About the Pulse night club shooting in Orlando, Florida
To be honest, I wasn't sure whether to write anything. I didn't think I really have that much to say that other people haven't said better. But I kept having a nagging feeling that I should write something... So here we are.
At this point, everybody at least knows the basics. If you don't, BBC has a decent summary for the English-speakers, and gazeta.ru did decent Russian-language coverage (to be honest, I've been afraid to look at what the Russian state media is saying). I would also recommend Orlando Weekly, the city's alternative newspaper, Watermark, the city's gay newspaper, and Orlando Sentinel, the Chicago Tribune's sister newspaper.
There is a lot we don't actually know. We've heard a lot about shooter Omar Mateen. He did it because he was a member of Dayesh. He did it because he was a Muslim. He did it because he was homophobic. He did it because he was mentally disturbed. We know that he has been investigated by FBI, and that he got his weapons legally, but as far as his motives... As I said on Twitter, we are still in the part of the news cycle where journalists are running around, trying to find out every little scrap of information and get it out as soon as possible. Misinformation can and will spread. In a few days, some reporters will have a chance to do more in-depth investigations, more official information will be released, and we might actually get a better idea of why Mateen did what he did.
(It is kind of spooky that the shooting happened a day after singer Christina Grimmie was shot during a fan signing at the same city. I would be shocked if the two shootings were related, but by God - what an unfortunate convergence of events)
This is going to affect my gay (and LGBT) friends far more then it would be. But even then... It could have easily happened in Boystown. And vladiatorr could have been there. These days, he travels for his job quite a bit, and, half of the time, I don't know he went somewhere until he posts photos on Facebook.
According to Windy City Times' Twitter feed, there is going to be a vigil in the heart of Boystown at 19:00 CST. I'm in Evanston right now, and I don't know if I can make it. And there is definitely going to be a pall cast over this year's Pride Parade. But then... the parade was always as much about celebration as it is about speaking out the challenges that still have to be overcome.
Another thing that worries me is that, whatever Mateen's motives turn out to be, Muslims are going to face threats, and they are that much more likely to face violence. As I've written before, Edgewater - especially my part of Eddgewater - has more Muslims then most of Chicago. One of them - a woman with a young son - lives in my building. There are at least two others (I say "at least" because our population tends to shift when Loyola University's spring semester ends). There is at least one mosque in my neighborhood that I know of, and I would really, really rather not see it on the news for the awful reasons.
If there is any silver lining - or, at least something to take heart in - it's that, earlier today, a pride parade in Kiev went surprisingly smoothly (even if the public sentiment toward LBGT individuals isn't much better than it is in Russia, and that at least one cop assigned to guard the parade publicly spoke out against it). The march of progress can't be slowed, and it can be derailed, but it goes ever upward.
And life goes on.
At this point, everybody at least knows the basics. If you don't, BBC has a decent summary for the English-speakers, and gazeta.ru did decent Russian-language coverage (to be honest, I've been afraid to look at what the Russian state media is saying). I would also recommend Orlando Weekly, the city's alternative newspaper, Watermark, the city's gay newspaper, and Orlando Sentinel, the Chicago Tribune's sister newspaper.
There is a lot we don't actually know. We've heard a lot about shooter Omar Mateen. He did it because he was a member of Dayesh. He did it because he was a Muslim. He did it because he was homophobic. He did it because he was mentally disturbed. We know that he has been investigated by FBI, and that he got his weapons legally, but as far as his motives... As I said on Twitter, we are still in the part of the news cycle where journalists are running around, trying to find out every little scrap of information and get it out as soon as possible. Misinformation can and will spread. In a few days, some reporters will have a chance to do more in-depth investigations, more official information will be released, and we might actually get a better idea of why Mateen did what he did.
(It is kind of spooky that the shooting happened a day after singer Christina Grimmie was shot during a fan signing at the same city. I would be shocked if the two shootings were related, but by God - what an unfortunate convergence of events)
This is going to affect my gay (and LGBT) friends far more then it would be. But even then... It could have easily happened in Boystown. And vladiatorr could have been there. These days, he travels for his job quite a bit, and, half of the time, I don't know he went somewhere until he posts photos on Facebook.
According to Windy City Times' Twitter feed, there is going to be a vigil in the heart of Boystown at 19:00 CST. I'm in Evanston right now, and I don't know if I can make it. And there is definitely going to be a pall cast over this year's Pride Parade. But then... the parade was always as much about celebration as it is about speaking out the challenges that still have to be overcome.
Another thing that worries me is that, whatever Mateen's motives turn out to be, Muslims are going to face threats, and they are that much more likely to face violence. As I've written before, Edgewater - especially my part of Eddgewater - has more Muslims then most of Chicago. One of them - a woman with a young son - lives in my building. There are at least two others (I say "at least" because our population tends to shift when Loyola University's spring semester ends). There is at least one mosque in my neighborhood that I know of, and I would really, really rather not see it on the news for the awful reasons.
If there is any silver lining - or, at least something to take heart in - it's that, earlier today, a pride parade in Kiev went surprisingly smoothly (even if the public sentiment toward LBGT individuals isn't much better than it is in Russia, and that at least one cop assigned to guard the parade publicly spoke out against it). The march of progress can't be slowed, and it can be derailed, but it goes ever upward.
And life goes on.