the shooter locked himself in pulse and police had to break into the club with a tank and controlled explosions. this was a gay club. this was a gay club. say what you want about gay clubs (it is not the appropriate time to say what you want) but they are for many, many people a place for safety, a place where it is all right to be open and free and good with yourself and this monster walked in to this club with an assault rifle because it gave that feeling of safety to specifically lgbt people.
this is what every family values candidate wants. this is what every person signing off on a bathroom bill wants. this is what every person who won’t let their kid join the GSA, or stands on the corner with a hate sign at pride, or calls for annie on my mind to be removed from the school library - this is what they want. they’re being coy about it, say it’s about families, about safety, but this is what they want. it’s not that they don’t want us to be happy - they don’t want us to be safe. they want us to be terrorized, always. they want us dead. that’s all they want. they want our deaths and the deaths of people who help us and the deaths in the cradle of anyone who might grow up to be us. and they have the tools to do it, with their trappings of power and their dishonest reading of the second amendment.
i thought i was done being afraid for myself, but i was kidding myself. there is no end to the fear, not if you are lgbt. there is no end in sight.