Today marks the four-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida that took 49 lives.
4 years ago, 49 people were shot & killed inside the #PulseNightclub Never stop fighting for your LGBT+ friends, fa… https://t.co/WPQBXmAltv— Haley Duval (@Haley Duval) 1591948172.0
The shooting happened during Pride Month — a month when the LGBTQ+ community has regularly had parades and national gatherings to fight for equality in their country.
And, honestly, not much has changed since then. Our president has been an active opponent of the LGBTQ+ community his whole presidency. The Human Rights Campaign has created a comprehensive list of attacks the Trump-Pence campaign has levied against the community. The list totals to 33 separate attacks.
This is the president of America, a supposed melting pot of the world where all are welcome. But it truly comes as no surprise. Trump has not acknowledged June as Pride Month for three full years. And this year he deemed June to be "National Homeowners Month" and "Great Outdoors Month" instead.
June has become not only a month of celebrating the equality that the LGBTQ+ community has fought for but a month of remembering the countless tragedies against people in the community, including the mass shooting at Pulse.
And instead of acknowledging the fight for equality, Trump is taking this month to argue that adoption agencies should be able to refuse service to same-sex couples.
Many fights for freedom are coexisting in this current cultural moment. The Black Lives Matter movement is actively protesting and advocating change and the LGBTQ+ community is celebrating themselves, which has always been a political act fighting for equality in society. Freedom walks hand-in-hand and each protest and fight complement one another.
The fight for Black lives to matter and to end police brutality and transform antiquated racist institutions goes hand in hand with the fight to protect LGBTQ+ lives. The Black Trans community is perhaps the most at-risk group in the LGBTQ+ community.
It's not even noon and we've learned of two more Black trans women lost to violence, a threat to massacre a trans s… https://t.co/naQzEJxhff— Gillian Branstetter (@Gillian Branstetter) 1591974646.0
And yet, Trump's rhetoric has been to consistently undermine and attack any minority group fighting and speaking up for their own equality and freedom.
That is not a leader, it is someone turning their back on the travesties in our country and actively attacking organizations and people fighting to have equal rights to live in a country that has promised them that.
And yet, the sad truth is Trump has not acknowledged Pride month and might never acknowledge it.
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