Gay people face new security fear
New safety practices may be necessary for their protection
NEW YORK — The gay, lesbian and transgender community has seen violence before, from Harvey Milk to Matthew Shepard, and an ever-lengthening list of transgender women. But never anything like this.
Sunday’s massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, grimly changed the equation, stirring communal fears and swiftly prompting tighter security at gay pride events. The gunman, identified as Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Florida, told his father he had been disturbed by seeing two men kissing in Miami.
The attack on the Pulse nightclub, which killed at least 50 people and was the deadliest U.S. mass shooting to date, occurred amid numerous events nationwide celebrating LGBT Pride Month. In several other cities hosting events on Sunday — including block parties in Boston and a festival in Washington — authorities beefed up the police presence.
This “is a tragic illustration of the legitimate safety fears that those in our LGBT community live with every day,” said Mike Rawling, the mayor of Dallas, where extra police were assigned to a neighborhood that is a hub of the local gay community.
Before Sunday, the most prominent incidents of violence against gays claimed one life at a time. The highest profile of these included the murder of Milk, a gay politician in San Francisco in 1978, and the 1998 murder of Shepard, a gay college student in Wyoming, at the hands of two men who beat him into a coma while he was tied to a fence. A federal hate crimes law bears Shepard’s name.
Investigators were still trying to determine Mateen’s motives. He pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a 911 call before the shooting, according to a law enforcement official.
But LGBT activists had no doubt that their community was the intended target.
“Our practices and institutions may change in light of this tragedy — LGBT gathering places may have more security now,” said the Rev. Alisan Rowland, pastor of the LGBT-welcoming Metropolitan Community Church of New Orleans. “But we will never, ever go away. We will never be cowed.”
Rachel B. Tiven, CEO of the LGBT-rights group Lambda Legal, said the continued vilification of LGBT people by their detractors, and the continued resistance to expansion of their civil rights, was “an invitation to violence.”
“When people are targeted by others who are scared of difference, they’re not safe when they go dancing, they’re not safe when they go out to pray,” she said. “If we live in a culture where fear of difference is encouraged, that can, in the hands of crazy people, have dreadful consequences.”
There have been a few previous attacks on gay nightclubs, but only one that caused a significant number of deaths. A fire set by an arsonist killed 32 people at the Upstairs Lounge in New Orleans in 1973; the arsonist was never caught.
On Dec. 31, 2013, about 750 people were celebrating New Year’s Eve at Neighbours, a gay nightclub in Seattle, when Musab Masmari poured gasoline on a carpeted stairway and set it ablaze. No one was injured, and Masmari was sentenced to 10 years in prison for arson.