There are certain things in life that we can see coming, there are certain things we just don’t imagine to be possible, and there are certain things that plaster news headlines that we never imagine will happen to us. At about 2:00 am on Sunday, June 12, people partying it up at Latinx night at Pulse nightclub in Orlando experienced a thing they never saw coming and never imagined to be possible. Omar Saddiqui Mateen opened fire on innocent clubbers, killing and injuring over 100 people.

Shortly after this horrific shooting, news stories began popping up anywhere and everywhere - on our Facebook newsfeeds, in our NYT Morning Briefings, in tweets, through #PrayforOrlando, and headlines on every news platform.

The biggest part of most of these headlines? “A shooter who pledged ISIS Allegiance.” Not a shooter who harmed 103 LGBTQQIAA individuals. Not an individual who killed 53 people and injured 50 more. But instead a Muslim man who vocalized his association with Islam; oh, who also killed some people.

Many people share articles on this tragedy with a call for greater attention towards America’s war with radical Islam. Hell, Donald Trump even tweeted about the inappropriateness of Clinton and Obama ignoring and avoiding the true issue at hand: radical Islamic terrorism. What’s inappropriate is Trump’s gross misunderstanding of what is really the problem with this massacre.

The true issue is not that of islamic terrorism or even a need for gun control or any other political matter our presidential candidates are so quick to call upon. The true issue here is that 103 LGBTQQIAA individuals and counting -- who went to a club just like you or your friends or I would -- were massacred.

The fact of the matter is, LGBTQQIAA individuals are still not accepted in society. Conservative media is desperately trying to make this into a mass shooting of [gay] people, minus the gay. While yes, it is important to broaden this terror to the entire American population, it is irrefutable that this community is not as accepted in society. LGBTQQIAA individuals still cannot feel as totally accepted in public with their partner. Some people who claim to support the community say they do not mind who someone loves, they just would rather it not be in their face. Well, that’s all well and good if you’re equally as uncomfortable with a man and a woman acting as if (shocker) they loved each other in public. Homophobia is an epidemic in this country, and if we still fail to see that after this tragedy, I don’t know what else can help catalyze reform.

People rush to say Mateen himself may have been gay and just lashing out, or they latch on to his Muslim identity. We should really just accept this as a man committed a heinous crime and hurt so many people -- it does not matter if he himself was gay or muslim or a member of ISIS. What matters is that this is just the tip of a very large, very deep rooted iceberg full of hate against LGBTQQIAA in this country. Even now, even when an LGBTQQIAA hate issue is being handed to the media on a silver platter, we try and place the blame on other, more well-known, more contentious and discussed topics. It’s time everyone accepts what it is, honor these poor people who have lost their lives or been deeply hurt, and start doing something about it and start making LGBTQQIA individuals more accepted in this society we claim is so equal.