And now this....
No question, the first thing that came to my mind was this was a hate crime.
102 reasons to ask "why?" right now. It is not going to change the fact that 49 beautiful, young, good people are now gone forever, just because of who they love, just because of what they represent, just because someone was hating on them. Each and everyone looked like a UW student I knew, someone who I would see up and down these streets, on the Ave, on Capitol Hill, on Beacon Hill?
Who does this? Why? I don't understand why a stranger has to shoot someone who is NOT doing anything to you. I don't get it. They did not deserve to die. They deserved to live, to have beautiful children, and families and nieces and nephews, they had jobs to do, school to finish, people to help. They were on their way to bigger and better things. They were good people celebrating life, celebrating queer safe space, and this motherfucker has to come in and insist that their way is the only way.
It's June. It's Pride month and Ramadan. Even with last year's Supreme Court ruling on same sex marriage, some Americans still don't think lgbtq2s people need protection. Some people would even legalize discrimination, like North Carolina and other states that promote anti-sexual or gender identity discrimination, all because of internalized homophobia and hate. In 2016. We're still doing this.
How do we end this? The fight back is not with guns or ammunition or weapons. The fight back is about opening people's minds and hearts (unfortunately a lot more difficult than taking a gun and pointing and shooting.) I think it's going to take hard work. I think it's going to take action that some of us do not want to do right now. I'm talking making sacrifices and giving up things and not giving in. As Mrs. Obama said, "They go low, we go high..."
What else is it going to take? The murder of 100 people? How about 200? Is that the magic number before Congress does anything? Because so far, thousands of people have been killed by accidental or intentional gun shot wounds in a 12 month period in America. On the regular. In no other country does that number even exist but this doesn't seem to bother our elected officials, who btw, make $250K dollars a year, from now until forever. Congress is way too out of touch with reality to make decisions for me and you. Homework #1: Elect a congress that is going to pass a gun control bill. Ask every candidate what is their position on gun ownership and why. If their answer is not good enough for you, then don't elect them.
My prayers go out to all the families and friends of those who were injured and taken too soon. Not just in Orlando FL but in every major city, town, province, reservation where an LGBTQ2S person has been hurt, killed, attacked, victimized, traumatized, abused, destroyed. May you rest in power and shine forever brilliantly like stardust in the sky while the rest of us pitiful humans try to make sense of the ugliness of this earth.
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