The LGBT community is still reeling from the horrific tragedy that occurred in Orlando last weekend. 50 lost their lives, and 53 were injured in the horrific shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.,
Allies are stunned by the weight of this tragedy and want to know what can do to really help. Milo Todd at “Everyday Feminism” has provided a convenient list of tips to help our friends in the LGBT community.
After the shooting, many people were trying to donate blood to support the victims. Unfortunately, gay and bisexual men still have to jump through hoops to donate blood. Those of us that are allies can show our support by donating blood.
Obviously, we should not vote Republican. Most Republicans are against LGBT rights as we’ve seen by the panic over transgender people in bathrooms and a long history of marginalizing LGBT folks.
A Florida ACLU staff attorney, Chase Strangio, wrote:
“The Christian Right has introduced 200 anti-LGBT bills in the last six months and people blaming Islam for this. No.”
Todd offers the simple tip of “Check in on us.” He said:
“I especially need allies to understand the weight that queer and trans people of color are carrying, as they are disproportionately impacted by this violence…Make the personal, terrifying connections about how fucking real this is. Because we’re already in that state of mind over here and I can’t even begin to explain how scary that is. We walk around with this terror just under our skin every day, but right now it’s bursting through for everyone to see.”
This massacre was just one case of the violence that has occurred against the LGBT community in past decades. Remember this:
“It’s not over. It’s never over. We deal with this kind of fear and hate on a daily basis. It’s just that Pulse was so bad and so atrocious on such a direct scale of attention that it actually made the news.”
For more advice for cis allies, see the video below:
Featured image by Allsdare Hickson via Flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license
