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Less than 24 hours after 49 people were killed and 53 more were injured at a gay nightclub in Orlando Florida (the largest ever mass shooting carried out by a civilian in the United States) more than 1,000 people gathered for a candlelit vigil and march in San Francisco\u2019s Castro district.<\/p>\n
Hundreds marched from the Harvey Milk Plaza to City Hall on Sunday, June 12, mourning those killed in Sunday\u2019s shooting, the overwhelming majority of whom were Latino. For many in San Francisco\u2014historically recognized as a safe haven for members of the LGBTQ community\u2014the shooting hit close to home, in particular for LGBTQ Latinos and Latinas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been out for a long time, and one of the things that I always thought about was that something like that would happen in a club that I was in. It was my worst fears,\u201d said Mission District native Miguel Bustos, who attended the vigil in the Castro. \u201cAnd one thing as a community that we\u2019re talking about, is that these are Latinos. These are members of a community that, for all intents and purposes, are always ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gay club, known as Pulse, was celebrating a special \u201cLatin night\u201d at the time of the shooting. According to various media reports, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said that the gunman, Omar Mateen, 29, began his shooting spree at around to 2 a.m. on June 12, killing and injuring dozens with a Sig Sauer MCX semi-automatic rifle and a handgun before being killed by police.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to let the world know that these were Latinos. These were immigrants. Some were undocumented,\u201d Bustos said. \u201cBut these were our brothers and sisters. It\u2019s important that we recognize that and that we stand as a Latino community with them, and with their familias, because they could\u2019ve been any one of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ani Rivera, executive director of Galer\u00eda de la Raza, had never met the Orlando victims, yet echoed Bustos\u2019 sentiments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look at their names, it could\u2019ve been any one of us,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cIt could\u2019ve been any one of my friends. And it hurts when I see those names, and I see their skin\u2014their complexion\u2014they look like my friends and my brothers and sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shooter may have been gay<\/strong><\/p>\n Recent media reports and witness statements suggest that the shooter was quite possibly gay. Witness Kevin West, a regular at Pulse, told the Los Angeles Times that he had messaged Mateen on and off a year prior to the shooting, using the gay chat and dating app Jack\u2019d. Other witnesses told the Orlando Sentinel that they had seen Mateen at Pulse, and that he had visited the club at least a dozen times.<\/p>\n The Palm Beach Post also reported that a classmate from Mateen\u2019s 2006 police academy class said that he, Mateen and other classmates would hang out at gay nightclubs, and that Mateen once approached him romantically.<\/p>\n The shooting came just two weeks before San Francisco\u2019s Pride parade and festival, and hours after James Wesley Howell, a 20 year old from Indiana, was arrested in Santa Monica. According to the Los Angeles Times, Howell planned to attend the L.A. Pride parade on June 12 in West Hollywood, and was in possession of three assault rifles, high-capacity magazines, ammunition and a five-gallon bucket containing chemicals that could be used to make an improvised-explosive device.<\/p>\n \u201cSF Pride is planning to honor those killed in the terrorist attack in a special way,\u201d Sam Singer of SF Pride wrote in an email. \u201cLike everyone in the LGBTQ community, the organization is still coming to grips with the tragedy and horror of what happened as well as meeting with law enforcement agencies to discuss security measures for this year\u2019s celebration and parade.\u201d<\/p>\n Victims\u2019 identities overshadowed in media<\/strong><\/p>\n The mainstream media has largely focused on the gunman\u2019s extremist views, leaving many in San Francisco\u2019s Latino community feeling that the deaths of 49 people have been politicized. Many, including politicians and at least one presidential candidate, are blaming the mass shooting on Islam, and pointing to Mateen\u2019s alleged ties to the Islamic State, without having acknowledged that the victims were targeted because they were LGBTQ.<\/p>\n \u201cThis issue is much more complicated,\u201d said Rivera. \u201cWhen we simplify it, that it\u2019s just a religious radical, we perpetuate the same cycle. So I hope that it provides us an opportunity to further look into what are the core issues that are being used to manipulate and pit us against each other.\u201d<\/p>\n For many, the tragic shooting is a grim reminder that the violence directed at LGBTQ communities as a result of homophobia persists even after mainstream acceptance has been largely obtained.<\/p>\n \u201cThe disparities, the injustices for us continue,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cIt\u2019s happening day to day. This isn\u2019t news to us. This is a reality of communities of color.\u201d<\/p>\n Rivera witnessed a dose of that violence last year when Galer\u00eda de la Raza\u2019s \u201cPor Vida\u201d mural, which depicted gay and lesbian couples embracing and a trans man in lowrider-style art, was set on fire.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople were not just saying, \u2018We don\u2019t agree with your view.\u2019 People were actually calling for violence to be inflicted upon us,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cLike it was OK and justifiable because we were disposable people. And that was my biggest fear, that something like what happened in Orlando would end up happening to folks who came to Galer\u00eda.\u201d<\/p>\n Erick Arguello, president of the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District Council, was shocked and saddened when he heard the news of Orlando. Arguello called District 9 supervisor David Campos, before fielding numerous phone calls, many from LGBTQ groups.<\/p>\n These spaces are usually created for people in the community to feel safe,\u201d Arguello said, referring to gay nightclubs in general. \u201cFor us as veteranos, people who have been out for a long time, it struck that sense of fear again. You can imagine what that does to people who are not completely sure about how to go through that process.\u201d<\/p>\n Rivera also worries about the message this attack sends to the younger generation of LGBTQ people.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope that they don\u2019t feel like they have to go back into the closet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Rivera feels that the actual victims were forgotten in the media frenzy after news of the shooting broke.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we don\u2019t focus on the actual victims, on the actual victims that are in mourning, it can really gloss over the issue. And in that moment … there was a specific sector that was overshadowed.\u201d<\/p>\n Names of Victims:<\/p>\n [su_slider source=”media: 30539,30538,30540,30541,30542,30543,30544,30545,30546,30547,30548,30549,30550,30551,30552,30553,30554,30555,30556,30557,30558,30559,30560,30561,30562,30563,30564,30565,30566″ limit=”40″ link=”image” target=”blank” width=”700″ height=”460″ autoplay=”0″ speed=”500″][su_slider source=”media: 29856,29857″ limit=”30″ link=”image” target=”blank” width=”700″ height=”460″ autoplay=”0″ speed=”500″][su_menu][\/su_slider] Less than 24 hours after 49 people were killed and 53 more were injured at a gay nightclub in Orlando Florida (the largest ever mass shooting carried out by a civilian in the United States) more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":30538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3929],"tags":[10305,10313,10401,10359,10391,5619,10331,10397,10389,4107,10319,10399,10337,10347,10341,10327,10307,10329,10321,7541,10393,10369,5073,10303,10403,10363,10345,10365,10385,10349,10381,10373,10333,10379,10375,10317,10325,10301,7241,10383,10377,10351,10311,10315,10361,10339,10343,10299,10295,10297,10353,10395,10323,10135,10387,10357,10355,10309,10367,10371,10335],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-30537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-10305","tag-akyra-monet-murray","tag-alejandro-barrios-martinez","tag-amanda-alvear","tag-angel-l-candelario-padro","tag-ani-rivera-en","tag-anthony-luis-laureano-disla","tag-antonio-davon-brown","tag-brenda-lee-marquez-mccool","tag-calle-24-latino-cultural-district-council","tag-christopher-andrew-leinonen","tag-christopher-joseph-sanfeliz","tag-cory-james-connell","tag-darryl-roman-burt-ii","tag-deonka-deidra-drayton","tag-eddie-jamoldroy-justice","tag-edward-sotomayor-jr","tag-enrique-rios","tag-eric-ivan-ortiz-rivera","tag-erick-arguello-en","tag-frank-hernandez","tag-franky-jimmy-dejesus-velazquez","tag-galeria-de-la-raza-en","tag-gay-nightclub","tag-geraldo-a-ortiz-jimenez","tag-gilberto-ramon-silva-menendez","tag-jason-benjamin-josaphat","tag-javier-jorge-reyes","tag-jean-c-nieves-rodriguez","tag-jean-carlos-mendez-perez","tag-jerald-arthur-wright","tag-joel-rayon-paniagua","tag-jonathan-antonio-camuy-vega","tag-juan-chevez-martinez","tag-juan-p-rivera-velazquez","tag-juan-ramon-guerrero","tag-kimberly-morris","tag-latino-lgbt","tag-latinos-en","tag-leroy-valentin-fernandez","tag-luis-daniel-conde","tag-luis-daniel-wilson-leon","tag-luis-omar-ocasio-capo","tag-luis-s-vielma","tag-martin-benitez-torres","tag-mercedez-marisol-flores","tag-miguel-angel-honorato","tag-miguel-bustos","tag-orlando-florida","tag-orlando-shooting","tag-oscar-a-aracena-montero","tag-paul-terrell-henry","tag-peter-o-gonzalez-cruz","tag-pulse","tag-rodolfo-ayala-ayala","tag-shane-evan-tomlinson","tag-simon-adrian-carrillo-fernandez","tag-stanley-almodovar-iii","tag-tevin-eurgene-crosby","tag-xavier-emmanuel-serrano-rosado","tag-yilmary-rodriguez-solivan","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n\n