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

Contents:

• AT LEAST 50 DEAD ORLANDO GAY CLUB SHOOTG, SPECT PLEDGED ALLEGIANCE TO ISIS, OFFICIALS SAY
• ‘IT’S MY FLORIDA TOO’: PULSE SHOOTG SURVIVOR BRANDON WOLF ON BEG BLACK, GAY AND THE ANTI-RON DESANTIS
• SHOOTG VICTIMS ORLANDO GAY CLUB RRIED OM THE SCENE (GRAPHIC VIDEO)

AT LEAST 50 DEAD ORLANDO GAY CLUB SHOOTG, SPECT PLEDGED ALLEGIANCE TO ISIS, OFFICIALS SAY

— -- The massacre at an Orlando gay nightclub early this morng has been scribed as a "domtic terror cint, " wh at least 50 ad and 53 jured, officials said, makg the worst mass shootg U. Orlando police tweeted, "The shooter si the nightclub is ad, " referrg to Pulse Nightclub, which bills self on s webse as "Orlando's Premier Gay Night Club. "It's no cince the attack took place where did and when did, " he said reference to the fact that Pulse was a gay nightclub.

An Amerin-born man who’d pledged allegiance to ISIS gunned down 49 people early Sunday at a gay nightclub Orlando, the adlit mass shootg the Uned Stat and the natn’s worst terror attack sce 9/11, thori said. While the vlence uld have h any Amerin muny, “This is an pecially heartbreakg day for our iends who are lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr, ” he said. A msage posted Arabic on a dark web se associated wh the ISIS news agency Amaq said “the armed attack that targeted a gay night club the cy of Orlando the Amerin state of Florida and that bore more than a 100 killed and wound was rried out by an Islamic state fighter.

She said the language is nsistent wh prev ISIS announcements and that the Arabic word for gay was ed rather than an ephet normally ed by ISIS. Pulse scrib self as “the hottt gay bar” the heart of Orlando. So he equented Pulse, a beloved gay nightclub known for star-studd drag shows and bachata-sountracked “Lat Nights.

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

“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.

”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.

SHOOTG VICTIMS ORLANDO GAY CLUB RRIED OM THE SCENE (GRAPHIC VIDEO)

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. ”The killgs rekdled memori of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people. 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.

NEW YORK -- The gay, lbian and transgenr muny has seen vlence before, om Harvey Milk to Matthew Shepard, and an ever-lengtheng list of transgenr women.

Sunday's massacre at a gay nightclub Orlando, Florida, grimly changed the equatn, stirrg munal fears and swiftly promptg tighter secury at gay pri events. This "is a tragic illtratn of the legimate safety fears that those our LGBT muny live wh every day, " said Mike Rawlg, the mayor of Dallas, where extra police were assigned to a neighborhood that is a hub of the lol gay muny.