The Orlando shooting will go down in history as one of the deadliest massacres in our nation’s history. We all will remember that day from our point of view.

I wasn’t in America the day the news of the massacre spread. I was on the secluded island of Iona off the coast of Scotland. I, and the group I had travelled with, were enjoying the Scotland air and getting to know the beautiful Iona community when one of the staff members notified us that it happened. That night the entire community was engaged in a candlelight service. The minute I was able to gain Internet access I caught myself up on the details of it all. The impact of it all hit me on another level when I grabbed hold of a newspaper and saw that some of the victims were young African American men.

When I saw these men, I saw myself. I saw yet another young African American man going out with friends enjoying an innocent night out whose life was taken too soon. Regardless of their sexual orientation, these men of color did nothing to deserve what came to them.

This made me once again examine the ongoing struggle between the Black and Gay community. Two identities with a strong and tortured past, this historical narrative would take a transformative turn in the age of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

During a recent Pride parade in Toronto, several Black LGBTQ youth felt uncomfortable to celebrate with the presence of the police. In the wake of the Orlando shooting, several members of the #BlackLivesMatter chapter voiced their concern of having the police present due to both the historic and recent volatile relationship between the Black community and the police.

It is imperative to recognize the actions by #BlackLivesMatter as an integral part in the struggles of the Black community. From the Stonewall Riots of 1969 to the Orlando shootings, the relationship between the Black and Gay community has been one of misrepresentation in larger historical conversations. While previous protest organizations such as the Black Panthers had done everything to keep these two movements separate, the work of #BlackLivesMatter helped merge these movements, revealing a more holistic color of pride.

Many have forgotten the many activists who were members of both communities and worked tirelessly to accomplish both agendas. Long before Facebook and Twitter helped America #staywoke, these activists used other forms to help televise the revolution. We remember activists such as well-known authors Audre Lorde and James Baldwin who helped shape the literary scope of the mid 20^th century with his publications such as The Fire Next Time (1963) and Sister Outsider (1984), bringing to the mainstream “protest literature” that transformed these agendas. We remember political activists such as Pauli Murray and Bayard Rustin whose actions were instrumental in the fight for issues of race, gender, and sexuality during the Civil Rights movement.

Without the work of these men and women, and countless others, many Black LGBTQ youth would not be so visible and courageous today. What the actions of the #BlackLivesMatter activists in Toronto did for the larger movement is help bridge the gap between #BlackLivesMatter and the LGBTQ community, shining a light on an overlooked group of people who take pride in being at the intersection of two such powerful cultural agencies.