A vigil was held to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub Massacre June 12 at Center on Halsted (the Center). The event was a collaboration between Brave Space Alliance (BSA) and the Center.
The massacre occurred on June 12, 2016, at the queer Orlando, Florida Pulse nightclub and resulted in 49 queer people’s murders and 58 others who were wounded during a “Latin Night” themed event.
More than 90% of the victims were Latiné and over half of those were of Puerto Rican descent. Over 300 families were directly impacted by this act of violence.
Speakers at the Center’s event included Chicago Police Department LGBTQ+ Community Outreach Coordinator, Illinois Attorney General’s Crime Victim and Witness Advisory Committee member and BSA Board member Dawn Valenti (who organized the event); Drag King, burlesque artist and poet Wes Andy Sins (who has personal ties to Pulse); BSA Development Director Cicilia Robison; and Center CEO Joli Robinson.
Valenti said that when she heard about the Pulse massacre, the first thing she wanted to do was to go to Orlando, Florida and offer her expertise and support. When she asked her boss he said no which prompted her to do a vigil in Chicago at the 7 Eleven on Halsted St. in Lake View, which garnered a large attendance. Valenti added that hardly anyone talks about what happened at Pulse because mass shootings continue to happen due to hatred of the other, which she calls “unfair to us in our society.”
After Valenti’s remarks she read the names of the Pulse victims through continuous tears. Then she called on everyone to hold their flameless candles while they marked 49 seconds of silence to honor their memory.
Sins spoke about being in his third year of college at Stetson University just 20 miles outside of Orlando, and his then work with Latiné peer educators who were both younger and older than him. He said at the time he worried about how coming out fully in his queer identities would impact his academic career, even though his college was an inclusive place. Sins said he used to avoid anything connected to the LGBTQ+ community and the small Pride presence at his college.
Sins recalled receiving texts from friends the morning after the Pulse massacre. They were checking up on him and asking about their shared friend group just in case any of them had gone that prior evening. Sins said he sent some of those messages and never heard back from those people again. He spoke about this being one of the first times he understood what being in community with other queer people was like, and, “This tragedy set a very specific tone for my very small campus of less than 2,000 students.”
Sins said the political forces who are against the LGBTQ+ community want everyone to be scared and silent. He added that over time he stopped doing that and started living his truth and speaking out just like the people who were at Pulse that horrific night.
Following Sins’s remarks, he read three moving and poignant poems—one written on the seventh anniversary of Pulse, one about a queer mentor of his in Chicago who died and one for a friend of his.
Robison said the Center’s event is a way to remember and honor those who were lost as well as the survivors of this “horrific act of violence” … on “this painful anniversary” where there is “grief, loss, fear, exhaustion, anger, as well as our love, care and hopes for the future of our people.”
Additionally, Robison spoke about the violent and aggressive systems that result in violent episodes like the Pulse massacre. She said that the “aftermath is also reflective of the incredible community strength that we are capable of as queer people.”
Robinson pointed out the ongoing threats to the LGBTQ+ community in this current political climate and how important it is to “remember those whom we have lost and cherish and those we still have … We continue to support one another in the struggle for dignity, safety and liberation.”
Robinson added said that Pulse “felt personal” because “nightclubs and community spaces historically for our LGBTQ+ community have been sanctuaries and safe spaces.” She added that it felt like an “attack on all of us wherever we were.”
She additionally spoke about the continued attacks on the LGBTQ+ community through physical and voting box violence and the policies and laws that are enacted and how much work still needs to be done to create a safer and more just and inclusive world.
“We honor [the Pulse victims] by protecting spaces where people come together and where they gather without fear,” said Robinson. “We honor them by standing against hatred, discrimination and violence, and all its forms. We honor them by assuring that every LGBTQ+ person, especially our transgender community and our LGBTQ+ youth and those often living on the margins and at the intersections of multiple identities know they are valued, welcomed and loved.”