The Pulse Massacre in Orlando, Florida, is the largest mass shooting to happen on American soil to date. Using an AR-15, a gunman entered the club that he had been staking out for nearly three years, and opened fire on club goers. The killing spree ended in 49 lives lost and 53 lives forever traumatized and broken. The Pulse was also a gay club frequented by black and latinx queer people. When talking about this tragedy, these are facts that cannot be ignored.

The Pulse was first brought onto the Florida nightclub scene by the owner, Barbara Poma, after she lost her brother in the AIDS crisis. Wanting to ensure that her brother’s memory would go on, she opened a club that was a safe space for all those in the queer community.

The Pulse became more than just a club; it was an outreach program. The Pulse had many weekends dedicated to raising money for LGBTQIA youth and held educational sessions about queer history for those in the community. The Pulse made sure that everyone knew what the club was about.

Many straight people I’ve heard talking about this issue have tried to exclude the fact that clud goers were gay because it is a “unimportant factor.” The same things can be said about the race element and how it is a highly important part of this story. Many people have said that “first and foremost they were Americans” even though gay people did not have the same constitutional rights as straight people until June of last year.

There is an element of homophobia and racism that instigated these brutal murders People the majority have been unable to admit it because then they would have something in common with the gunman. Much of the blame for this shooting has been placed on the Islamic community and many people immediately jumped to radical Islam as the sole motivation for this crime and therefore “all of America is under attack.” When a man says that he is disgusted by gay men and wants to kill all black people and gay people, it is not about “all Americans.” It is about an attack on marginalized groups to retain some sort of symbolic power through fear.

What I need people to understand is that this is not new for gay people. People in the queer community are under constant threat of attack, we fear having slurs hurled at us, we fear kissing in public on the chance that we will be physically attacked and we fear the loss of our jobs because a lack of protections. Queer people are no more or less safe in America than they were before the largest mass shooting in the U.S. turned out to be a hate crime. It is simply more out in the open.

The queer identity is something that queer people have to think about constantly. Straight and cisgender people like to use the phrase, “It’s not all you are,” and while that is true, the fact that we live in a society that is not built for us pushes this identity to the front of our minds. Yes, the victims were humans and Americans, but they were also queer people of color. You can not take that from them. You can not politicize the lives of queer people and then depoliticize their deaths for the sake of pushing you own xenophobia.

If you truly care about praying for the victims and their families then you would stop preaching against the “gay lifestyle” and become an ally. Just because the gun wasn’t in your hands doesn’t mean that the blood isn’t on your hands as well. Homophobia is a many headed beast, even though you might never commit a hate crime, your hateful rhetoric creates fear and, in turn, creates killers. #LoveIsLove Be the beginning of true change in America.