People were shaken. anxious.
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Last weekend, Turkish police fired rubber bullets, utilized water cannons, and released tear gas to disperse peaceful marchers gathered for a trans pride parade in the central Istanbul neighborhood of Taksim. “This truly is something that can overwhelm people and give them a sense of hopelessness”.
Around 80 Met officers and staff will attend the colourful parade on Saturday (June 25), as a show of support to LGBT communities after the service began last month. People on Facebook have replaced their profile photos with the multi-colored flags, and even some churches are displaying the rainbow emblem.
San Francisco’s LGBT community is not alone in navigating the contradictions of policing and safety in the wake of the Orlando attack.
“This is an opportunity to show solidarity and to show that the relationship between the police and the gay community is improving at a time when the complexities of the issues facing the gay community are multiplying”, New York City’s police commissioner William Bratton said. “It’s been so wonderful to see, from the mayor on down”.
During a typical year, Lt. David Leavitt, the police department’s special events coordinator, would approve the festival’s private security plan. “But the Orlando shooting proves that it’s not over”.
An intelligence unit will be on site this weekend monitoring social media and other sources for security threats. We also had a gay couple who were beaten up in Brighton. President Barack Obama called the killings both a hate crime and an act of terrorism by Mateen, who reportedly had visited gay dating websites. A team of officers is expected to carry a banner in the Equality Walk on Saturday morning. “We need to be more united than ever“.
When the names of the dead and injured started to trickle out of Orlando, some of them were familiar. I asked the nearest person what was happening, and that was the first I’d heard of the parade. “People are on edge and they’re concerned….” “I’m more afraid of police than terrorists”. “Certainly the gay community has suffered this historically”, Veneciano said.
“We’re lucky”, he said. He hopes the mood on the March is positive: “It’s always someone’s first time, and means a lot to people because of that”.
“The Network will also work with the LGBT community to signpost members of the public to support services”. The festival and Nashville’s welcoming atmosphere could attract people from as far away as southern Kentucky and northern Alabama, he said.
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Since Omar Mateen’s appalling murder spree at Orlando’s LGBT nightclub Pulse, New Yorkers have seen armed police outside the Stonewall bar, and increased police presence generally in areas with gay venues. As so many of us try to make some sort of sense of the tragedy that occurred in Orlando, Triniti Restaurant and Sanctuari Bar at Triniti are helping the best way it knows how: Serving up delicious dishes and drinks and donating a portion of all proceeds to a fund benefiting the victims. “We won’t back down”.
