What can one say that hasn’t already been said about the Orlando Shooting at the gay nightclub Pulse in the early morning hours of June 12th, 2016? Nothing, really, and thus I am making this a short post. As a cishet White guy, I think it’s important for the voices of the LGBT Community to be heard more loudly and more clearly than any other voices. All I will say is that it’s a horrible tragedy that was fueled by religious teachings, specifically those of Islam; a toxic atmosphere of Anti-LGBT rhetoric that is rampant in our nation, due in no small part to the hate spewed by Far-right Christian Evangelical bigots; a culture that makes deadly weapons absurdly easy to obtain; and the self-hatred of a man whose religion tells him that being homosexual is a mortal sin punishable by death.
As I said, however, it is important that I shut up and let the LGBT community speak, as was so eloquently said in this article. Therefore, I am posting links to articles blogs of those in the LGBT Community. Also, I am posting links of two gofundme’s. One is for the families of the victims of the shooting, and the other is for secular services for those victims who were non-religious.
Erasing LGBTQ Muslims & Islamic Homophobia
Gofundme – Support Victims of Pulse Shooting
Polite Conversations – Orlando – caught between denialists and bigots
Link Round-Up: The Orlando Shooting
The Postmodern Polymath 