I thought twice about jumping into this conversation, but here it goes. Let a 54 year old gay guy ramble for a moment. The Orlando massacre was a tragedy first, an attack on the gay community second and an act of terrorism lastly. You can say that it's not political but it is. Folks need to let the LGBT community have this moment while we try to process everything that has happened. Many of us in the community do react with anger because every single day we hear horrible negative things about us. Our community has been constantly scorned since the beginning of time. We have been burned, we have been tortured, we have been denied our rights. We lived through the AIDS crisis when most of the country, politicians, doctors and our own president turned their backs on us or ignored us. So please let us process this all. Yes the killer was a terrorist, because I believe anyone that kills another person is a terrorist. And I believe all radical religions are to blame for the hate against our community. Radical christians are just as bad as radical islamists. Hate is hate in any religion. And I do agree that either you are for or against equal rights, there is no middle ground. That's like saying its okay to be 50% racist. It's just not. It really is a no brainer. Either you want to treat someone the way you want to be treated or you don't. And I do want to say, how much I appreciate the support I see and feel. I personally didn't care what Disney as a company said, it meant more to see the CM's posting the pictures. It meant more to see hundreds lining up to give blood. It means more that in the small town where I love in NY, there will be a vigil tonight and so far 500+ folks have registered to attend. Maybe, just maybe, this is the time when we as a country can come together and say ENOUGH! Enough hate, enough killing, enough funerals. We have to do something soon. Do we really want to be the most violent country in the world? Is this the future we want for our children? As parents do you want to get that last text message from your child that says I love you and I'm going to die? So that's it, the old gay guy is done. I'm not going to argue with anyone because we have the scrappy young lgbt folks to do that. Again, give us this moment, we'll bounce back better than before. If you thought we were too gay before, just watch out. We get stronger and more fierce with every battle. Peace!
