At 2:02 a.m. the morning of June 12, a gunman entered the Pulse night club in Orlando, Florida and opened fire with an AR-15 assault rifle. 50 people were killed and 53 were injured.

Something interesting developed in a lot of the articles I’ve read though. Many of them are far more focused on the gunman’s ties to ISIS than they are on the fact that he targeted a gay club. But, I think it is far more important to look at this incident as a hate crime against the LGBT community and not from a religious standpoint. It was a hate crime. Plain and simple. But, as most adults living in 2016 may be aware of, our society keeps trying to say that we are over things like racism, sexism and homophobia. Those things just don’t happen in our culture anymore.

I don’t think it is a coincidence that during the first national Pride month since President Obama declared June to be Pride month, just one week after Gay Days Orlando, that a clearly disturbed gunman decided to open fire in the middle of a gay club.

Pulse was more than just another gay club though. According to one of the club’s owners, Barbara Poma, Pulse was created to “promote awareness of the area’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.” Poma’s brother was a gay man who passed away from AIDS and Pulse was inspired by him, the name being the sound of his heartbeat.

This desecration of this LGBT safe space matters. It matters because according to a 2010 report from the CDC, 13% of lesbians and 46% of bisexual women have been raped in their lifetime. It matters because 40% of gay men and 46% of bisexual men have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime. It matters because from an intimate partner, 44% of lesbian women, 61% of bisexual women, 26% of gay men and 37% of bisexual men will experience rape, physical assault or stalking. And while the Advocate reported in 2015 that hate-motivated violence towards the overall LGBT community had dropped by 32% since 2014, hate-motivated transgender violence had increased. In a society that has shown so much hatred and violence towards the LGBT community, safe places for members of the LGBT community to come together, feel comfortable and be themselves is so important in looking for support, finding love and making new friends.

Yes, acceptance for the LGBT community has come a long way, but we’re far from being perfect. The country is roughly split in half on the issue of gay marriage. But, that doesn’t change the fact that we still have a very long way to go. This most recent act of heinous violence (already being considered the worst mass shooting in US history) targeting the LGBT community is evidence of that. And while the gunner was reported as making a 9-1-1 call pledging allegiance to ISIS, the gunman’s own father stated that this attack had “nothing to do with religion” and delved into a story about how his son became infuriated after seeing two men kiss.

The morning after, families and friends of people in Orlando woke up in terror. And I was one of them. I checked my social media, trying to make sure all my loved ones in the Orlando area were safe. I have many friends who went to Pulse. I have friends who have lost some of their friends in this tragic shooting. My heart breaks for my friends, for the families and friends of those who were killed or injured, for Orlando’s LGBT community and for entire city. This was a nightmare that no one should ever be forced to experience.

Stay strong Orlando.