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2016 Pulse Nightclub mass shooting


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I am so beyond angry right now. I know, I should be more sad (and I am), but I can't help it right now. Everything regarding this situation is a red flag about the current state of the US - politically, culturally, religiously.....

....and that homophobia is ALIVE and well. I hate having to say this, but there was always that feeling in my gut after the last several years of historic progress that someone, somewhere was going to retaliate. It always happens, in some way. I mean, look where we are with other groups...how could we think we would be any different? And yet I kept hearing, "it's not like that anymore". Yeah, right. Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful to move forward in regards to laws and civil rights...it's another thing completely to elevate social consciousness. And that's the part that is still grossly lacking.

And the fact that it was most likely triggered by someone's disgust of two men kissing... I just...ugghhh... I've said it so many times and people (elsewhere) kept brushing it off...that we, of all groups, could not put our feet up. It's not just an act of "domestic terrorism"...it's a hate crime - a deliberate act of "homophobic terrorism" (which in itself is redundant). And yes, the 'gay' part matters.

And the fact that it's bringing out so much more homophobia and fear in the usual suspects in society right now... You know, it's all interconnected - the "religious liberty" battle, the "gay is sin/haram" rhetoric still blaring loudly, the "love the sinner, hate the sin" assholes sitting on the fence with their pandering condescension, the willful ignorance blaring from bombastic politicians and wannabe ones... SHAME ON ALL OF YOU.

And don't even get me started on gun culture and gun laws in America. I'm gonna fucking lose it with this stupid country.

And FUCK the NRA. When are we gonna brand them as a terrorist organization?

Gays/homosexuality, religion/ISIS, terrorism, guns...during this election year...is going to be the perfect storm for you-know-who....

I hope this acts as a wake up call to everyone in this country, not just about guns, not just about religious ideology...but specifically about how that connects to and manifests itself in homophobia. To all those "allies" who think it's all about marriage equality...think again.

ps. I apologize if I piss anyone off. I'm just rambling because I have so many thoughts in this head right now, so many emotions...and I just got to get it out. Not really in the mood to debate. I know, I should be more sad (and I am)...but I can't help but be PISSED THE FUCK OFF right now. When will this country wake the fuck up.....

I know you mean well, but there are mass shootings in the US EVERY DAY. This isn't a gay issue.

It's radicalism, gun control, mental health, etc., etc., etc. You're making it sound like we should all be afraid and not be happy for all the huge gains we've made as gay people over the past few decades because of what 1 person did to 50 people in a country of 318,000,000+ people.

That's what pisses me off most about all these acts of terrorism. They're designed to terrorize people and even though we all know that, we let them scare us anyway and the only thing that that means is that the terrorists achieved their goal!

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3 people I know are wounded. All employees of the club. Not many updates on their condition.

One person I know was there and managed to escape. I along with all my close friends were weighing going out tonight but we all stayed home. The news unfolded last night around 2 AM and I haven't slept since.

When these things happen elsewhere in the US, I become so enraged at our backwards gun laws that it almost smothers the tragedy of what happens. Now I'm just kinda frozen in depression. This place was a local institution, I used to go there as often as twice a week. The amount of lives lost makes me want to throw up.

Thanks for all the support and well-wishes on social media. I appreciate that some of you guys reached out. We need all the love we can get.

i love u miggy hug.gif i thought of u when I read the news , i am glad you safe and sad for your friends who r wounded , this is tragic. :(

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I always wonder what mass shooting will stop the insane gun culture but nothing seems to. So tragic for American people to live with the fear that these shootings happen so often and can happen anywhere and at any time. Feel so angry and sad for the victims in this senseless and evil act. Too horrifying and tragic.

You should hear these people's arguments. These are the same twisted, ignorant people who are supporting Trump. I'm just so angry!!

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I know you mean well, but there are mass shootings in the US EVERY DAY. This isn't a gay issue.

It's radicalism, gun control, mental health, etc., etc., etc. You're making it sound like we should all be afraid and not be happy for all the huge gains we've made as gay people over the past few decades because of what 1 person did to 50 people in a country of 318,000,000+ people.

That's what pisses me off most about all these acts of terrorism. They're designed to terrorize people and even though we all know that, we let them scare us anyway and the only thing that that means is that the terrorists achieved their goal!

It IS a gay issue. The possible motives and connections as to why this even took place also play directly into that. Not to mention what's it's revealing in the responses to this attack by some, and even the earlier whitewashing of that factor. Again, it cannot be denied.

And the fact that it is the worst mass shooting in American history speaks for itself.

That isn't to say that those other issues - religion, guns, mental health - aren't also major factors. They are. Absolutely! But homophobia matters too.

And no, I am not saying, nor have I ever said, that we shouldn't be happy or proud of our progress. Just to keep everything in check, and never forget the bigger picture. But there also plenty of other instances of LGBT+ hate crimes (most of which go unreported), not to mention the political/cultural battles still going on. This isn't just 1 isolated issue. It just so happens to sadly be the one that has manifested itself in the most horrific of ways.

I'm not living in terror. I'm more pissed off at our inability to see the bigger picture and do what we can to prevent as much of this as possible, let alone address our social consciousness. Laws changing doesn't mean minds are changing.

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The Orlando Massacre: A Reminder of the Dangers LGBT People Live With Every Day

There have been scores of attacks on LGBT spaces, some of which received more attention than others.

A Pride month night of celebration and fun — the weekly Latin Night at the popular Orlando club, Pulse, focused on Latin music, performances and dancing — turned into a morning of mass death and devastation. But the brutal reality that jarred Orlando’s LGBT community, and the entire nation, is something that LGBT people have always experienced, as gay and lesbian bars and clubs have been targeted consistently by those who harbor hate toward LGBT people.

And it’s a reminder of the animus against LGBT people that still exists, and the ever present danger with which we still live.

There have been scores of attacks on LGBT spaces, some of which received more attention than others. Eric Rudolph, also known as the Olympic Park Bomber because of his terror attack on the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta in 1996, also targeted lesbian bars, in addition to abortion clinics. In 1997, he targeted the Otherside Lounge, a lesbian bar in Atlanta, with two bombs, one of which detonated in the bar and injured five people. (The second bomb, found in a parking lot of the bar, was detonated by police without injury.) Rudolph, associated with the extremist Army of God, later pleaded guilty and said he was targeting homosexuality.

In 2014, Musab Masmari was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for setting fire to a Seattle gay nightclub on New Year’s Eve in 2013. The assistant U.S. attorney reported that one of Masmari’s friends said Masmari confided in him that he “‘burned a gay club’ and that he did it because ‘what these people are doing is wrong.’” Another person close to Masmari reportedly said he had a “general hostility towards homosexuality.” Just last fall, there were a series of unsolved attacks against gay men exiting gay bars and venues in Dallas. One man was dragged into a van, beaten with a baseball bat while being called a “fag,” and dropped off a few blocks away. During the same time period three gay bars in Dallas were vandalized as well.

And hours after the Orlando mass-shooting, it was reported that police in Santa Monica found a cache of weapons and chemicals in the car of James Wesley Howell, an Indiana man whom they said was headed to LA Pride intending “to harm” the event. It was apparently unrelated to the Orlando shooting, and details were still coming in.

Hatred against LGBT people is clearly something we’ve lived with for decades, and even in these days of big victories we see a ferocious backlash playing out which is also motivated by bigotry. Many of us often take for granted the freedoms we’ve won, and certainly we don’t think twice about going out for a good time, dancing and enjoying ourselves — and we might not want to think about the dangers that still face LGBT people. And the American media, too, seems complacent; early on major news organizations reporting on this mass shooting, like The New York Times and CNN, weren’t reporting the fact that Pulse is a gay club, or were downplaying that fact — a relevant fact, especially as this increasingly looks like a terror attack or hate crime.

Hate crimes against LGBT people haven’t dissipated since the arrival of marriage equality and have in fact been on the rise in recent years. What we’ve learned from his father about the Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, is that he was recently repulsed — became “very angry” — upon seeing two gay men kissing in Miami. Whatever his other beliefs or allegiances, that bedrock of homophobia is part of what drove him to carry out a brutal mass-shooting.

This terrible tragedy is a reminder of the threat of violence against LGBT every day, and why we must always remain vigilant.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/orlando-pulse-shooting-lgbt-dangers_us_575d6615e4b0e39a28add385?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

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just sick. my thoughts and prayers go out to all the people. The sandy hook shooting was one of the most horrific crimes all those innocent children so young that did nothing wrong. :(

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USA should get rid of Daech/ISIS ASAP and stop funding/growing them before they take away their civilization and we see it as a backward country with no human rights look at Syria before and after the war its a live example!

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I always wonder what mass shooting will stop the insane gun culture but nothing seems to. So tragic for American people to live with the fear that these shootings happen so often and can happen anywhere and at any time. Feel so angry and sad for the victims in this senseless and evil act. Too horrifying and tragic.

I hear you. After every major one I feel like, okay this HAS to be the moment when we as a nation FINALLY change. And we never fucking do. Now we have the worst mass shooting in our nations history, and I feel like yet again, nothing will change. Even worse I feel like many have accepted that this is just how it is in America these days. It's crazy how outraged people get over transgender people using the bathrooms of their choice, but these same people when it comes to mass shootings? They could give two shits. To them more guns is the answer.

The shooter was born and raised in the US :rolleyes:

Are US born muslims going to be kicked out of the US now?

Exactly what I was thinking. :lol: This cunt is patting himself on the back like he said something in the past that turned out to be correct. He is no doubt referring to his call to ban muslims from entering the US, but like you said, this man was born in NY! What ARE you saying Dump? That we should round up all American born Muslims now and kick them out along with Mexicans? Ugh this guy is the worst thing to happen to American politics since......I don't know when.

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Same to you. Glad you weren't there when the carnage unfolded.

I really don't know what to say guys. If you have a voice at all on social media, start calling for America to bring back the assault weapons ban from the 90s.

I am so happy there are gay people out there who want to speak out hard about things that need to change.

I have been getting so depressed talking to the gay people I know on a personal daily level about this and they don't understand my rantings, They just think this is something we should be saddened about, and we should leave it at that. No reason to dig further and no reason to try and figure out ways to fix these problems. It's like peoples brains are set on "lazy". They don't want to put in any extra thought behind ANYTHING! Drives me nuts.

I had to get shit off my chest to one of my gay friends and instead of agreeing or at least digging a bit deeper into his own mind, he simply told me to, "Stop".

Seriously? Yeah that's what ill do. Simply stop and think happy thoughts.

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The shooter was born and raised in the US :rolleyes:

Are US born muslims going to be kicked out of the US now?

And so were the Bataclan terrorists in Europe.I feel really bad for muslims in the West for the muslim-terrorist equation.People forget that they are the first ones killed, raped, tortured by ISIS beasts and criminals in the Middle East. I have a superficial knowledge of Islam, but for sure those people don't represent it.
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Muslims make up a quater of the earths population. I think if all of them were bad, we would all be dead already.

Grossed out how people are using this tragedy to once again hate on Muslims.

And that is so true. People seem to forget that ISIS slaughters Muslim people every single day. Who the hell do these people think these refugees are running from? Do they think they are Forrest Gumping it and are taking a long ass running journery just for the fuck of it?

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3 people I know are wounded. All employees of the club. Not many updates on their condition.

One person I know was there and managed to escape. I along with all my close friends were weighing going out tonight but we all stayed home. The news unfolded last night around 2 AM and I haven't slept since.

When these things happen elsewhere in the US, I become so enraged at our backwards gun laws that it almost smothers the tragedy of what happens. Now I'm just kinda frozen in depression. This place was a local institution, I used to go there as often as twice a week. The amount of lives lost makes me want to throw up.

Thanks for all the support and well-wishes on social media. I appreciate that some of you guys reached out. We need all the love we can get.

Big kiss. So happy that you are safe.

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And so were the Bataclan terrorists in Europe.I feel really bad for muslims in the West for the muslim-terrorist equation.People forget that they are the first ones killed, raped, tortured by ISIS beasts and criminals in the Middle East. I have a superficial knowledge of Islam, but for sure those people don't represent it.

Exactly. It's not Islam. It's crazy and horrid people, no matter their beliefs.

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I still don't have anything to say about this but *tears*. I'm so glad our board members seem to be safe, and I'm SO sorry for those who lost their lives.

Just horrible. I've been to that club (on vacation). It could have been any of us.

Just so so sorry for those who lost their lives when all they wanted to do was have a good time/ be with LGBT family.

Hugs to all of you, and I pray for peace for all those victims.

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I am so happy there are gay people out there who want to speak out hard about things that need to change.

I have been getting so depressed talking to the gay people I know on a personal daily level about this and they don't understand my rantings, They just think this is something we should be saddened about, and we should leave it at that. No reason to dig further and no reason to try and figure out ways to fix these problems. It's like peoples brains are set on "lazy". They don't want to put in any extra thought behind ANYTHING! Drives me nuts.

I had to get shit off my chest to one of my gay friends and instead of agreeing or at least digging a bit deeper into his own mind, he simply told me to, "Stop".

Seriously? Yeah that's what ill do. Simply stop and think happy thoughts.

THIS. THIS. THIS.

I know exactly how you feel.

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Guest Rachelle of London

Say what you want about Piers Morgan but this morning he wouldn't let the other speaker off because she kept saying that this was on attack on people enjoying themselves. He kept saying "no this was an attack on gay people enjoying themselves" this was on good morning Britain

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On the way to work the radio presenters said "we will play something now in alight of this weekends events" and played Like a Prayer

Was so nice to hear .

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Muslims make up a quater of the earths population. I think if all of them were bad, we would all be dead already.

Grossed out how people are using this tragedy to once again hate on Muslims.

And that is so true. People seem to forget that ISIS slaughters Muslim people every single day. Who the hell do these people think these refugees are running from? Do they think they are Forrest Gumping it and are taking a long ass running journery just for the fuck of it?

Thank you!

And so were the Bataclan terrorists in Europe.I feel really bad for muslims in the West for the muslim-terrorist equation.People forget that they are the first ones killed, raped, tortured by ISIS beasts and criminals in the Middle East. I have a superficial knowledge of Islam, but for sure those people don't represent it.

Yes these ignorant fucktards think only western people get killed, well in fact Muslims are killed all the time by these scums of the earth.

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