New Yorkers mourn the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting outside Stonewall Inn.
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Visitors to the somber ceremony placed flowers, shed tears and came together in a show of solidarity with the victims.
People from around the world paid tribute to the victims of Sunday’s mass shooting in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., where 51 people, including the gunman, were killed, with 53 wounded.
The Stonewall riots were sparked in 1969 to protest police brutality and crackdowns on LGBT people after repeated raids of the Inn.
De Blasio said a police force of more than 500 officers specially trained to fight terrorism would be deployed, particularly at key institutions representing the gay and lesbian community, including the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village.
Those victims could’ve been any LGBT person at any bar around the country, but gay bars have always been one place where we can feel free.
“Tonight I will not allow my anger and outrage over this attack to overshadow our need to honor those who are grieving truly for their lost ones, lost members of the LGBT community”. “It will be safe and we will protect each other and we will send a message to this nation and to this world of what our society should look like”. Stonewall also provided the impetus for the first Gay Day and Christopher Street Liberation Day protests, the direct precursors of Gay Pride (now renamed Pride in London). Among them was Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, who said the city has stepped up security in gay communities.
Hundreds of people gathered Monday night in Boston. He said the organization received many requests for a vigil or memorial after the attack. “And so to attack at that point, in that way, is so alarming to us”, Brandon Cordiero, 28, said amidst the packed crowd, which rallied just after 6 p.m. and stayed outside Stonewall for hours.
“I was kind of surprised by how desensitized I was seeing the word ‘shooting, ‘” he said.
“I identify as queer so there’s part of me that my heart has broken”, said Elizandra Martinez, 26, a former teacher from Colorado. She said the upcoming enforcement of concealed carry on college campuses concerns her. Speakers addressed the crowd in both English and Spanish.
Overlapping anti-violence chants rose and fell, while some of those gathered held each other and cried. Howard said he came to the bar after the Supreme Court ruling last summer that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
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Philadelphia’s LGBT community is organizing an early evening vigil Monday outside City Hall in what organizers describe as an outpouring of “grief, love and solidarity for the victims in Orlando”.
