Gays Against Guns Remember the Pulse Massacre
BY DONNA ACETO & PAUL SCHINDLER
Early in the evening of June 12, members
of Gays Against Guns remembered
the 49 souls lost in 2016 massacre
at the LGBTQ club Pulse in
Orlando, Florida. The killings took place four
years before to the day in the early morning
hours of a Sunday while the club celebrated a
Latinx night.
Joined by the group’s affi liate Human Beings,
white-cloaked spectres representing the
victims, Gays Against Guns gathered outside
the Stonewall Inn at 6:30 p.m. in a vigil purposefully
kept small to avoid overcrowding
and to respect social distancing public health
guidelines. The vigil was also livestreamed on
social media.
Photos of the 49 killed were mounted on the
outside brick wall of the Stonewall, as were
posters commemorating transgender men and
women recently lost to prison neglect or lethal
violence, including Roxana Hernández, a
Honduran immigrant who died in 2018 in the
custody of federal Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette
Polanco, who died from while in restrictive
custody at Rikers last June from epileptic seizures,
a condition correction authorities were
aware of, Nina Pop, who was murdered in her
small town Missouri apartment in early May,
Tony McDade, who was shot to death by police
in Tallahassee, also in May, and Monika
Diamond, who was shot to death in Charlotte,
North Carolina, in March even as she lay in an
ambulance waiting to be taken to a hospital because
of shortness of breath.
In announcing the Friday evening vigil, Gays
Against Guns, wrote, “We will honor them with
action. We will say their names. Why? Because
we know that direct action draws attention to
REMEMBRANCE
the issue and saves lives. We know that saying
their names keeps the conversation going.
We know that saying their names is a form of
prayer. We know that conversation is prayer. We
know that this is not our fi ght alone. Like the
fi ght for racial equality, ending the public health
crisis of gun violence is everyone’s fi ght.”
The group, formed at the initiative of Kevin
Hertzog and Brian Worth, fi rst made its presence
known at New York City Pride in 2016,
the same month as the Pulse massacre, when
nearly 1,000 people marched down Fifth Avenue
behind a wide Rainbow-colored banner,
designed by Gilbert Baker, that read “GAYS
AGAINST GUNS.”
In the four years since, the group has staged
numerous public actions aimed at the National
Rifl e Association and the gun lobby, investors
with signifi cant holdings in gun manufacturers,
and elected offi cials in New York and Washington,
DC who support the NRA.
PHOTO DONNA ACETO
Say their names: pictures of the 49 souls lost at the Pulse nightclub on June 12, 2016, mounted on
the exterior of the Stonewall Inn..
DONNA ACETO
Cathy Marino-Thomas, John Grauwiler, and Ken Kidd hold a banner emphasizing the importance of getting
out on the streets.
PHOTO DONNA ACETO
Trans folks who died in incarceration or in violent incidents in the past two years.
PHOTO DONNA ACETO
Geraldo Ortiz-Jimenez, one of the 25 killed at the Pulse, is honored.
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