Listening To LGBT Voices In And After Orlando

We hear from LGBT voices in the wake of the attack on the Pulse nightclub. Their message to the world.

It was not a random target in Orlando, last Saturday night into a bloody Sunday morning. Of all the targets in all the country, it was a gay nightclub where 49 died. It was chosen. Targeted. Condemned in Omar Mateen’s rants. And turned into a scene of horror. In the aftermath, there has been an outpouring of support for the LGBT community. Also, soul-searching and denial of the hate component here. This hour On Point, we talk with LGBT guests about the meaning of the attacks in Orlando. — Tom Ashbrook

Dominic Holden, national LGBT reporter for BuzzFeed News. (@dominicholden)

Carlos Guillermo Smith, government affairs manager for Equality Florida. Candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for Florida's 49th State House District. (@CarlosGSmith)

Miriam Zoila Pérez, writer and activist. Gender columnist for Colorines. Host of the Radio Menea podcast. (@miriamzperez)

Richard Kim, executive editor of the Nation. (@richardkimnyc)

BuzzFeed News: Democrats Want $41 Million More For Hate Crimes Enforcement — "Three Democratic Senators on Thursday will introduce legislation that would allocate $41 million to expand enforcement of federal hate crime laws and assist local officials with combatting bias crimes."

Colorlines: When the One Place That Feels Like Home is Invaded — "It’s hard to explain just how beautiful it feels to be surrounded by queer Latinxs, listening to the music of our childhoods, dancing the dances we learned at family parties, but doing it in beautiful transversive queer pairings. Nothing gives me more joy than seeing two queer Latina women dancing salsa, one of them leading the other even though she probably had to teach herself that role. Or two gay Latino men dancing close and sexy to a bachata rhythm. The lyrics may not be about our love, but in those moments we reclaim it wholeheartedly."

The Nation: Please Don't Stop the Music — "Gay bars are therapy for people who can’t afford therapy; temples for people who lost their religion, or whose religion lost them; vacations for people who can’t go on vacation; homes for folk without families; sanctuaries against aggression. They take sound and fabric and flesh from the ordinary world, and under cover of darkness and the influence of alcohol or drugs, transform it all into something that scrapes up against utopia."