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

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

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.

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

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. 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.

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

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.

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. 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.

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. Here’s what we know so far: What happened A shooter armed wh an asslt-type rifle and a handgun opened fire at the crowd Pulse Orlando, a gay nightclub, at about 2 a.

The nightclub The shootg occurred at Pulse Orlando, which the Tim scribed as one of the biggt gay nightclubs the Florida cy. ”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.