Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan
writes that allowing anyone with an opinion to express a divisive and meanspirited attack on the LGBTQ community on the anniversary of the Pulse massacre is irresponsible.
There has been a great deal of discussion over the appropriateness of an opinion column published in the Orlando Sentinel criticizing the business community for being accepting of LGBTQ equality just days after the Pulse day of remembrance. I put myself front and center of the debate by sharing a Facebook meme encouraging a boycott of the Orlando Sentinel. I understood that posting this was over the top. But I also felt that was the only way to get the Editorial Board to understand that its actions have consequences, and people in my community were upset by the column.
I want to be clear: I do not believe that boycotting the newspaper is the answer. I studied journalism in college, and have a great respect for freedom of speech. But when you share vicious rhetoric, people will respond in kind.
I am ashamed that I allowed myself to get dragged into the fray. I apologize to my friends who are reporters for calling them “cowardly and silent” on my personal Facebook rant. But this newspaper also allowed a guest columnist to call me a “desperate partisan mudslinger” and an “opportunist.” No one seemed troubled by publishing that, again, when I was doing what I have done for more 30 years, standing up for the visibility and inclusion of the LGBTQ community.
I understand that with leadership comes a certain level of visibility and accountability. What is alarming to me is when community conversation turns into meanspirited attacks, which add to political division and further the chasms that exist between us.
If you want to debate the appropriateness of inclusion, or the business impacts of such, as least do it in a forum with reasoned debate and sound research and provable outcomes. Allowing anyone with an opinion to express a divisive and mean-spirited attack on the LGBTQ community days after we were reeling from our own trauma and grief was irresponsible. What is the value of “clicks” and engagement when it comes at the price of civility?
I feel bad because I did not want the focus to be me. I did not want it while I was being one of the spokespeople for the Pulse massacre. This is about including and respecting the dignity of LGBTQ people, allies, members of the Hispanic and African American communities who were the victims of the effects of the darkness of division of hatred that went unchecked and led to the worst mass shooting in American history.
None of this diminishes the many contributions and beauty of Orlando as a whole. We led by example as a community especially because we honored the victims and did not erase their identities. We are a stronger community for our support of diversity and our commitment to inclusion and to one another. Orlando showed the world a community of artists, dancers, dreamers and beautiful people with huge hearts. There is so much good to cover here. There is no need to seek out awful opinion columns to balance out the good. We are Orlando United!