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

Contents:

• ‘IT’S MY FLORIDA TOO’: PULSE SHOOTG SURVIVOR BRANDON WOLF ON BEG BLACK, GAY AND THE ANTI-RON DESANTIS
• PULSE WAS MORE THAN JT A GAY CLUB: IT WAS A PLACE WHERE WE DIDN'T HAVE TO HI
• GAY ORLANDO

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

ORLANDO, FL - JUNE 13: Law enforcement officials vtigate at the Pulse gay nightclub where Omar Mateen allegedly killed at least 50 people on June 13, 2016 Orlando, Florida.

But this week, the cy is also memorializg a years ago today, a gunman opened fire Pulse nightclub, a gay club Orlando, killg 49 people and woundg more than 50.

As Lat mic blared si Pulse, one of Orlando’s biggt nightclubs on June 12, 2016, a gunman forced his way si and opened fire on the predomantly gay crowd.

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

While Mateen’s fay said that he had shown anger towards two gay men kissg the week before the attack, evince disvered the years after the attack shows that this may have been a planned act of terrorism and may have had a different target—a Disney plex—before Mateen got spooked by had been terviewed by FBI officers twice 2013, after makg ments to workers about his nnectns to ISIS.

So he equented Pulse, a beloved gay nightclub known for star-studd drag shows and bachata-sountracked “Lat Nights. “What happened at Pulse was … kd of labeled as a gay issue, when realy wasn’t.

GAY ORLANDO

But before “Pulse” me to mean “one of the adlit mass shootgs US history, one that primarily targeted people of lor at a gay nightclub, ” Pulse was synonymo wh home.

Across central Florida, the 49 victims killed and dozens more survivors of the massacre at a gay-iendly nightclub were remembered wh the unveilg of a 44-foot (13. (AP) — Across central Florida, the 49 victims killed and dozens more survivors of the massacre at a gay-iendly nightclub were remembered wh the unveilg of a 44-foot (13. — Across central Florida, the 49 victims killed and dozens more survivors of the massacre at a gay-iendly nightclub were remembered wh the unveilg of a 44-foot -wi mural, the rgg of church bells and an overnight vigil at the se of the Pulse club on Monday, the seventh anniversary of the tragedy.

The shootg Sce s openg 2004, Orlando’s Pulse dance club had tablished self as one of central Florida’s most vibrant centr for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer (LGBTQ) social life. When the world awoke two years ago to the news that a gunman had killed 49 people at Pulse, a gay nightclub Orlando, Florida, one immediate qutn was: Why that place? Durg the attack, gunman Omar Mateen lled 911 and pledged allegiance to the lear of the vilently anti-gay Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a group that releas propaganda vios of gay men beg thrown off buildgs.