LOS ANGELES — For its annual Year in Review issue, The Advocate looks back at a series of moments that collectively shaped 2016. The retrospective look at this past year includes a collection of events that have impacted our society in a variety of ways. One of these incidences includes the Pulse Nightclub massacre, the worst single-person mass shooting and the deadliest violent act against LGBT people in U.S. history. For 2016, The Advocate dedicates the title of “People of the Year” to the heroes of Pulse and features Angel Colon, one of the survivors, on the cover of the December/January issue.
June 12, 2016, was one of the darkest days in LGBT history, and the repercussions will be long felt in American and global politics, gun violence policy, and religious and racial discrimination. The worst single-person mass shooting and deadliest violent act against LGBT people in U.S. history claimed the lives of 49 people and injured an additional 53. Angel Colon was among the 53 injured having sustained multiple shots in his leg and side. The night changed not only Colon’s life but the lives of LGBT individuals everywhere. A vigil at Lake Eola drew a crowd of 50,000, and on social media images of rainbow lights and flags from One World Trade Center in New York and the Castro in San Francisco were shared along with images of vigils and tributes from dozens of other sites around the world.
As Colon began learning to walk again, Democratic representatives and senators were sitting down on the floor of the House Representatives. Led by civil rights icon, Georgia Rep. John Lewis, they staged an unprecedented, historical, 25-hour-sit-in to bring gun-control measures to the floor. Congress was pressured into voting once more on the gun-control measures that had failed in 2012 and 2015, but those measures failed yet again. In September, Colon traveled to Washington, D.C., for the first time. He accompanied the Brady campaign, which advocates against gun violence, to meet with senators – including conservative Florida senator Marco Rubio – to share his story. “I was a wreck,” Colon says. “I’m not a political person at all. But I said to myself, ‘Screw it. I’m going to share my story, and if I don’t have an answer to your question, I don’t have an answer.’ I shared the pain I went through, my family went through. I don’t want to see another family go through this.”
The Pulse survivors embody the best of the LGBT community. As the rhetoric of 2016’s presidential race coarsened, xenophobes and their preferred candidate, now President-Elect Donald Trump, stoked distrust of Muslim Americans among LGBT voters and pointed to Pulse’s attacker, who praised the Islamic State as a rallying point. “In the midst of horror, it is easy to become the thing you hate,” says Nadine Smith, co-founder and CEO of Equality Florida. “But I’ve been proud of the fact our community has overwhelmingly resisted that.” In fact, Muslim and LGBT groups looked to each other, resisting the opportunity to demonize, and instead offered support at joint rallies.
“We’re going to be OK. We’re going to move on,” Colon tells The Advocate. Pulse is not a footnote in America’s struggle with gun violence; it’s the opening of a new chapter, one where enters the fire and resolve of the LGBT community. The survivors of Pulse will not stop fighting for a better, safer community. America will invariably move on to the next gun-related tragedy, but the survivors of Pulse are here. And they will be heard for years to come.
Read the full Advocate “People of the Year” story at:
http://www.advocate.com/current-issue/2016/11/11/people-year-heroes-pulse
