shut up, my people are just trying to grieve and I've been crying on and off all day, I know that you don't actually care about us, and I don't want your Islamophobia or anti-Arab racism.
5. This isn't about mental illness either. Stop throwing disabled people and PoC under the bus in order to deflect from your sins and the oppression that YOU are complicit in.
6. You don't get to harm Muslims, some of whom are LGBT themselves, and then pretend you care about a coalition against oppression whose United States branch was founded by women of color and which has been very much against Christian supremacy for decades now.
7. Gay and bisexual cis men (I don't know if trans men are included as well), as well as any trans woman or CAMAB nonbinary person who has had sex with someone who has a penis within the last three years, are legally barred from donating blood.
8. If you live in Central Florida and are able to donate, do so immediately. There are lives at stake.
9. It's fucked-up that the media has been disrespectfully using LGBT deaths to demonize Islam - especially since they've never used black deaths to say anything about antiblack racism, white supremacy, or Christianity.
10. My heart feels like it's being slowly broken.
11. I'm terrified for my safety and that of my LGBT friends and family, especially trans and GNC people, because fuck that could be any of us. If not now then maybe tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. It only takes one homophobe with a gun.
12. If you're a non-LGBT aro and/or ace (or really, if you're non-LGBT regardless of whether you're ace, aro, both, or neither) and you "joke" about violence toward gay people or bringing a gun to Pride out of entitlement to my community, I hope you see the recent news footage and all your homophobia haunts you for the rest of your life.
13. Except I know it won't. You probably also make "jokes" about "What if there was a disease that killed allos dur hur?" or something like that, while knowing damn well that there was a disease that did (and yes, we know that by "allos" you mean LGBT people. You always mean LGBT people, you always treat us lIke disgusting sinners or predators, and you always repulse me). It's called AIDS and the US federal government let millions die from it - only thirty years ago.
14. I'll probably write a memorial poem soon.
15. Mike Huckabee and all other cishet conservatives, some of whom have proposed putting LGBT people in concentration camps, can shove their fake sympathy up their collective ass. I don't want your 140-character limit "love". What I want is for this to never happen again. What I want is hate crime laws, blood donations, gun control, and actual regard for my and my community's humanity.
And more than anything, what I want is for the Pulse shooting to have never happened. What I want is for fifty people to be alive again, laughing, smiling, breathing, and being proud and safe and happy. What I want is for fifty-two people to not be at risk of dying because more than half of the LGBT community is unable to save our siblings' lives. What I want is for people to support us without furthering the oppression of someone else. What I want is safety and freedom and justice.
But clearly, all of that is impossible.
Stay safe. :(
ReplyDeleteYou can read about the victims here
ReplyDeletehttp://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/pulse-orlando-nightclub-shooting/victims/os-pulse-nightclub-orlando-shooting-victims-htmlstory.html
oh, and no, the shooter was not a closeted gay man so you can all shut up with that nonsense.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-orlando-gay-fbi-20160623-snap-story.html