So I said I was going to avoid the news today and I failed. Here's a thread to talk about the Pulse mass shooting.
I've been watching the news for 5 hours now and... on the plus side, they talked to some people outside a blood donor clinic and the line was huge? so hopefully that will help all the injured people and minimize the number of further deaths? jesus
I've thought about making a thread like that because I'm overwhelmed by pain. It's sickening that someone would decide to do this to people like me, just because of who we are. I hate hate hate this so much and it hurts so much to think about the fact that someone just decided to go and kill 50 people just because he thought they were wrong. I don't know what to do...
I've no business being here because I'm not even American and the chances of this happening anywhere near me are vanishingly low but I just - it's fucking pride in my city right now, there's rainbow flags everywhere, so many hbtq events, today was the god damned parade and I log online and now this. basically what i'm trying to say here is fuck, this is not a mood whiplash I needed today and I'm going to get offline and do something else. my thoughts go out to the victims and their families. (and to all my america-based queer friends, who are now various degrees of rattled and terrified.) i'm glad people are donating blood. (and especially glad that most the signal-boosty posts i've seen on tumblr have been specifically about that, where to donate blood, and what people can do to help.)
you didn't come across as critical, don't worry, btw. 60% of my reason for replying was bumping down my own commentary so that it was closer to being off the immediate feed people see when they come in. i have so many friends in FL -- like, a chunk of my guild from the MMO i play, and several other people who are like. family. so far everyone is accounted for except for two people who i know are on vacation and out of the state, so i'm just. trying to brace myself to go to work. did pass the guild a blood donation notice. news from another friend is that even the pro-gun, anti LGBT side is offering prayers so far, which is better discourse than i expected. i'm prepared for it to get ugly, though. it always does.
I used to live 10 minutes away from Pulse. My husband has a TON of friends who went there. Luckily as far as we know, they're safe, but fuck. I'm shellshocked and he's in a lot of pain and it's just....heartbreaking. And fucking asshole talking heads are talking about "reaping what you sow" and I am physically ill thinking about how many bigots are out there right now celebrating this. Fuck this world.
I'm pretty upset. Yesterday I was at Capital Pride and I saw every significant figure in DC politics, all the big defense contractors, banks, churches, DOJ employees and congressional staffers marching in the parade and I went to bed with this overwhelming warm feeling that things really do get better. That it hasn't been that long since all these people wouldn't have been able to show their faces at a Pride parade and keep their jobs, and now it isn't even noteworthy. And then I wake up to this. Christ. Those poor people. Those poor families.
And yes, it's Pride Week in Florida right now too, which means Pulse was more full of people than ever. People celebrating and being happy and whoops now I'm crying
nope, have to step away from the internet. i can feel myself starting to freak the fuck out and i just can't right now.
But of course the fuckheads of the world won't listen or believe because a brown guy did the shooting and therefore racism is justified I guess.
Yeah, it's...you guys have to take care of yourselves too. Do what you can, it's okay not to throw yourself into this. Internet hugs for all of you.
I don't have many people on Facebook except a few friends and some really closed minded rude ass family members. But I pointed out the blood donation thing, and that this happened during Pride month in a gay club, because they get their news from FOX and I don't trust them as far as I can throw them to start twisting this into something it wasn't. I want them to realize just how specified the attack was, and how it affects someone in their personal range so they're forced to sit and actually THINK about it. I'm in Ohio, I'm still barely getting my toes in the water of all of this as I learn about myself and history and everything, and there's nothing I can feel about the news but rage and sadness and disgust and just. ... Sorrow. I'm surprised. I didn't feel sad about a lot of things but this honestly brought tears out. Hugs to anyone who needs them.
I'm on an early lunch at work so I don't cry in front of the customers. I just keep thinking this could have happened to any of us.
i'm so scared and devastated. i'm so so afraid now. i don't even want to go to pride now, because i'm so fucking scared
Spoiler: some self-centered shit I need to get out somewhere I mean, I'm pansexual and I married a guy. I'm not out to my family aside from my dad and my step mom. By all outer appearances I'm a straight woman in a cis, monogamous marriage. I'm lucky. But I just keep thinking how I easily could have fallen in love with a woman, or someone who wasn't cis, and I could've been in that club with them. How my life could have ended, or how I could have lost my partner. The fact that our friends weren't hurt is frankly a minor miracle. I'm just... I'm so angry. I'm so grateful. I'm so sad.
I'm... I guess it was kind of naive but I thought shit like this was the past before I was born, you know, at least here? I thought- I thought this would be the history by friends were alive during but I wasn't, that I was lucky... and yet... and yet... i don't know. i'm not sad, i'm pissed off, i'm just so no.
I can't stop crying. i always slip into thinking that our society has mostly gotten past this sort of furious, violent hatred towards lgbt people and then. god. i made the mistake of looking at the texts someone sent to his mother while hiding from the shooter and god, they must have all been so fucking scared and it's not fair
