I really didn’t have a clue how I was going to address this issue but my mind will not let it go. So here is my attempt at trying to make some kind of sense of this issue.
When I woke up in the morning on June 12, first thing out of my wife’s mouth was did you hear about the shooting in Orlando. Right away I got up and grabbed my phone and started reading the news. I was in tears. How can someone hate a group so bad to take innocent lives. I have seen this same thing in my own area, even though the victims were not gay they were still hated. I then got up and turned on the news and the images that I saw were just horrific. As you already know I am gay and I am not ashamed of who I am. I have a wife that I have been with for over 30 years. So now the fight has again been brought to my community of brothers and sisters. Why do people hate us so much? Why do people fear us so much? These are questions that always cross my mind when I hear of senseless acts against my brothers and sisters.
Now I am reading that the shooter, I will not put his name on my page, attended this nightclub. Now I don’t know how much fact there is in this but from what I have read I would say I believe it. So this shooter is possibly gay and hates himself for it, or blames others for it, it is something we will never know. The shooter also makes a 911 call saying he supports ISIS and mentions the Boston bombers. Is it his faith that made him hate himself so badly. Did he believe that by declaring this that somehow that makes him not gay. No it doesn’t. Now those who went online praising his killing spree, do they still praise him knowing that he was gay. Then there is another question, was he just pretending to be gay just so he could pull off these murders? You see there are just so many questions when senseless acts are involved. How do we find out the true answers? We have the power to stop this but are we willing?
There is a simple solution but it is one that probably will never happen in my lifetime. Don’t teach hate and fear of a person, no matter what, or who he or she is. When we teach a child hate, we teach them to fear that hate. Children are not born hating, it is learned. If you put a bunch of children who are very young together all they want to do is play with one another. Now you put them same children together years later and depending on how they are raised you will see the ones who have been taught not to hate trying to make friends with every other child. The ones who are shown hate not intentionally but maybe overheard in their family, those kids will be confused on who they will try to make friends with, but they will still eventually go to were they see the most fun is being had. Now come the kids who are literally taught to hate. Add them to the group, those are the one’s that are almost guaranteed to be the bullies. This is a sad and possibly true fact. You may not agree with me and I don’t have any proof of this except in my heart, that is where I know.
Hate and fear go together. When are we ever going to learn this lesson. The mistakes of the past get repeated over and over again. Aren’t there anyone willing to just say enough is enough. I just hope that those of you who read this article take one moment out of your life to really think about this. Don’t let hate win. Those who went through this tragedy are saying it. Other countries around the world are saying it. Politicians have yet to catch on to this idea as far as I can see, they would much rather down each other for who said or didn’t say what, and for what, those who have been killed by this hate are still dead. Those who have been through this will never forget it. The Orlando community is willing to let love win, how about everyone do the same.
To those of you in Orlando, here is one sister who will carry your message forward, I will not let hate win, I will not let fear win. I will remember and I will do my best to never spread the message of hate.