Past + Pride = Remembering Pulse

Plus Historical Things To Celebrate

On June 12, 2016, I woke up early to help coworkers get ready to march in the local Pride parade. Our company had so many LGBTQ+ folks wanting to participate, I chose to be crew and let other experience the joy I had the year before. The event manager had reminded us that crew would not be allowed past the security check.

Security check? Hmm.
I didn’t remember a security check in 2015.
Security, yes. But no check.

Back then, I turned on the news as I was getting ready for the day. The “before” time. Before Trump. Before half of the country truly lost their zucking mind for this “reality star” with un-real billions. The “man” continues to have more bronzer than dollars or sense.

“Idiocracy” was no longer a parody.
It had become a reality. And it was no show.

On the news, that Sunday morning. I heard the news of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florida. I stopped getting ready and watched the news and saw footage captured by those in club and by the local media of the ensuing standoff.

I cried. Before I turned off the tv and finished getting ready, determined to do what I could to ensure our local Pride celebration was not yet another casualty of the hate crimes and terrorist attack that had just been committed.

• PULSE (Wikipedia)

• 49 PEOPLE KILLED (The One Pulse Collection)

• 53 WOUNDED

At the time it was the deadliest mass shooting in the US.
And second deadliest terror attack in the US since 9/11.

A year later, the 2017 Las Vegas shooting took the mass shooting lead.
The Pulse massacre remains the second deadliest terror attack in the US.

Long story short, thanks to some swift actions by local and federal authorities, copycat crimes did NOT happen that day (to my recollection). But they thwarted several deranged, hateful bigots.

While the Pulse gunman pledged allegiance to ISIS and had an arsenal of weapons, little to nothing has been done to reduce the likelihood this kind of attack will happen again. Lost of legislative empty promises and glad-handing, so sensible gun control laws remain seemingly out of the question. It’s as sad as it is infuriating.

In the meantime, hateful rhetoric spewed by conservative bigots and grifters has increased violent attacks on LGBTQ+ groups.

As a group, LGBTQ+ folks are now every bogeyman these (Im)Moral Majority/MAGA CONservatives can think of. They accuse us of everything they themselves are guilty of, from child abuse and grooming to terrorism and totalitarianism.

Who knows how much the mouthpieces of the movement actually believe the lies and misinformation they spread to their mobs of poorly-educated “patriots.” You know…the ones who worship an orange man who doesn’t give a single zuck about them or the country he already “led” for four too many years.

Enough of my soap box. Today is a Remembrance Day.

Please remember those we lost that heart-breaking day in 2016.

• 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 Chavez-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

Thanks for reading…and remembering!
Clint

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