"May a president never have to sign another monument like this," President Biden said as he signed the Pulse memorial bill into law.I had to refresh my memory about the details of the shooting after reading the article. I hadn't forgotten about it of course, but there are so many mass shootings in America that it can be hard to keep the details of each straight. We don't exactly know why this shooting happened...the shooter claimed to be acting on behalf of the Islamic State, but multiple witnesses stated that he had been to the nightclub dozens of times before, had used apps and sites like grindr or Adam4Adam, and had tried to pick up men at the club. Members of his own family believed he was gay or bi, although his father denied that he was. Still, is this a case of someone who couldn't reconcile his own homosexuality or bisexuality, especially if he did have extremist Islamist beliefs?
What is well-known about the shooting is the scale of the tragedy, especially for the Hispanic portion of the LGBTQ+ community. The club was hosting a Latino night, and many of the victims came from Hispanic cultures and families that considered homosexuality to be shameful or abhorrent. For that reason many of the victims were closeted. I remember reading an article a few years back about how many of their families only learned that they were part of the LGBTQ+ community when they were notified that they had been killed in a gay nightclub shooting. One of the families had even refused to claim the body because of it. Homophobia was still a force even in the shadow of the tragedy. (Edit: In looking up information for this post, I was happy to discover that ultimately other members of the family were
convinced to claim the body and arrange a funeral).
The only silver lining is that what happened will not be forgotten...the nightclub has
served as an interim memorial for a few years now, with the owner planning to
unveil a permanent memorial and museum. Ultimately, the fact that this horrific tragedy took place during Pride Month is a reminder that pride is not just about rainbow flags and parades and coming out...it's also about remembering the struggles and the suffering that the community has had to and continues to endure on the path to acceptance, and hoping for a future where those are things of the past.
