It has been over a week now since the fatal shootings at the LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida. While the events are still astounding and tragic, many people have come to terms with the loss and are now moving on to bigger battles, like how to prevent this from happening again.
As someone with many friends in the LGBTQ community, I see their fear and their struggle to accept what as happened, like most of the world has been. Many people, part of the queer community or not, have taken up the mantra, "I stand with Orlando."
It's sweet, and their mindset is in the right place. But I disagree. I don't stand with Orlando.
I do not stand with a city that does not allow people to buy a house because their sexual orientation is different from what is considered "normal."
I do not stand with a city that allows people to be fired based on their sexuality.
I do not stand with a city where doctors and nurses can refuse to treat a patient because they are gay or transgender.
I do not stand with a city that will not, in the face of an attack on the LGBTQ community, allow people of different sexual orientations to donate blood when there are so many able and willing donors.
I do not stand with a city that bred the hatred and contempt that drove that man to kill all those innocent people, a city that enforced his hatred and fueled his fire.
I do not stand with the shooter and his ideals, and I do not stand with the people who influenced his thinking.
I stand with the victims of the Pulse shooting.
I stand with the hundreds of families who will never be the same without the loved one they lost.
I stand with the people who were wounded or witnessed the crime and are afraid to be themselves again for fear of another attack.
I stand with those not directly involved in the attack but who still feel violated and abused because they, as a community, no longer feel safe.
I stand with the LGBTQ community and their fight to end this intolerance and hatred, to end the idea that they aren't humans, and to end their suffering.
I stand with them, I ache for them, I mourn for their loss. I grieve for the families, despite never knowing how that tragedy feels. I may never know, better yet I hope I never know. This attack strikes deep, for this was supposed to be a safe place for these people, a place for them to express their love and identity away from the judgement and bigotry of the world. And that man took that away from them. He took away the safety and the protection that these people felt.
In this time, it is still important to remember why he did what he did and what drove him to that. The public hatred and revulsion that LGBTQ people experience on a daily basis has created this atmosphere of violence and loathing, and in it, men like Omar Mateen thrive. It is this atmosphere that will breed more men just like him who will do terrible and perhaps even more horrific things. We cannot just stand by and let that happen. We were not the one shooting those innocent lives in Florida, but we were the bullets in his gun, the voice in his head telling him this is okay, that those people deserved it.
No one deserves that. No one deserves to have their freedom, their safety, or their life taken away by some man who believes he is doing someone's will. We need to change before more innocent lives are taken.
I stand with the victims of the Pulse shooting, and I stand ready to change the world. Do you?
