LGBT News Mass Shooting at Orlando Gay Nightclub

Not proud to be an American? Why, exactly? Differing opinions?


Right here is why I AM proud to be an American:

"Overwhelmed by people wanting to donate blood to victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting, OneBlood asked donors to stop coming Sunday and schedule appointments over the next few days."

"You want to do something to help," said Frank Tiffany, 69, of Winter Garden, who was waiting midway through a line that spilled out the door, through the parking lot and down West Michigan Avenue. "It's hard to believe ...You have to do something to help. You can't stay home."

"Micah James said he had never been to the club, but that wasn't important.

"We're all made of the same stuff, flesh and bone and blood," he said."


Blood banks at capacity, donors urged to return in coming days - Orlando Sentinel

 

I agree. The way the majority of the country has handled this, showed love and support, has made me proud to be an American and part of this community.

 

I can't believe Eddie Justice is a victim. No one deserved to died.

 

Makes me sick to my stomach...all this stuff happening the way it is. I'm not a happy lesbian right now. Looks like the excitement of Pride months has been dampened a bit huh? Hope the rest of my brothers and sisters are safe..

 

My school had a moment of silence during the first block. People started crying. I almost did too.

 

Suprisingly.... normally I say I very much dislike Americans and living in America, anyone who knows me well enough could tell you that. But... this event has given me a new appreciation for American people. After seeing the massive amounts of people who IMMEDIATLEY lined up to donate blood.... And after seeing the freedom tower lit up...
Hmmm.

One thing that disturbs me is those calling for muslims to be banned from the country. If you want to talk about terrorism, ISIS is the problem, NOT muslims. I have so many friends in my high school who practice that religion, who are kind and hardworking people, and who support me... and even those who don't support my lifestyle still let me know that they love me as a person and are still my friend even if they don't agree with me.

For all of the victims, I hope that they rest in peace and that their families find comfort. Let's all pray that this will teach people to love each other as humans.

 

I've been thinking about this shooting all day. I'm from Orlando. Pulse was the first gay club I ever went to. When I first came out, Pulse was the only place I ever felt safe dancing and holding my girlfriend. It was the first place I felt normal for loving who I loved. Being at Pulse allowed me to feel more comfortable with myself. I'm truly heartbroken over this.

 

I cant believe this, why does this have to happen??
kind of makes you want to keep your gay life a total secret...
my heart goes out to the families and every one else...
:icon_sad::icon_sad::icon_sad::tears::tears:

 

But then again, why are there more terrorists claiming to be muslim? Don't you think that the aggression might be at least a little bit linked to the beliefs? Religious crimes are more often than not done by muslims.

I do not endorse the "ban" policy, but vigilance and skepticism towards muslims is BY NO MEANS racism.

And let's face it, people end blowing themselves up because they crave a better life, that the so-called Allah claims to provide in the afterlife.

Yes, they are brainwashed by extremists, but if it weren't for the religion how would that happen? Every radical (and don't tell me religions are not generally radical) belief creates at some point extremism, and if that CAN lead to terrorism, then sorry if I criticize the whole religion.

Some christians have proved to be just as narrow-minded about lots of things, but they have very different policies for the "infidels", correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Guns is a complicated issue here that doesn't have a simple solution. But please at least 50 people are dead and everytime this happens people immediately get into politics. We talk about this all the time. Guns aren't going anywhere in America all we can do is mourn the dead. We can't simply take all the guns away and the culture in sweeden is massively different. What works in sweeden won't necessarily work here. You can't simple take forces with guns to take away peoples guns it wouldn't work.

 

You guys have great points, and I definitely agree that those people exist. Those people, however, are not what I'm talking about when I made that statement, and here's why:

A friend and I discussed this yesterday, and what was brought up was that when people from the outside look at America, especially those who don't have much, the first thing they see as a representative of the country is the President, and it looks very much right now that Donald Trump is going to be the President soon. To those especially trying to seek asylum (A lot of them who are muslim), that tells them that America is a country to be feared instead of as a welcoming country.

That's not what America is about. That's not even how it was intended to be. This was to be a place where anybody could live a better life than they could anywhere else; free of persecution (actual persecution); live as freely as possible.

I could write a pretty short book on this, but I'll opt not to for now. But while we're talking about *our* rights as LGBT people, as human beings, it's now come down to the point where our people are starting to fear even going outside (more than they did before) for fear of another attack like this. For muslims, it means they're fearing of going outside to be lynched because they wear a turban or hijab. SO many people are taking this time to just re-iterate the points they've made in the past when it comes to us and when it comes to muslims, a lot of which is hatred, and some of which is defending the shooter while also condemning Islam.

We, as LGBT people, cannot live today in 2016, as our founding fathers set out for us to, and it's because of the way we as Americans let this country go. America is not about fear. It's about hope.

That is why I'm not proud to be an American.

 

We need to unite together as Americans against islamic terrorists instead of dividing each others today b/w right and left.

 

^Bingo. We've got to start listening to each other way more, and far less on journalism.

 

Skepticism towards all muslims collectively is 100% racist. "Oh, you're a Muslim. Therefore, I will be skeptical towards you." That's pure racism.

You are simply wrong when you say most religions are not generally radical. Very few religions are generally radical - that would basically be sects and no others. Most Muslims are just your average, mediocre person, without any particular bloodlust or more hate than the average person has.

Christian do not necessarily have different policies - it depends on how you mean. From your American-centric world view, yes, that may be true. But take a look at how missionaries virually force people to convert to Christianity in Africa - this is a tradition that has continued for centuries within Christianity. In the old days there were the Crusades, where they plundered, burned and raped every infidel their eyes met. The Middle East was one place where they liked to do exactly that. As a result, the Arab world, who was ahead of the West in e.g. science and medicine, had a huge backlash. The seed of hatred was planted and the West took off in its technological development, surpassing the Arab world by far. This power balance has yet to change significantly.

So the next time you want to just spew out prejudice, take a moment to consider the situation at hand and whether there's more to it than meets the media-glaring eye.

 

I was fine yesterday, having marched in my first pride parade the day before. Today I'm very sad about the shooting in Orlando and the homophobia behind it. While part of me wants to retreat somewhere and hide, I know that we need to push forward as a community. If we let their violence stop us from living, they have won. We must be strong and proud ride:

 

It's all about interpretation. Right now extremist interpretation of Islam is by far the most visible example of "bad" religion. But Christianity has been just as bad. And before that, Judaism. They can all be interpreted as supremacist ideologies that advocate wiping out all the "others" using certain verses.

Most religions *are* radical. It's just that most religious people aren't that extreme, and pick and choose which verses to live by. Most probably don't even know about the more heinous ones.

 

Why does religion exist?

 

Oh good question..

 

I agree.... at first, this entire event made me think "Okay, time to never be open about being lgbt ever again" but then I realized- what's the point? The fact is, or the way I thought about it was, we could die in a car crash tommorow, or drop dead from some mysterious disease no one's ever discovered. Even if we hide away and try to avoid every single danger on earth, there are still dangers. I'd rather die tommorow as myself then live a long life as someone I'm not.....

Though it may seem like this is the time to hide away, it's just the opposite. We have to stand even taller, be even louder, be ever prouder. Or else they win. We need to remember the victims of this horror as heroes for being brave enough to be who they are. Because that's what they are. Heroes.
The LGBT community is one of the strongest I've ever seen.

You guys inspire me, to be honest. I used to be so scared... of myself, my parents, my identity, and basically the rest of the world. It was THIS community that taught me how strong I could be if I just tried. And I know you can teach others the same.

That's not saying that this should have happened. This... atrocity. Should have NEVER happened. Gods forbid anyone would have so much hate in thier heart to do such a thing... It's a sickening thought. Normally, I don't do stuff like this, but I'm going to make a tribute painting, and I'll be damned if it's not my best piece of art yet. Nobody deserves to die for who they are.