I know we have heard and read a lot about this, but I encourage you to please read thhe entire thing. With the terrible shooting that happened in Orlando last Saturday/Sunday morning, there comes many questions; Was it a terrorist attack? What are we going to do to about gun control? How are we going to prevent this from happening again? And so many more. What I have been questioning the most is, why the LGBT+ community? Before I answer that question here's what we know about the shooting: - Omar Mateen killed 49 people and left 50 injured -He had two weapons, one of which was an assault rife -He pledged his alliance to ISIS giving us enough information to call this an act of terrorism There are so many other details to be added to this list, but these are the details that I feel are most important. With that being said here is why I feel that he decided to attack Pulse vs. any other nightclub. The LGBT community is a popular topic in our Nation these days. Close to a year ago gay marriage became legal in all 50 states. Transgender people are fighting to earn the right to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with instead of the one they were assigned at birth. America is very divided on all LGBT topics, hardly anyone stands on middle ground with it. You either support it or you don't and there are many extremist on the non-supportive side and it's quite terrifying. All of these things are why I think Omar Mateen planned an attack on the LGBT community. It is the social and political weak spot of America right now, anyone in the world can see that, which is why him attacking this community makes sense because there are people who will stand behind his killing of 49 people. Religious figures have come out and said that it is a tragedy that MORE people didn't die. It was the perfect way for ISIS to break America up. Instead of the Nation coming together as a whole to combat mass shooting and terrorism, American's are throwing around hate at each other. What we need to do now, instead of asking for acceptance and support is to start at the lowest ground possible and ask for tolerance. For people to tolerate us. Then build from that. Start asking for acceptance and support, but we can't skip the basic need for tolerance. We need to advocate with the understanding that not everyone will accept and support and with the belief that we truly can change this and with the perseverance to not forget about this in a month or two but to keep gong until we not only have equality for sexuality and gender identity but for all races and religions and genders. We need to spread peace and love, not hate. Because hate doesn't win wars.
