‘It’s my Florida too’: Pulse shootg survivor Brandon Wolf on beg Black, gay and the anti-Ron DeSantis | US news | The Guardian

Contents:

• POLICE: GUNMAN ENTERED GAY CLUB, STARTED FIRG
• GUNMAN KILLED 5 AT COLORADO SPRGS GAY CLUB BEFORE BEG SUBDUED BY PATRONS, POLICE SAY
• GUNMAN KILLS 5 AT GAY NIGHTCLUB, SUBDUED BY PATRONS
• 49 KILLED AT PULSE GAY CLUB ORLANDO; DEADLIT MASS SHOOTG U.S. HISTORYABSOLUTE EVILOMAR MATEEN SHOT MORE THAN 100 PEOPLE EARLY SUNDAY THE ADLIT SHOOTG ATTACK AMERIN HISTORY. GION RNICKPOLIL REPORTERJT MILLERUPDATED JUL. 12, 2017 7:42PM EDT / PUBLISHED JUN. 12, 2016 10:34AM EDT STEVE NI / RTERSTHE ADLIT MASS SHOOTG MORN AMERIN HISTORY KILLED 49 PEOPLE AFTER A GUNMAN ATTACKED A GAY DANCE CLUB ORLANDO, FLORIDA.OMAR MATEEN, OF PORT ST. LUCIE, FLORIDA, SHOT HIS WAY TO PULSE NIGHTCLUB AT 2 A.M. SUNDAY WH AN ASSLT RIFLE, ORLANDO POLICE ANNOUNCED SUNDAY. MATEEN REPORTEDLY TOOK HOSTAGE SEVERAL PATRONS WHO WERE HIDG A BATHROOM. A SWAT UN ENTERED THE CLUB AT 6 A.M. AND KILLED MATEEN WHAT WAS SCRIBED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT AS A STAED GUN BATTLE. PHOTOS: SCEN OM THE MASS SHOOTG AT ORLANDO NIGHTCLUB MATEEN ED AN “AR-15-STYLE ASSLT RIFLE,” ORLANDO POLICE CHIEF JOHN MA SAID. THE AR-15 HAS BEEN THE SIGNATURE WEAPON OF MASS SHOOTERS AMERI, ED BY ADAM LANZA TO KILL 26 AT SANDY HOOK AND THE SAN BERNARDO TERRORISTS TO KILL 14. THE ATTACK IS BEG VTIGATED AS AN ACT OF DOMTIC TERRORISM. REP. ADAM SCHIFF, THE TOP DEMOCRAT ON THE HOE PERMANENT SELECT COMMTEE ON INTELLIGENCE, TOLD CNN THAT, ACRDG TO HOMELAND SECURY AND LOL LAW-ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS, MATEEN “MA A PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE” TO THE ISLAMIC STATE TERROR GROUP AND HAD BEEN “HEARD PRAYG A FOREIGN LANGUAGE.” IT IS UNCLEAR IF MATEEN WAS PRAYG DIBLY DURG THE SHOOTG, SCHIFF SAID. PETE WILLIAMS OF NBC NEWS REPORTED THAT MATEEN LLED A 911 EMERGENCY LE AND SWORE HIS ALLEGIANCE TO ISIS LEAR ABU BAKR AL-BAGHDADI BEFORE THE MASSACRE.MATEEN’S FATHER, MIR SEDDIQUE, TOLD NBC NEWS THE ATTACK “HAS NOTHG TO DO WH RELIGN.” HE WENT ON TO SAY HIS SON GOT ANGRY WHEN HE SAW TWO MEN KISSG MIAMI A FEW MONTHS AGO. “WE ARE SAYG WE ARE APOLOGIZG FOR THE WHOLE CINT. WE WEREN’T AWARE OF ANY ACTN HE IS TAKG. WE ARE SHOCK LIKE THE WHOLE UNTRY,” SEDDIQUE SAID. ACRDG TO ACUNTS OM THE SCENE, THE GUNMAN TRAD GUNFIRE WH A POLICE OFFICER BEFORE ENTERG PULSE AT 2 A.M. MOST OF THE TIMATED 320 PEOPLE SI PED, BUT AN UNKNOWN NUMBER WERE TAKEN HOSTAGE A BATHROOM. ORLANDO MAYOR BUDDY DYER TOLD CNN THE ATH TOLL JUMPED OM 20 TO 50 AS ADDNAL VICTIMS WERE FOUND SI THE CLUB. PERSONNEL ULD NOT GO IMMEDIATELY AS EXPLOSIV WERE SPECTED TO HAVE BEEN HIDN. ACRDG TO DYER, THERE WERE FIVE TO EIGHT HOSTAG ONE ROOM WH THE SHOOTER AND AN ADDNAL 15 TO 20 A SEPARATE ROOM AT THE TIME WHEN POLICE ENTERED. MA JTICE SAID HER SON EDDIE WAS SI THE CLUB AND TEXTED HER WHEN THE GUNSHOTS EPTED, THE ASSOCIATED PRS REPORTED. JTICE TOLD HIS MOM HE AND OTHERS RAN TO THE BATHROOM TO HI.“HE’S G,” JTICE TEXTED, ADDG LATER: “HE HAS , AND HE’S HERE WH .”“THAT WAS THE LAST NVERSATN,” HIS MOTHER SAID.PULSE WAS FOUND 2004 BY BARBARA POMA AND HER IEND RON LEGLER AFTER POMA’S BROTHER DIED OF AIDS, ACRDG TO USA TODAY. SHE WANTED TO HELP PROMOTE AWARENS ABOUT THE LGBT MUNY, AND PULSE REFERS TO SELF AS “NOT JT ANOTHER GAY CLUB.”AS SOON AS THE SHOOTG BROKE OUT, THE CLUB POSTED A STAT UPDATE TO S FACEBOOK PAGE TELLG EVERYONE TO GET OUT AND “KEEP NNG.” “AS SOON AS WE HAVE ANY RMATN WE WILL UPDATE EVERYONE,” THE CLUB POSTED ON S FACEBOOK PAGE AT 6 A.M. SUNDAY. “PLEASE KEEP EVERYONE YOUR PRAYERS AS WE WORK THROUGH THIS TRAGIC EVENT. THANK YOU FOR YOUR THOUGHTS AND LOVE.”SUNDAY MORNG’S MASSACRE ME BARELY 36 HOURS AFTER A MAN SHOT AND KILLED SGER CHRISTA GRIMMIE WHILE SHE WAS SIGNG TOGRAPHS ORLANDO. THE KILLER, KEV LOIBL, WAS TACKLED BY GRIMMIE’S BROTHER AND THEN KILLED HIMSELF.PRINT OBAMA ADDRSED THE NATN LATER THE AFTERNOON, SEEMGLY FEATED BY HAVG TO MAKE THE SPEECH SO MANY TIM. “WE HAVE TO CI IF THAT’S THE UNTRY WE WANT TO BE. TO ACTIVELY DO NOTHG IS A CISN AS WELL,” HE SAID A SHORT ADDRS WHILE EMPHASIZG THAT AN ATTACK ON THE LGBT MUNY IS AN ATTACK ON “ALL OF .”READ MORE VERAGE OF THE MASSACRE AT THE PULSE NIGHTCLUB GION RNICK
• WHO IS ANRSON LEE ALDRICH, SPECT MASS SHOOTG AT COLORADO GAY NIGHTCLUB?
• ‘IT’S MY FLORIDA TOO’: PULSE SHOOTG SURVIVOR BRANDON WOLF ON BEG BLACK, GAY AND THE ANTI-RON DESANTIS
• GAY BAR SHOOTG SPECT FAC MURR, HATE CRIME CHARG
• GAY BAR SHOOTG SPECT FAC MURR, HATE CRIME CHARG

POLICE: GUNMAN ENTERED GAY CLUB, STARTED FIRG

Colorado Sprgs, the state’s send-most populo cy wh jt unr 500, 000 rints, is home to a number of ary bas and is the headquarters for Foc on the Fay, the nservative Christian group that says homosexualy and same-sex marriage are ss. He and his bs partner toured other succsful LGBTQ spac and noted a mon theme: “They were gay as hell, ” Grzecka told the outlet.

We knew we had to be gay as hell (to survive). Jared Polis, a Democrat and the natn’s first openly gay ernor, issued a statement Sunday llg the attack “horrific, sickeng and vastatg” and offered state rourc to lol law enforcement.

GUNMAN KILLED 5 AT COLORADO SPRGS GAY CLUB BEFORE BEG SUBDUED BY PATRONS, POLICE SAY

Polis told CNN’s Jim Asta there are only two gay bars Colorado Sprgs, and Club Q was one of the ma venu. A gunman opened fire a gay nightclub Colorado Sprgs, killg five people and leavg 18 jured before he was subdued, police said Sunday. A 22-year-old gunman opened fire wh a semitomatic rifle si a gay nightclub Colorado Sprgs, killg five people and leavg 25 jured before he was subdued by "heroic" patrons and arrted by police who arrived wh mut, thori said spect the Saturday night shootg at Club Q ed an AR-15-style semitomatic weapon, a law enforcement official said.

Suthers said there was "reason to hope" that all of those hospalized would shootg rekdled memori of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people. He said patrons who tervened durg the attack were "heroic" and owed a bt of gratu for preventg more Q is a gay and lbian nightclub that featur a drag show on Saturdays, acrdg to s webse.

Jared Polis, who beme the first openly gay man the Uned Stat to be elected ernor 2018, lled the shootg "sickeng.

GUNMAN KILLS 5 AT GAY NIGHTCLUB, SUBDUED BY PATRONS

Experts warned that extremist groups uld see anti-gay rhetoric as a ll to prev month, a fundamentalist Idaho pastor told his small Boise ngregatn that gay, lbian and transgenr people should be executed by the ernment, which led up wh siar sermons om a Texas fundamentalist 2006, there have been 523 mass killgs and 2, 727 aths as of Nov.

49 KILLED AT PULSE GAY CLUB ORLANDO; DEADLIT MASS SHOOTG U.S. HISTORYABSOLUTE EVILOMAR MATEEN SHOT MORE THAN 100 PEOPLE EARLY SUNDAY THE ADLIT SHOOTG ATTACK AMERIN HISTORY. GION RNICKPOLIL REPORTERJT MILLERUPDATED JUL. 12, 2017 7:42PM EDT / PUBLISHED JUN. 12, 2016 10:34AM EDT STEVE NI / RTERSTHE ADLIT MASS SHOOTG MORN AMERIN HISTORY KILLED 49 PEOPLE AFTER A GUNMAN ATTACKED A GAY DANCE CLUB ORLANDO, FLORIDA.OMAR MATEEN, OF PORT ST. LUCIE, FLORIDA, SHOT HIS WAY TO PULSE NIGHTCLUB AT 2 A.M. SUNDAY WH AN ASSLT RIFLE, ORLANDO POLICE ANNOUNCED SUNDAY. MATEEN REPORTEDLY TOOK HOSTAGE SEVERAL PATRONS WHO WERE HIDG A BATHROOM. A SWAT UN ENTERED THE CLUB AT 6 A.M. AND KILLED MATEEN WHAT WAS SCRIBED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT AS A STAED GUN BATTLE. PHOTOS: SCEN OM THE MASS SHOOTG AT ORLANDO NIGHTCLUB MATEEN ED AN “AR-15-STYLE ASSLT RIFLE,” ORLANDO POLICE CHIEF JOHN MA SAID. THE AR-15 HAS BEEN THE SIGNATURE WEAPON OF MASS SHOOTERS AMERI, ED BY ADAM LANZA TO KILL 26 AT SANDY HOOK AND THE SAN BERNARDO TERRORISTS TO KILL 14. THE ATTACK IS BEG VTIGATED AS AN ACT OF DOMTIC TERRORISM. REP. ADAM SCHIFF, THE TOP DEMOCRAT ON THE HOE PERMANENT SELECT COMMTEE ON INTELLIGENCE, TOLD CNN THAT, ACRDG TO HOMELAND SECURY AND LOL LAW-ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS, MATEEN “MA A PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE” TO THE ISLAMIC STATE TERROR GROUP AND HAD BEEN “HEARD PRAYG A FOREIGN LANGUAGE.” IT IS UNCLEAR IF MATEEN WAS PRAYG DIBLY DURG THE SHOOTG, SCHIFF SAID. PETE WILLIAMS OF NBC NEWS REPORTED THAT MATEEN LLED A 911 EMERGENCY LE AND SWORE HIS ALLEGIANCE TO ISIS LEAR ABU BAKR AL-BAGHDADI BEFORE THE MASSACRE.MATEEN’S FATHER, MIR SEDDIQUE, TOLD NBC NEWS THE ATTACK “HAS NOTHG TO DO WH RELIGN.” HE WENT ON TO SAY HIS SON GOT ANGRY WHEN HE SAW TWO MEN KISSG MIAMI A FEW MONTHS AGO. “WE ARE SAYG WE ARE APOLOGIZG FOR THE WHOLE CINT. WE WEREN’T AWARE OF ANY ACTN HE IS TAKG. WE ARE SHOCK LIKE THE WHOLE UNTRY,” SEDDIQUE SAID. ACRDG TO ACUNTS OM THE SCENE, THE GUNMAN TRAD GUNFIRE WH A POLICE OFFICER BEFORE ENTERG PULSE AT 2 A.M. MOST OF THE TIMATED 320 PEOPLE SI PED, BUT AN UNKNOWN NUMBER WERE TAKEN HOSTAGE A BATHROOM. ORLANDO MAYOR BUDDY DYER TOLD CNN THE ATH TOLL JUMPED OM 20 TO 50 AS ADDNAL VICTIMS WERE FOUND SI THE CLUB. PERSONNEL ULD NOT GO IMMEDIATELY AS EXPLOSIV WERE SPECTED TO HAVE BEEN HIDN. ACRDG TO DYER, THERE WERE FIVE TO EIGHT HOSTAG ONE ROOM WH THE SHOOTER AND AN ADDNAL 15 TO 20 A SEPARATE ROOM AT THE TIME WHEN POLICE ENTERED. MA JTICE SAID HER SON EDDIE WAS SI THE CLUB AND TEXTED HER WHEN THE GUNSHOTS EPTED, THE ASSOCIATED PRS REPORTED. JTICE TOLD HIS MOM HE AND OTHERS RAN TO THE BATHROOM TO HI.“HE’S G,” JTICE TEXTED, ADDG LATER: “HE HAS , AND HE’S HERE WH .”“THAT WAS THE LAST NVERSATN,” HIS MOTHER SAID.PULSE WAS FOUND 2004 BY BARBARA POMA AND HER IEND RON LEGLER AFTER POMA’S BROTHER DIED OF AIDS, ACRDG TO USA TODAY. SHE WANTED TO HELP PROMOTE AWARENS ABOUT THE LGBT MUNY, AND PULSE REFERS TO SELF AS “NOT JT ANOTHER GAY CLUB.”AS SOON AS THE SHOOTG BROKE OUT, THE CLUB POSTED A STAT UPDATE TO S FACEBOOK PAGE TELLG EVERYONE TO GET OUT AND “KEEP NNG.” “AS SOON AS WE HAVE ANY RMATN WE WILL UPDATE EVERYONE,” THE CLUB POSTED ON S FACEBOOK PAGE AT 6 A.M. SUNDAY. “PLEASE KEEP EVERYONE YOUR PRAYERS AS WE WORK THROUGH THIS TRAGIC EVENT. THANK YOU FOR YOUR THOUGHTS AND LOVE.”SUNDAY MORNG’S MASSACRE ME BARELY 36 HOURS AFTER A MAN SHOT AND KILLED SGER CHRISTA GRIMMIE WHILE SHE WAS SIGNG TOGRAPHS ORLANDO. THE KILLER, KEV LOIBL, WAS TACKLED BY GRIMMIE’S BROTHER AND THEN KILLED HIMSELF.PRINT OBAMA ADDRSED THE NATN LATER THE AFTERNOON, SEEMGLY FEATED BY HAVG TO MAKE THE SPEECH SO MANY TIM. “WE HAVE TO CI IF THAT’S THE UNTRY WE WANT TO BE. TO ACTIVELY DO NOTHG IS A CISN AS WELL,” HE SAID A SHORT ADDRS WHILE EMPHASIZG THAT AN ATTACK ON THE LGBT MUNY IS AN ATTACK ON “ALL OF .”READ MORE VERAGE OF THE MASSACRE AT THE PULSE NIGHTCLUB GION RNICK

COLORADO SPRINGS: A 22-year-old gunman opened fire a gay nightclub Colorado Sprgs, killg five people and leavg 18 jured before he was subdued by “heroic” patrons and arrted by police who were on the scene wh mut, thori said firearms, cludg a “long rifle, ” were found at Club Q after the Saturday night shootg, said Police Chief Adrian Vasquez.

WHO IS ANRSON LEE ALDRICH, SPECT MASS SHOOTG AT COLORADO GAY NIGHTCLUB?

”Of the 18 people jured, some were cril ndn and at least two had been treated and released, officials said, addg that some were hurt tryg to shootg brought back memori of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 occurred a state that has experienced several notor mass killgs, cludg at Columbe High School 1999, a movie theatre suburban Denver 2012 and at a Boulr supermarket last was the sixth mass killg this month and me a year when the natn was shaken by the aths of 21 a school shootg Uval, Q is a gay and lbian nightclub that featur a “Drag Diva Drag Show” on Saturdays, acrdg to s addn to the drag show, Club Q's Facebook page said planned entertament clud a “punk and alternative show” precedg a birthday dance party, wh a Sunday “all ag bnch.

Jared Polis, who beme the first openly gay man the Uned Stat to be elected ernor 2018, lled the shootg “sickeng. ”Although a motive wasn't yet clear, nor were the genr inti of the victims, the cint me as anti-gay rhetoric has tensified by extremists.

Experts warned that extremist groups uld see anti-gay rhetoric as a ll to prev month, a fundamentalist Idaho pastor told his small Boise ngregatn that gay, lbian and transgenr people should be executed by the ernment, which led up wh siar sermons om a Texas fundamentalist have been 523 mass killgs sce 2006 rultg 2, 727 aths as of Nov. The adlit mass shootg morn Amerin history killed 49 people after a gunman attacked a gay dance club Orlando, Mateen, of Port St.

‘IT’S MY FLORIDA TOO’: PULSE SHOOTG SURVIVOR BRANDON WOLF ON BEG BLACK, GAY AND THE ANTI-RON DESANTIS

She wanted to help promote awarens about the LGBT muny, and Pulse refers to self as “not jt another gay club. The shootg six years after the 2016 massacre at Pulse, a gay nightclub Orlando, Florida, which left 49 people ad and dozens advot spoke out agast the shootg and support of the victims Sunday.

”Transportatn Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who as a ndidate the 2020 printial electn beme the first openly gay ndidate to n for the natn’s hight office, lled the news of the shootg “sickeng and heartbreakg” and part of a “pattern” a tweet Sunday. Jared Polis, who 2018 was the first openly gay man elected ernor and is currently quarantg wh Covid, lled the shootg "horrific, sickeng, and vastatg" a statement released Sunday morng.

GAY BAR SHOOTG SPECT FAC MURR, HATE CRIME CHARG

”Wolf had sought refuge Florida 15 years ago when he was done wh ral Oregon, the childhood home where he suffered embedd racism and homophobia on a daily basis. Among his motivatns for wrg the book was to reclaim tersectnaly om DeSantis and others on the right who seek to hijack explas: “I wanted to give a human flavour to what tersectnaly actually looks and feels like and what feels like to experience racism and homophobia at the same time.

Growg up a nservative majory whe town was difficult bee the same kid who would ll me the N-word on one day would ll me a homophobic slur on another day and I was nstantly navigatg the tersectns of those two thgs. Last month DeSantis’s mpaign released an anti-LGBTQ+ vio assailg Tmp for his past support of gay and transgenr ments: “It is a sry time to be not jt LGBTQ but LGBTQ and Black this state and ultimately that’s the tent.

GAY BAR SHOOTG SPECT FAC MURR, HATE CRIME CHARG

Hundreds of people have gathered a Colorado Sprgs park to honor five people killed and 17 wound a weekend shootg at a gay nightclub. People embrace durg a ndlelight vigil on a rner near the se of a weekend mass shootg at a gay bar, late Monday, Nov. (AP) — The man spected of openg fire at a gay nightclub Colorado Sprgs was beg held on murr and hate crime charg Monday, while hundreds of people gathered to honor the five people killed and 17 wound the attack on a venue that for s was a sanctuary for the lol LGBTQ muny.