Turn Pulse museum into inclusive center of love

At a recent viewing of the onePULSE Foundation’s museum design preview, I was taken aback at the designs in which room after room were filled with images and memories of the victims (“Pulse memorial design finalists vary,” Oct. 10). Many local citizens tell me they don’t like the museum concept but are scared to push back with alternatives.

What were those young people doing that night at Pulse? They were having fun, dancing, laughing, and enjoying being with their community where they were able to feel safe and to be themselves. Isn’t that what they would want all of us to remember about them and create a tribute to? Their love of life and each other.

Let’s imagine a different path forward. Let’s show off the love our community displayed for the LGBTQ community that night and in the days after, which still continues to this day and into our tomorrows. Let’s not exploit or dwell on this past hateful event, but create a showplace exclusively for love, joy, fellowship, and harmony for all of our collective communities’ futures. It’s all about perception.

The onePULSE Center of Love could celebrate the LGBTQ community without any focus on the horrific way in which the victims died. That changes the new building’s persona from any impression of exploiting the tragedy inspired by the hate of one man, into the genesis of a positive message highlighting the overwhelming love which sprang forth here and internationally. Orlando’s response became the central feel-good story to emerge from the tragedy, gaining Orlando worldwide attention for how we lovingly embraced our LGBTQ community.

The Pulse Nightclub site on Orange Avenue is where the history, memories and sorrow are real and should permanently remain. The existing decaying Pulse building should be removed, leaving only a memorial to the victims, survivors, first responders and the community’s response. I suggest non-electronic elements that will last decades in our humid environment.

The new building would be a place where love of diversity is the central message, never speaking to the hate of the tragedy that was the catalyst of its creation. Couples would want to propose and be wed there. Parents would be able to bring their children, gay or straight, to show them that diversity is natural, not to be feared, but embraced.

The new building should be open and inclusive. The space should be one where singing, dancing, laughing, and special events are appropriate, and where companies and other groups would have no hesitation to host their functions.

Isn’t a building centered on love for the LGBTQ community, with no focus on overt memories to those who died, what the survivors, families and our joined communities ultimately want the eternal message to be? Love is what our Orlando community and Foundation have been seeing and saying as the result of this tragedy. The word museum speaks to containment of this evil event.

A simple change from the word “museum” to a name centered on love is all that’s asked to be considered. I want to support a center that projects positively on the city and the LGBTQ community, so it will be filled regularly with joyous events, corporate retreats, weddings, reunions, music, and dances.

The main building would be free to enter, with a suggested donation to support the Foundation. Twenty percent or more of the gross receipts should be given regularly to a trust fund for the support of the surviving victims.

On the original site, tell the story of the creation of Pulse for the LGBTQ community, and pay tribute to the community’s response, with no mention of the shooting. That building would have a fee and appropriate security.

If you agree that new building should represent love for the LGBTQ community and not a museum to that hateful day, you must let your Orlando, Orange County politicians and the Foundation know now.

Please consider with an open heart this change of mind, wording, and direction from the word “museum” to one of a building of hope, where love for the greater LGBTQ community will be the principal eternal memory of this tragedy in Orlando.