Pulse Was More Than Jt a Gay Club: It Was a Place Where We Didn't Have to Hi | GQ

Contents:

• IT'S BEEN 5 YEARS SCE THE PULSE NIGHTCLUB SHOOTG, AND GAYS AGAST GUNS WON'T LET THE WORLD FET
• SCENE OF MASS SHOOTG MORE THAN 'JT ANOTHER GAY CLUB'
• PULSE WAS MORE THAN JT A GAY CLUB: IT WAS A PLACE WHERE WE DIDN'T HAVE TO HI
• 50 AD, ISLAMIC TERRORISM TIE EYED ORLANDO GAY BAR SHOOTG

IT'S BEEN 5 YEARS SCE THE PULSE NIGHTCLUB SHOOTG, AND GAYS AGAST GUNS WON'T LET THE WORLD FET

It’s been nearly two years sce the mass shootg at Pulse nightclub Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people — wily believed to be an act of aggrsn agast the club’s LGBTQ clientele and “unniably a homophobic hate crime.

In fact, he allegedly had no ia Pulse was a gay club, and simply Googled “Orlando nightclubs” after fdg that secury at his origal target, a major shoppg and entertament plex, was too high, as reported by. A radil Islamic terrorist targeted the nightclub, not only bee he wanted to kill Amerins, but orr to execute gay and lbian cizens, bee of their sexual orientatn. ” The followg day at a North Carola rally Tmp said, “We want to live a untry where gay and lbian Amerins and all Amerins are safe om radil Islam, which, by the way, wants to murr and has murred gays and they enslave women.

SCENE OF MASS SHOOTG MORE THAN 'JT ANOTHER GAY CLUB'

The shooter didn’t target LGBTQ people — he didn’t even realize Pulse was a gay-oriented nightclub, askg a secury guard at the club where all the women were jt before he started shootg. On Saturday, June 12, a sea of veiled, whe-clad activists om the direct actn group Gays Agast Guns showed up to the Christopher Street Piers—a se wh a storied and plex queer history—to hold space for the 49 people who were murred at Orlando's Pulse nightclub 2016.

"Remember the 49, " read one prott sign, and that was the ethos that fueled the group's march om the Piers to the Stonewall Natnal Monument, where numero speakers—cludg Gays Agast Guns foundg member Jay W. Gays Agast Guns is particularly vted potg out the disproportnate effects of gun vlence on LGBTQ+ people, and particularly queer and trans people of lor; below, fd the chillg yet spirg imag om the group's Pulse Remembrance Day prott. Photographed by Michael GeeBen Williams—one of the origal members of Gays Agast Guns—joed the first weeks followg the massacre.

PULSE WAS MORE THAN JT A GAY CLUB: IT WAS A PLACE WHERE WE DIDN'T HAVE TO HI

They joed the Gays Agast Guns monstratn solidary. Walker, one of the foundg members of Gays Agast Guns.

A pair embrace after exg Parliament Hoe, a gay bar and rort where people were gatherg on June 12, 2016, the wake of the mass shootg at the Pulse nightclub Orlando, Florida. One of the worst mass shootgs US history claimed 49 liv at Pulse, a gay nightclub Orlando, Florida, on June 12, shootg occurred on the venue's Lat Night, and many of those killed were gunman was killed by police after a three-hour standoff, while people trapped si sperately lled and msaged iends and was the adlit mass shootg the Uned Stat until one year later, when 58 people were murred at a Las Vegas untry mic ncert. In Orlando, people grappled wh the magnu of the horror: One man armed wh an asslt rifle and a pistol managed to kill 49 people and wound another 53 si a gay nightclub.

50 AD, ISLAMIC TERRORISM TIE EYED ORLANDO GAY BAR SHOOTG

One of the owners of the Orlando nightclub where 50 people were shot ad early Sunday started  to promote awarens of the area's lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr muny. ”Pulse refers to self as "not jt another gay club.