I imagine that many of you are horrified by the news of what happened in Orlando on Sunday, as reverberations of the story move through the news and media networks.
It is shocking and tragic – and especially to see Obama seem almost defeated on his struggle with gun control in America.
I was moved by a post I received today that I would like to share. It came from a colleague in America, who was re-posting a message by a gay sex educator Brian McNaught (worth Googling and reading/listening to him).
I am posting it because I agree with his every word.
The murder of the innocents in Orlando is not now palatable or excusable because the shooter was Muslim, not Christian, or because some say it was attributable to ISIS. The shooter was a product of poisoning in the U.S., and he was trained by a variety of everyday people to react to gay and transgender men and women with disgust and impunity. The so-called Christian Lt. Governor of Texas immediately tweeted , “You reap what you sow.” He’s right in that frightened, ignorant, self-righteous people, like him, sow hate, and we reap terrorism.
Forget for a moment the sowers of violence against minorities, and turn to how we all can move through the grieving process. Many people have already turned their attention to other issues in their lives, but gay people globally, and our family and friends, will be emotionally distraught for many days, and more fearful for years.
To help me grieve, I’d like the New York Times to print the faces, names, and descriptions of every person sacrificed in this act of domestic terrorism, which has claimed more souls than anything of its sort since September 11, 2001. We need faces to put on these martyrs of the cultural war.
I want flags in my home state of Florida, if not the nation, to fly at half-mast for a week. I want sermons on the evil of what happened in Orlando preached in every church, synagogue, and mosque. I’m grateful for the remarks of President Obama, and I want similar statements from Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. I want a televised memorial service attended by every notable gay person.
A part of me has died today. I want us all to think of the young people who were murdered while they danced to be seen as being as innocent and as precious as the children who died while in school. They are to me. They were out on a Saturday night to see their friends, maybe have a drink, dance, and possibly flirt at a prospective spouse. We grieve your deaths, my friends, and the fear you suffered.
