Image via Fibonacci Blue, Flickr CC
June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. It celebrates the Stonewall uprising when LGBTQ+ people rose up against discrimination and oppression. Nearly 50 years later, great achievements in LGBTQ+ equality have been made. But, the struggle never ends.
This past weekend’s massacre at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub was the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. The dead, mostly gay men in their 20s and 30s, were enjoying the club’s Saturday Latin Night. At last call, about 2 a.m., the attacker struck, shooting 49 to death and wounding more than 50 others. One victim, 30 year-old Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, texted his mother throughout the ordeal before his death: “Mommy I love you. He’s coming. I’m gonna die.”
Donald Trump quickly took an “I told you so” victory lap—even before the killer’s identity was known—again calling for a ban on Muslims. When the American-born killer was indeed identified as Muslim, President Obama called the act one of terrorism and hatred. But, he recognized the reality that LGBTQ+ people are targeted “by a lot of groups that purport to speak on behalf of God around the world.”
His point should be well taken. Inspired by domestic radical Christianity or international radical Islam, anti-LGBTQ+Q violence is the same. At its heart is a core ideology that demonizes a group of people. Whether an Islamic State website, a Christian mega-church pulpit, or the rabid rants of our political officials, all fuel bigotry and hatred.
Speaking of our political leaders, once the shooter was identified, for Republicans the narrative turned away from the carnage and the victims to a sanitized politically correct message. Few Republicans would recognize the victims as LGBTQ+. Ron Johnson, who voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in 2013 as well as against protections for homeless LGBTQ+ youth, tweeted a now perfunctory and calloused condolence devoid of mentioning the horrific loss to the LGBTQ+ community. Governor Scott “Insensate” Walker’s statement was equally shamefully hollow. That’s really not a surprise; both are proxies of the Christian Right that, in the last six months, is responsible for introducing more than 200 anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Despite marriage equality, or because of it, anti-gay vitriol and roadblocks to the exercise of LGBTQ+ rights are an integral part of the Republican platform. Back in November 2015, a certain Pastor Kevin Swanson called for the death of LGBTQ+ people at his National Religious Liberties Conference. The event was attended by aspiring Republican presidential nominees Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal and Mike Huckabee.
With our country in its perpetual state of gun-violence trauma, it’s easy to deflect and scapegoat. So, true to form, the gay Log Cabin Republicans’ statement on the Orlando attack was predictable, indignantly calling for President Obama to acknowledge the cause of the massacre as “Radical Islamic terrorism,” blithely ignoring their own party’s contribution to anti-LGBTQ+ violence, bigotry and racism.
Coincidently, that same Sunday morning, Los Angeles Police stopped James Wesley Howell, a very white boy from Indiana. In his car they found three assault rifles with high capacity magazines (taped together for rapid reloading), camouflage clothing, a security badge and bomb-making material. He was en route to the L.A. Pride Parade. His story has since faded from the news cycle.
