In November 1978, San Francisco Councilman Harvey Milk, 48, one of the first American politicians to come out as gay, was assassinated in the office of Mayor George Moscone. Sunday, June 12, a few hours following the Orlando shooting, it was on Harvey-Milk Square, in Castro, the “gay” heart of San Francisco, that several thousand people gathered in mourning, with smartphones lit as candles and rainbow flags at half mast.
“We think the job is done because we got the right to marry. This is not the case “, said David Campos, member of the San Francisco City Council. Like him, many of the victims of the Pulse nightclub in Orlando were gay and Latino. “Let’s be clear, this is an attack on the LGBT community, lamented Scott Wiener, another city councilor, representing Castro, the neighborhood where crosswalks are painted in rainbow colors. This anti-gay hatred must stop. »
A man arrested with assault rifles
and chemicals
From the assassination of Harvey Milk to that of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student martyred in 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming, the long march of homosexuals towards equality has been marred by acts of violence. But the community had never faced an attack as brutal and deadly as the one in Orlando. It has eroded the sense of security acquired with the conquests of the last decade, between the full and complete acceptance of gays in the army, the legalization of “same sex marriage” by the Supreme Court in June 2015 and this year the recognition the rights of transgender people to choose their identity and their toilets in public places, a choice contested by several southern Republican states. “This is a tragic illustration of the legitimate fears that members of our LGBT community have for their safety,” said the mayor of Dallas, Mike Rawlings, announcing the strengthening of vigilance in the city.
Several gay festivals were held on Sunday, hours following the Orlando shooting. In Boston and Washington, the police have increased their numbers. In Los Angeles, the march was dark: before the departure of the 46e Gay Pride in West Hollywood Mayor Eric Garcetti says 20-year-old Indiana native James Howell was arrested in Santa Monica in possession of a car containing three assault rifles and chemicals that might be used as explosives. His intention was to” assist “ on the march, said Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks, who initially said he heard ” to hurt “. The mayor said the incident had nothing to do with the Orlando attack. The parade took place and gathered several thousand people.
San Francisco’s annual Gay Pride – one of the busiest in the world – is set for June 26. More than 1 million people are expected. From Sunday, the organizers met with officials from the police and the Department of Homeland Security to strengthen the vigilance system.
Emotion a Greenwich Village
In New York, it is another symbolic high place of the fight for equality which has welcomed several hundred people: Stonewall Inn, the bar in Greenwich Village which became a symbol of homosexual rights following a police intervention on 28 June 1969, triggered spontaneous riots. The following year, the first Gay Pride took place, in New York and Los Angeles, in commemoration of the riots. Two elected officials from New York have proposed that the place enter the register of national parks and monuments. President Barack Obama would support it.
On Sunday, as a sign of solidarity, protesters carried red flowers, peace signs and placards: « We are Orlando » or « NRA = Death »associating the National Rifle Association, the gun lobby, with death.
By attacking a nightclub like the Pulse in Orlando, Omar Mateen also struck what has always been a refuge for homosexuals, far from the reproachful judgments of society: the nightclubs, described on Facebook by the columnist Paul Raushenbush as “those places where we might love and be loved for ourselves and what we wanted to be”.
