The Orlando shooting was a direct attack on the LGBTQ community. We must continue to say so.
Early Sunday morning 50 people were shot and killed, many of them Latinx, because they were at a gay nightclub celebrating Pride. Like so many of you I am struggling to piece together my thoughts and my words as we figure out what comes next.
I do know that this wasn’t a senseless or random tragedy; it was a cold-hearted attack on the LGBTQ community. It is the logical extension of a gun-obsessed culture that spends its time passing laws prohibiting transgender people from using the bathroom and still works to block same-sex couples from marrying or adopting children and that allows religious leaders to openly preach a culture of intolerance and hatred toward the LGBTQ community.
And as anti-LGBTQ politicians and leaders call for all who are able to donate blood and save those lives we can, we’re so strikingly reminded that gay and bi men and trans women are unscientifically yet legally prohibited from donating blood because of baseless homophobia and transphobia.
Every politician, clergy, and citizen who has sponsored or supported any kind of anti-LGBTQ legislation over the past few years, whether it be on a state, local, or national level has blood on their hands today.
They’re telling us not to politicize the tragedy. The same people who politicize our marriages or where we go to the bathroom or where we are allowed to shop are asking us to stay quiet and respectful. Respectful of what, their bigotry?
When simply existing and celebrating ourselves is a revolutionary act, how the fuck can we NOT politicize a mass murder of our family and friends? In their world, that we even continue to EXIST is a political act!
And as the news continues to develop and we learn more, people are turning to the comfort of their #ThoughtsAndPrayers. The leaders of the Religious Right are offering us their prayers.
I don’t want their prayers.
I don’t want prayers that are based in a violent, anti-LGBTQ theology. I do not want prayers that, on any other day, center themselves on the inherent evil of LGBTQ people.
I do not want prayer that has been used as a weapon.
Over the coming days we will learn more about what happened at Pulse. We’ll learn more about the shooter and his motives and his connections and what role his religious beliefs may or may not have played in all of this.
But in the meantime, and moving forward, we cannot allow people to say that this wasn’t an attack on the LGBTQ community and the Latinx community.
We are, without exaggeration, in a fight for our very lives.
I want to end with a note of inspiriation. I want to find some magic words that encourage us all to go out into the streets and to not be afraid.
I don’t know what those words are, and I can’t seem to find them right now.
Right now, I’m too busy wiping away the tears.
Robbie Medwed is an Atlanta based LGBTQ activist and educator. Follow him on Twitter: @rjmedwed
Image by Unclever Monkey via Flickr and a CC license