Organizations representing the LGBTQ+ community across Illinois issued a joint statement today in advance of the 10th anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting. The shooting, which took place on June 12, 2016, targeted the LGBTQ+ community in Orlando, Florida, and left 49 mostly Latino and LGBTQ+ people dead, with 58 more wounded.
The full text of the statement is below.
Pride is just as much a reclamation of queer joy as it is a remembrance of our history.
That is why this Pride Month, Illinois LGBTQ+ communities honor the anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting as we hold dear the memory of the lives lost and impacted by the horrific events of that night. Ten years after the deadliest incident of violence and terror against the LGBTQ+ community in U.S. History, and amid constant political attacks against our communities, the story of Pulse reminds us of both our struggle for civil liberties and the heart of why Pride exists in the first place.
Opening in 2004, Pulse Nightclub quickly became a community hub, hosting nightly performances, drag shows, and social and educational events focused on HIV prevention and other health and wellness topics. It was even home to grassroots activists who held fundraising events for LGBTQ+ human rights issues. As Amin Ghaziani, author of Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution, puts it, “nightlife is culture or a cultural home, nightlife is church or congregational, nightlife is energy or spiritual.” And that’s what Pulse was.
On the night of June 12, 2016, tragedy struck at Pulse. Among the 300+ attending that night, 49 people were killed and 58 more wounded. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer called it “the most horrific day in the history of the City of Orlando.”
Just as Mayor Dyer recounted in his remarks shortly after June 12th, the community in Orlando and countless LGBTQ+ communities nationwide came together to support the families and to stand up despite the fear and hate. In the years that have followed, we’ve seen an incredible movement that has led to annual community-led remembrance ceremonies, the creation of the OneOrlando Fund and onePulse Foundation, and former President Joe Biden enshrining Pulse Nightclub as a national memorial in 2021.
Despite the cancellation of what was originally going to be a memorial museum, the City of Orlando purchased the property in 2023. Demolition of the nightclub began this past March 2026 to construct an official memorial that plans to preserve key elements such as the dance floor and will include a healing garden and survivor’s wall.
This moment is not lost on us, however. As the Pulse memorial is being built, LGBTQ+ civil rights across the country are being rolled back, especially for transgender and gender-diverse communities. As they build a memorial, we have also seen the arrests of protestors in Florida for recoloring the Pulse Memorial’s rainbow crosswalk; the removal of the pride flag from the Stonewall Monument in New York; the erasure of trans people and trans history in the LGBTQ+ movement on official government websites; and threats to our schools and hospitals for providing pro-LGBTQ+ education and gender affirming care.
As we reflect on the 10-year anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub tragedy, we remember that we are not strangers to grief and loss; but we are also not strangers to joy and the belonging that comes from a legacy of LGBTQ+ changemakers and the visionaries who are co-creating inclusive, liberatory spaces today. This moment calls all of us, LGBTQ+ and allies alike, to take part in that active changemaking as we dance, cry, laugh and reclaim our Pride.
Signed,
About Face Theatre
AIDS Foundation Chicago
Association of Latinos/as/xs Motivating Action
Black Alphabet
Center on Halsted
Chicago House and Social Services Agency
Chicago Therapy Collective
Citizen Action/Illinois
CQLC NFP
E3 Radio
Golden Rainbows of Illinois South
Howard Brown Health
i2i: Invisible to Invincible
Illinois Commission on LGBTQ+ Aging and Long-Term HIV Survival
Legal Council for Health Justice
Life is work
Naper Pride
Nobody’s Darling
One Roof Chicago
Parallel Play
Prairie Pride Coalition
Pride Action Tank
Projects Advancing Sexual Diversity
Public Health Institute of Metropolitan Chicago
S.H.A.R.P.
Salix Psychotherapy Collective
School of Opulence
TaskForce Prevention and Community Services
The GenderCool Project
The Legacy Project
The Project of the Quad Cities
The Reunion Project
Trans Up Front IL
Transformative Justice Law Project of Ill