Tag Archives: Florida

Thousands Reflect On Anniversary Of Pulse Nightclub Shooting in Orlando

Today marks the first anniversary of the Orlando massacre, a mass shooting in which members of our LGBTQ community lost their lives inside Pulse Nightclub.

A giant rainbow flag will be flown over the Orange County government building for the day, while flags across Florida will be flown at half-mast.

A closed service for survivors, local officials and club employees was held overnight to mark the exact time of the attack, which took place around 2 AM on the morning of June 12.

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Orlando Mayor Bobby Dyer said:

June 12 was the darkest day in our City’s history and a day that will forever be reserved to honour the memory of the 49 innocent lives taken from us too soon. This tragedy has deeply impacted our LGBTQ+, Latinx, other communities of colour and our entire City.

Since the morning of June 12, 2016, we have come together to honor the victims, support their families and the survivors and thank our first responders in so many ways.

Following the Pulse tragedy, we showed the world that Orlando would not be defined by the act of a hate-filled killer, but instead defined by our response of love, compassion and unity. I am so proud that we are Orlando United.”

Florida Governor Rick Scott said:

The horrific terror attack at Pulse attempted to rip at the seams of our society, strike fear in our hearts and divide us. Yet, in the face of extreme adversity and loss, Floridians showed resiliency, bravery and love. Over the past year, our state, the city of Orlando and the many Floridians affected by this tragedy have shown incredible resolve as we continue to mourn the loved and lost.

As we pause to honour the 49 victims of this tragic attack this Monday, my wife and I will say a prayer for each of them and their families.

We will also be reminded of all the people who helped others in need. The law enforcement officers, first responders, medical personnel, faith and spiritual leaders and Central Florida families defined what Florida is all about. We care about each other and we came together when it was needed the most.

This was an attack on Orlando, our state, the Hispanic community and on the LGBTQ community. It left a solemn impact on our state that we will carry with us for the rest of our lives.”

A number of events are being held throughout the city Monday, including two remembrance ceremonies for the general public at the club at 1912 S. Orange Ave.

Guests scheduled for the 11 a.m. event include the Orlando Gay Chorus, Mayor Buddy Dyer, Mayor Teresa Jacobs, the Rev. Terri Prayer, some of the first responders and live music.

The evening service at 10 p.m. at Pulse will feature songs, prayers, inspirational dance, reflection and music.

An event called Orlando Love: Remembering Our Angels is also set for the Lake Eola Park Amphitheater at 7 p.m. and will feature musical performances and remarks by community leaders.

The expanded One Orlando Collection and Digital Gallery will be open at The Orange County History Center from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday. Admission is free.

“Dear World, We’re Not Afraid” – Orlando Survivors Speak-Out (Video)

Survivors of the Orlando massacre have released a video telling the world they are not afraid.

In light of the Orlando Shooting, we think it’s important, more than ever, to stand tall and show love and give hope to the LGBT community.

Put together by youtuber, Arielle Scarcella, the video tells a story about LGBT people struggling with coming out and the world’s reaction.

My all the things that closet has seen. Inside it was dark small and lonely, but so much life has happened outside of that closet. For the LGBT community, that life often comes with judgement. At their core, judgement and hate are simply fear.”

The video also features survivors who send a message a powerful message about love following the attack.

Our LGBT community is resilient. Out of great sadness, love is born. We thrive, not because we are not afraid of hate but because we are not afraid of love.”

 

 

Pulse Owner Vows To Reopen Nightclub: ‘We Will Not Let Hate Win’

The owner of the Pulse gay nightclub, Barbara Poma, is speaking out for the first time since the mass shooting that took the lives of 49 people at the club.

Poma – who opened the club as a tribute to her gay brother who died of AIDS related illness – says she always saw the place as a “safe haven”.

In an emotional interview with NBC, she shared she ‘can’t stop imagining what it was like.’

She also described the moment she found out about the shootings.

When my manager called me, he just kept yelling into the phone ‘We have a shooter. We have a shooter.’”

Poma also highlights how family was an important part of the club – which has been running since 13 years.

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Since the club opened, the owner says she wanted to create a platform that reached out to the gay community in Orlando.

During her interview, she said the families of the people who were now a part of the club’s family too, stressing the importance of keeping the “heartbeat and spirit alive”.

The future of the club is uncertain, but Poma says she wants to remember all the wonderful things that happened there.

She did not speak about the gunman because “it’s important to never let hate win.”

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The club was in honour of one soul that was lost and now there are 49 others that have lost their lives.

It has to do with your heartbeat. Your life. You have to keep the heartbeat alive.”

 

Anderson Cooper Pays Emotional Tribute To Victims Of The Orlando Massacre

Last night, less than 48 hours after the deadliest terror attack on American soil since 9/11, Anderson Cooper began his prime time program with a tribute to the 49 lives lost in the Orlando, Florida, nightclub shooting.

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Noting that his broadcast would neither display photos nor mention the name of the dead gunman, the CNN anchor emotionally listed the names of those killed in the attack at Pulse nightclub as their names scrolled on the ticker at the bottom of the screen.

In the next two hours, we want to try to keep the focus where we think it belongs, on the people whose lives were cut short.”

The tribute lasted nearly seven minutes, and paired facts and faces to those victims who were still being identified as late as Monday night.

They are more than a list of names. They are people who loved and who were loved,”

As of this morning (June 14), the city of Orlando had released the following names of victims on its website.

Ruby Rose Pays Tribute To The Victims Of The Orlando Nightclub Shooting Just A Week After She Performed There

Ruby Rose has shared an emotional social media post after the horrific Orlando mass shooting, revealing she performed at the club where 50 people were slain only last week.

Woke up in tears to hear the news about Orlando. Devastated, heartbroken, sick. I played there last Friday and last night I performed after Pride in LA. From the DJ booth you see laughter, love, dancing freedom and beautiful people living their lives not harming anyone. It’s one of the beautiful things to see from stage.

This horrific tragedy has me on my knees at the mercy of a greater power to ask the simple question of ‘When will this end’ … I’m praying for Orlando, I’m crying for Orlando and I am there with you in spirit sending my love and strength.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGkIPcXsZSb

https://twitter.com/RubyRose/status/742044707744677888

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Obama Nails Why America Shouldn’t Ignore The Fact The Orlando Shooting Was At An LGBTQ Club

The mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando Sunday morning, which killed at least 50 people, wasn’t just the deadliest mass shooting in American history — it’s the also the deadliest act of anti-LGBTQ violence.

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On Sunday afternoon, President Obama addressed not only America, but also the world and highlighted what made this most recent act of terror unique.
This attack happened during LGBT Pride Month, a celebration that arose from violence, particularly police brutality, against LGBTQ people.

This is an especially heartbreaking day for all our friends — our fellow Americans — who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The shooter targeted a nightclub where people came together to be with friends, to dance and to sing, and to live.

The place where they were attacked is more than a nightclub — it is a place of solidarity and empowerment where people have come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds, and to advocate for their civil rights.”

The president is right. Our LGBT nightclubs and bars have been much more than just spaces to have fun on a Friday night. These venues are where people have organized, protested, pushed for progress, and found safe spaces amid a hostile outside world.

This wasn’t just an attack on Americans writ large — it was an attack on the freedoms that LGBTQ people have rallied for decades.

The president also used his speech to highlight the continued need to act against gun violence.

Sunday morning’s tragedy — the deadliest shooting in American history — is yet another example of why rampant gun violence in the U.S. is a uniquely American phenomenon.

This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or a movie theater, or in a nightclub. And we have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be. And to actively do nothing is a decision as well.”

Hillary Clinton also shared a similar message. While reaffirming her support to toughen up gun control efforts, Clinton condemned the Orlando nightclub shooting as an act of “terror” and “hate” in a statement Sunday.

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I join Americans in praying for the victims of the attack in Orlando, their families and the first responders who did everything they could to save lives. This is a time to stand together and resolve to do everything we can to defend our communities and country.”

She also identified herself as an ally of LGBT Americans in the statement. The mass shooting—the deadliest in American history—occurred at a gay nightclub.

We will keep fighting for your right to live freely, openly and without fear,” she said. “Hate has absolutely no place in America.”

Ellen DeGeneres, Madonna, Lady Gaga And More React To Pulse Nightclub Massacre

Dozens of high-profile artists, politicians and prominent members of the queer community have taken to social media to voice their horror at this weekend’s massacre, which left 50 patrons dead at Pulse, a prominent gay nightclub in Orlando.

While some celebrities simply offered their condolences and emphasized their support of the victims and their families, many others demanded the reform of U.S. gun laws, a move they insist could prevent future violent deaths.

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Death Toll Rises In Orlando Mass Shooting As Shooter Identified

More than a hundred people have been confirmed dead or injured after the mass shooting in Orlando’s Pulse nightclub.

The rising number makes the atrocity the worst shooting in American history.

Omar Mateen was named as the shooter in the incident, which killed at least 50.

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The US citizen’s parents are from Afghanistan, and FBI agent Ron Hopper spoke to reporters to say that he may have leanings towards Islamic extremism.

The shooter, a resident of Port St Lucie, Florida, was killed after a “gun battle” with police officers in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Mateen’s father has apologised for the incident, saying he did not think his son was religiously motivated.

He also said that his son, 29, got angry a few months ago after he saw two men kiss in Orlando.

The shooter, a resident of Port St Lucie, Florida, was killed after a “gun battle” with police officers in the early hours of Sunday morning.

His identity was revealed by CBS News, the Washington Post, and NBC News. The BBC suggests that although he was not on a terrorist watch-list, he may have been being investigated for a previous crime.

As well as a White House statement condemning the attack, which authorities described as a “terrorist incident”,  an appeal was put out for O Negative, O Positive and AB Plasma blood donors.

The White House statement read:

The President was briefed this morning by Lisa Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, on the tragic shooting in Orlando, Florida. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of the victims. The President asked to receive regular updates as the FBI, and other federal officials, work with the Orlando Police to gather more information, and directed that the federal government provide any assistance necessary to pursue the investigation and support the community.”

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer described the crime as “horrific” at a press conference this morning.

An Orange County Sherriff described the incident as a “domestic terrorist incident”, which was confirmed by the FBI, a spokesman said: “Domestic or international, it’s terrorism”.

It was confirmed that an officer attended the Pulse club and engaged with a “gun battle” with a shooter who was using an assault rifle and a pistol.

This turned into a hostage situation. Multiple officers from various agencies responded.

The shooter was organised and well prepared. He is not from this area”

Multiple officers from local, state and federal agencies responded to the incident at the club, where approximately 320 people were in attendance.

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At approx 05:00 this morning the decision was made to rescue hostages after people phoned police from the toilets in the nightclub. The police drove a truck through the wall in order to distract the gunman.

The nightclub posted on its Facebook page as the shooting unfolded: “Everyone get out of pulse and keep running”.

Updates about the Pulse nightclub shooting are being added to the Associated Press website on the link below.

Orlando Nightclub Shooting: At Least 50 Dead And 53 Injured After Gunman Opens Fire In Gay Club

Police have confirmed that 50 people have been killed and some 53 injured in a shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Orlando Police at the scene in Pulse nightclub have confirmed the shooter is now dead. The attacker reportedly entered the nightclub at around 2am on Saturday night and began “non-stop firing”. There were more than 100 people in the venue at the time.

Police have called it an act of terrorism, but said they did not yet know if it was domestic or international.

Relatives have been gathering at local hospitals desperate for news.

Many had received calls and texts from loved ones inside the club as the siege began, and some have heard nothing since.

Pulse clubber Christopher Hanson described the scene to CNN:

It was like, bang, bang, bang, bang. I didn’t see any of the actual shooters. I just saw bodies going down.

I fell down. I crawled out. People were trying to escape out the back. I just know that when I hit the ground, I was crawling and I hit my elbows and my knees. When I got across the street, there were people with blood everywhere.”

Orlando recently wrapped up its annual weeklong Gay Days festival on June 6 in which up to 150,000 in the LGBT community attend area theme parks, gay nightclubs and special events. It was the 25th anniversary of Gay Days. It is one of the largest gay pride events in the world.

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The gunman’s motive was not clear but police said it was not connected to the murder of Christina Grimmie, a singer on the TV show “The Voice” who was shot dead when she was signing autographs after a concert in Orlando on Friday night.

Updates about the Pulse nightclub shooting are being added to the Associated Press website on the link below.

Only in Florida, Woman Arrested for Hitting Girlfriend in Face With Dildo

Annette Kielhurn has been arrested in Florida for hitting her girlfriend in the face with a dildo.

Kielhurn, 57, was arguing with her girlfriend over who owned a dress at the time, according to St. Petersburg Police Department.

Officers arrived at their home because Kielhurn’s girlfriend called them to stand by while she moved out her belongings, police said.

The officer wrote in his report.

While assisting the victim on a clothing assist, the defendant grabbed the victim with one arm and used the other arm to pull a dress out of her hand that she said was hers. I then specifically told the defendant no to touch the victim and told her to just verbally say what she did not want her partner to take from the house because this is civil. Shortly afterwards the defendant intentionally shoved a “dildo” in the victim’s face and grabbed her right arm while arguing whose it belonged to.”

The cop arrested Kielhurn for domestic battery was booked into jail on the misdemeanour charge.

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She was released from custody after posting $500 bail.

Kielhurn, who has Capaner-Ridley’s first name tattooed on her chest, previously served three years in prison after she was found passed out and drunk in a car that contained 25kg of cocaine – which had a street value of $2.5m.

She was also arrested in June for trespassing.

Lifting Same-Sex Marriage Ban In Florida Allows Lesbian Couple To Be Legally Recognised As Joint Parents

A Florida judge has ruled that genetics are not required for parenthood.

This is a first in Florida, but by lifting of a same-sex marriage ban now means an infant has the right to call both women in a lesbian couple her parents.

Palm Beach Circuit Judge, Lisa Small, ruled that both Lisa Maxwell and Christine Stephens-Maxwell are the parents of 7-week-old Satori. Satori was born last month after Christine became pregnant through in-vitro fertilization. The couple had married in New York in 2012.

Florida law recognizes that a baby born to a married couple from in-vitro fertilization is the child of both husband and wife. But Circuit Judge Lisa Small extended that recognition to the spouse of the child-bearing wife, now that Florida recognizes same-sex marriages.

“To afford the constitutional protections to which petitioner is entitled, the court interprets ‘husband’ … to mean the spouse of the child-bearing wife.”

Palm Beach Circuit Judge Lisa Small

Before the ban was lifted earlier this month, Lisa would have had to adopt Satori.

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“I can’t imagine having to go to a hospital, having to go to a school and being turned away and not recognized that this is my child who I love dearly”

Lisa Maxwell.

Lisa Maxwell’s petition also asked Small to recognize the couple’s out-of-state marriage, which she did.

“Not only can we get married, but we can create wonderful families.”

Christina Stephens-Maxwell

Small’s ruling builds on the ground-breaking federal court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage Jan. 6 in Florida.

Federal Judge Declares Florida’s Ban on Same-Sex Marriage Unconstitutional – #MarriageEquality

A federal judge has declared Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, joining judges across the country who have sided with gay couples wishing to tie the knot.

U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle in Tallahassee ruled that the ban added to Florida’s constitution by voters in 2008 violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantees of equal protection and due process. Hinkle issued a stay delaying the effect of his order, meaning no marriage licenses will be immediately issued for gay couples. That also means gay couples legally married in other states will not immediately have their marriages recognized in Florida.

Hinkle, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, compared bans on gay marriage to the long-abandoned prohibitions on interracial marriage and predicted both would be viewed by history the same way.

“When observers look back 50 years from now, the arguments supporting Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage, though just as sincerely held, will again seem an obvious pretext for discrimination. To paraphrase a civil rights leader from the age when interracial marriage was struck down, the arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Judge Robert L. Hinkle

Gay rights have long been a contentious issue in Florida, a politically complex swing state where the northern counties tend to lean Republican like their Deep South neighbors and parts of South Florida are reliably Democratic. In the 1970s, singer and orange juice spokeswoman Anita Bryant lobbied to overturn a Dade County ordinance banning discrimination against gays, though the protections were later reinstated.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Republican, has appealed previous rulings striking down the ban, which were issued earlier this year in Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach counties. Hinkle’s ruling allows time for appeals in the federal case. Bondi wants the Florida cases to remain on hold pending a definitive national ruling on gay marriage by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The U.S. Supreme Court, they need to decide this case, they are going to decide this case, hopefully sooner than later so we will have finality. There are good people on both sides of this issue and we need to have finality for everyone involved.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi

Gay marriage proponents have won more than 20 legal decisions against state same-sex marriage restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the federal Defense of Marriage Act last year.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court delayed an appeals court decision that would end Virginia’s gay marriage ban and, in January, the justices did the same thing in a same-sex marriage case in Utah. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati recently heard arguments in six same-sex marriage cases from Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.

The latest Florida ruling came in a pair of lawsuits brought by gay couples seeking to marry in Florida and others who want to force Florida to recognize gay marriages performed legally in other states. Currently, 19 states and the District of Columbia permit same-sex marriage.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which represented some of the gay couples, said the tide of rulings makes legal same-sex marriage in Florida appear inevitable.

“We’re very pleased to see the ban held unconstitutional in such unequivocal terms so that all Florida families will soon finally have the same protections,”

Daniel Tilley, ACLU staff attorney

Hinkle did add one wrinkle in his decision: he said the delay on marriages should have no effect on a proposed change to the death certificate of Carol Goldwasser, who was legally married in New York in 2011 to Arlene Goldberg before Goldwasser died earlier this year.

Goldberg, according to the ruling, has been unable to obtain Social Security survivor benefits because of Florida’s refusal to recognize their marriage, which could force her to sell her house. Hinkle said the amended death certificate showing the couple as spouses should be issued by Sept. 22, or 14 days after officials receive all the required information.

“There is no good reason to further deny Ms. Goldberg the simple human dignity of being listed on her spouse’s death certificate. Indeed, the state’s refusal to let that happen is a poignant illustration of the controversy that brings us here.”

Judge Robert L. Hinkle