Another day, another mass shooting. Sadly this kind of statement no longer shocks anyone in our country, we hear it all the time. And because this horrific event has been repeated over and over again (like a horrible nightmare) in places of worship, schools, college campuses, movie theaters, we know what will happen next. The media and the government will play a game of cat and mouse, argue back and forth about terrorism, about radicalism, about gun control laws and the 2nd amendment, and nothing will be done to change this deadly pattern in our country. This will continue for months on end and then another shooting, another hate crime, another senseless act of violence will occur and the same conversations will be repeated.
Politicians will continue to send out tweets saying that they are keeping the families of those lost in their prayers, simultaneously voting against any sort of reform or solution to a problem that desperately needs to be addressed. If children dying, people literally being killed for their right to worship, and a more than obvious hate crime against the LGBT community will not stir the government to address this issue, I don’t know what will. The events that took place early Sunday morning at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida were a more than clear attack against the LGBT community in a place that they have created for themselves: a place to feel safe, free and have fun.
This being the deadliest mass shootings in the history of our country sends a horrifying message to a community of people that just want to live their lives in peace. It tells every LGBT kid, terrified to live their truth, that they should live in fear of losing their lives because of something so inherent to who they are. Hopefully, the love and support of all of us that stand with them speaks louder than the hate being witnessed by the entire country.
The media, as it always does, will try to divide two already marginalized groups of people. We cannot let hateful rhetoric blame an entire population of good and loving Muslim people who are our friends and neighbors and fellow human beings. We cannot let this tragedy divide us but have to work together to rise, stronger. As people continue to argue against doing something to change what has become a horrible symbol of American culture and continue to fear what foreigners can do, they fail to see what we are doing to ourselves and to each other. History has shown us that fighting for civil rights and advocating for policies that will protect all, is one step in changing the hearts and minds of many.
This is what I say to those who are too blind to see why we have to recognize those who have been marginalized and the reasons that their existence continues to be trivialized. PRIDE might highlight our differences in gender and sexuality, but it recognizes that being treated as second class citizens continues to give others permission to invalidate the existence of our LGBT friends. Black lives matter is an important message to recognize because you’d be lying if you said a white man in a hoodie would be more easily shot than a black man in the same situation. Feminism is needed because I shouldn’t have to fear being raped on my college campus or have to explain why my skills and not my gender should dictate how much I am paid in my workplace. Hispanic heritage celebrations are important because celebrating the diversity within my community will showcase the beauty it has and start to break the stereotypes that allow people to say that the majority of Mexicans are rapist and murderers. Disagreeing with who someone loves, as much as it puzzles me to think how it can ever affect you, is a right you have. However, trying to keep people from having basic human rights and trying to dictate and impose how you think they should live their lives is not a right you have.
Orlando, a city known for bringing joy to people of all walks of life. A city that has brought out the inner child, only filled with love and infinite wonder, in so many. A city that has given me so many wonderful memories with my friends and with my family will now remind me of tragedy and loss. Sometimes, not being directly affected by all the hateful violence in the news makes us almost numb to it. We feel nothing but a sense of relief that it did not happen to our families. But it could have. We forget amongst the political rhetoric and statistics that real people with souls and dreams and loved ones were actually lost. And I say this because I did not lose anyone in the horrible hate crime in Orlando, but I know I could’ve. I think about my sister and her wife. Every time they want to hold hands in public, will someone feel so appalled that they’d want to hurt them? I think about every time they go out to have fun with friends, will I have that lingering thought in the back of my mind, will someone walk into the club they are in and want to hurt them?
And this is it, isn’t it? This is what these horrible events leave in their wake, more questions and even less answers. We can hug our loved ones tighter and keep those affected in our thoughts. But we can also use our voices, our skills and our resources to do what we can. We can encourage residents of Orlando to donate blood. Feeling helpless in a helpless situation should push us to do what we can to stop bigotry and hate. I know I will use my voice to do my small part to advocate for respect and love and to call out when I see hate being used against others, because this kind of attack is an attack against our right to happiness in this one life we are given.
