There are multiple sides to every story. In the days following last Sunday's tragedy in Orlando, the most prominent story we've seen is of the pain and grief that have festered in communities everywhere. The LGBTQ+ population has been hit particularly hard, with 49 innocent men and women taken from us and at least 53 more recovering from their injuries. The rest of us have been injured in a different way, left with gaping holes in our hearts to match the lives that were lost to hatred. Social media has been flooded with support for the victims and their families, and it has provided a relatively safe space for LGBTQ+ people to come together and mourn however we need to. With time, no doubt we'll be able to heal with one another, and hopefully come out stronger as a community.

However, the outpouring of love I've seen lately is not the only result to come from this tragedy. Over the past week, I've noticed a distinct parallel emerging whenever mainstream news programs cover the Orlando shooting. Almost every time there's mention of memorials for the victims, news channels also include a segment about the shooter who caused so much agony in one night. Investigations are consistently digging up new information about the shooter's background and life, and his picture is flashed on TV screens in between snippets dedicated to the lives he cut short.

Now, I understand the importance of identifying the shooter. Law enforcement needs to know who he was for their case files. Perhaps some people would like to know who to blame for the loss of their loved ones. What I don't understand is why the media has given so much spotlight to a man who caused the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, who shook Orlando and the entire country to its core with his hatred, when really we should be focusing on the people who were lost simply because of who they loved.

I don't care if the shooter had allegiances to ISIS. Yes, that is an incredibly scary fact. Yes, ISIS is an equally scary group of people. However, repeatedly drawing attention to the shooter's ISIS ties downplays the main issue of this tragedy. It turns the shooting into an act of terrorism that we can try to blame on another country, a distant enemy that we're more certain we can fight. Even though it is at least somewhat connected to terrorism, the truth is the shooting could have been carried out by anyone with enough hatred and a gun within reach. If it had been a white man, then who would we have to blame? Who would take the fall for the anger and prejudice we refuse to see in ourselves, even when it's staring us in the face?

This shooting was not about terrorism, not fully. While big media people are debating over the ISIS issue, regular people like me are curled up crying over the brothers and sisters we lost in Orlando, those who we never met but were still part of our families. Regular people like me are standing at candlelit vigils or squeezing their significant others close and thinking, "It could've been us." This was not about terrorism. This was about targeting LGBTQ+ people, and it was a hate crime.

I don't care if the shooter might have had secret gay thoughts or tendencies. Internal anger or frustration is no excuse for murdering dozens of people. People in the LGBTQ+ community struggle with their identities every day. That's why we support each other. We turn to one another when we have nowhere else to go. We're turning to each other now because we understand the emotional turmoil this tragedy has caused better than anyone else. We're heartbroken. We're devastated. We're scared to be ourselves again, after all, the progress we had supposedly been making as a country, as individuals. One man's hatred has sent a tidal wave of anguish through the entire LGBTQ+ community. The last thing he deserves is several hours of mainstream airtime.

There are many sides to this story - at least 102 of them, in fact. If you count all of the lives that have been affected by Orlando, then this story has millions of sides. The ones we should be paying the most attention to are the victims', the people who are no longer with us because of one angry outburst, and the people whose lives are forever altered by the trauma they've suffered. I refrain from using the shooter's name in this article because, if you ask me, his side of the story is not one that should be told. Not when my LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters are still being buried by their families. Not when the entire world is grieving because of him.

I want to dedicate this article to all of the victims from the Orlando shooting and their families, and to everyone who has been impacted by the fallout to come from this. Your stories are important and they will never be forgotten.