This week's massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando was a direct attack on LGBTQ+ people and predominately queer people of colour. The bars which have provided a safe space for generations of LGBTQ+ people were violated again. Again, because it is not the first time these spaces have come under threat. LGBTQ+ spaces are constantly under threat from closure, but as recent events have highlighted, the threat of violence also remains. Whether people attack with bombs like the nail bomb at Soho's Admiral Duncan pub in England, firearms like those used in the Pulse shooting in America, or their fists because individuals dare to hold hands walking down the street or kiss in public.
I sometimes find myself confronted with the suggestion that there might be more pressing issues to focus on than LGBT activism following the success of campaigns for marriage equality in certain countries. That suggestion always baffles me. First, it assumes we choose our causes. We don’t. They choose us. Second, they imply the war is over now. It isn't. I’m fighting for LGBT equality and women’s rights because as a queer woman, I only have to exist to know there is still plenty to be done. For many LGBT people around the world, being LGBT is a criminal offence punishable by death. Even in those countries where rights have advanced, our transgender siblings still have battles ahead and progressive legislation gives an illusion of equality and safety which will never be fully realised until hatred motivated by a person's sexuality or gender identity disappears entirely.
There is a privilege that comes with even being able to live openly, and part of our work has to be to strive to advocate for change on a global scale, to welcome LGBT refugees and asylum seekers into our local communities and to seek to understand and break down barriers that exist within the communities themselves, because even in countries where things are better that does not mean that people are always safe. The hard truth in a world saturated with glitter and rainbows is that there is still a bravery involved when a same-sex couple hold hands in the streets, carry or wear rainbow flags and go out dancing in clubs. There’s a bravery in attending candlelit vigils and standing up in public, vocal support of LGBT rights.
These acts so many take for granted will remain acts of bravery until the threat from people who can’t stand to see LGBT people simply being who they are disappears entirely. The fact Pride events are bigger and more celebrated than ever is simply the good fortune of our generation – a reminder of the many people who fought for our right to be out here in the open – not hidden away. Yet at a time when people are thinking about pride and celebration, somebody saw fit to silence that joy, snuff out young lives and to attempt to curb those freedoms. Whatever else the shooter in Orlando wanted, the intent of such attacks is often to attempt to stamp out celebration, silence people being themselves and to leave collective communities cowering beneath the brute force of fear, hatred and violence.
For LGBT communities, this kind of persecution is not new. The scale of the Orlando attacks was brutal and overwhelming and every LGBT person and their friends and allies will be touched to a greater or lesser extent by the events. Everyone who has danced in a bar like Pulse and felt that moment of freedom will feel the impact of the attack keenly. But this is not the first time. Governments left gay and bisexual men to die in their thousands. Authorities allowed the deaths of countless LGBT people to go unpunished. LGBT people are at risk of hate crimes, statistically more likely to live below the poverty to line and to face a disproportionately higher threat from bullying and domestic violence. LGBT people have been beaten, shot, bombed, arrested, killed by somebody else's hands or by government inaction.
The nature and extent of the persecution faced by LGBT people in today's world may have changed and things may be getting better, but the fight is far from over. We cannot and will not just wash our hands of the work that remains and disappear quietly off the back of recent victories. How can we, when there are still people losing their lives just for being LGBT? There’s a powerful resilience within LGBTQ+ communities, an overwhelming sense of pride and a powerful collective voice which will rise from the ashes. People have, in the past, turned a blind eye to the plights of LGBT people and through it all, those communities have learned to look after themselves, fighting tenaciously for the only right answer. Freedom to be, to live and to love without censure or fear of oppression or violence.
In memory of the Pulse victims.
There is a privilege that comes with even being able to live openly, and part of our work has to be to strive to advocate for change on a global scale, to welcome LGBT refugees and asylum seekers into our local communities and to seek to understand and break down barriers that exist within the communities themselves, because even in countries where things are better that does not mean that people are always safe. The hard truth in a world saturated with glitter and rainbows is that there is still a bravery involved when a same-sex couple hold hands in the streets, carry or wear rainbow flags and go out dancing in clubs. There’s a bravery in attending candlelit vigils and standing up in public, vocal support of LGBT rights.
These acts so many take for granted will remain acts of bravery until the threat from people who can’t stand to see LGBT people simply being who they are disappears entirely. The fact Pride events are bigger and more celebrated than ever is simply the good fortune of our generation – a reminder of the many people who fought for our right to be out here in the open – not hidden away. Yet at a time when people are thinking about pride and celebration, somebody saw fit to silence that joy, snuff out young lives and to attempt to curb those freedoms. Whatever else the shooter in Orlando wanted, the intent of such attacks is often to attempt to stamp out celebration, silence people being themselves and to leave collective communities cowering beneath the brute force of fear, hatred and violence.
For LGBT communities, this kind of persecution is not new. The scale of the Orlando attacks was brutal and overwhelming and every LGBT person and their friends and allies will be touched to a greater or lesser extent by the events. Everyone who has danced in a bar like Pulse and felt that moment of freedom will feel the impact of the attack keenly. But this is not the first time. Governments left gay and bisexual men to die in their thousands. Authorities allowed the deaths of countless LGBT people to go unpunished. LGBT people are at risk of hate crimes, statistically more likely to live below the poverty to line and to face a disproportionately higher threat from bullying and domestic violence. LGBT people have been beaten, shot, bombed, arrested, killed by somebody else's hands or by government inaction.
The nature and extent of the persecution faced by LGBT people in today's world may have changed and things may be getting better, but the fight is far from over. We cannot and will not just wash our hands of the work that remains and disappear quietly off the back of recent victories. How can we, when there are still people losing their lives just for being LGBT? There’s a powerful resilience within LGBTQ+ communities, an overwhelming sense of pride and a powerful collective voice which will rise from the ashes. People have, in the past, turned a blind eye to the plights of LGBT people and through it all, those communities have learned to look after themselves, fighting tenaciously for the only right answer. Freedom to be, to live and to love without censure or fear of oppression or violence.
In memory of the Pulse victims.
- Stanley Almodovar III, 23
- Amanda Alvear, 25
- Oscar A. Aracena-Montero, 26
- Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, 33
- Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21
- Martin Benitez Torres, 33
- Antonio D. Brown, 30
- Darryl R. Burt II, 29
- Jonathan A. Camuy Vega, 24
- Angel L. Candelario-Padro, 28
- Simon A. Carrillo Fernandez, 31
- Juan Chevez-Martinez, 25
- Luis D. Conde, 39
- Cory J. Connell, 21
- Tevin E. Crosby, 25
- Franky J. Dejesus Velazquez, 50
- Deonka D. Drayton, 32
- Mercedez M. Flores, 26
- Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22
- Juan R. Guerrero, 22
- Paul T. Henry, 41
- Frank Hernandez, 27
- Miguel A. Honorato, 30
- Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40
- Jason B. Josaphat, 19
- Eddie J. Justice, 30
- Anthony L. Laureano Disla, 25
- Christopher A. Leinonen, 32
- Brenda L. Marquez McCool, 49
- Jean C. Mendez Perez, 35
- Akyra Monet Murray, 18
- Kimberly Morris, 37
- Jean C. Nieves Rodriguez, 27
- Luis O. Ocasio-Capo, 20
- Geraldo A. Ortiz-Jimenez, 25
- Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36
- Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32
- Enrique L. Rios Jr., 25
- Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, 37
- Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan, 24
- Christopher J. Sanfeliz, 24
- Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35
- Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25
- Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34
- Shane E. Tomlinson, 33
- Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25
- Luis S. Vielma, 22
- Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37
- Jerald A. Wright, 31