Hate crime.
A crime motivated by racial,
SEXUAL, or other prejudice,
typically one involving violence.
What took place in Orlando was no act of terrorism, it was an act of hate.
I lost a best friend though this – she was last seen at the Pulse nightclub, and then she was on a list. Sadly, she is in a better place and hopefully not getting any more hate for choices she’s made in her life. Hate is something that’s been there forever, but … this is a different kind of hate.
People lost loved ones, friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, sons and daughters. This wasn’t some religion-sent shooter, this wasn’t an act of God.
This was an act of pure and utter hate. Hate towards people who walk a different path, but a path we may all know.
I’m tired of losing people I love, and I’m even more disgusted at the increase in violence in our society. What happened to love being love?
We, of all people, aren’t forcing any sort of agenda down your throats, so for fucks sake, don’t use this to force your agenda down ours. This was NOT some kind of punishment we all had coming.
No one and I repeat NO ONE deserves this. No one deserves to hear a friend’s mother crying out for her baby girl to get back to her, no one should have to find out that their best friend is in a body bag rather than a hospital bed.
Love is love no matter the gender or who it is between. I’m tired of getting hate, I’m tired of hearing the hate. A mother lost her daughter, a girlfriend lost her lover. Two of the victims were getting ready to get married, and now they’re getting buried side by side.
And for what? What good was the shooter trying to do?
It wasn’t showing a message nor getting people to rally in his cause, that being a cause of hate.
When you take everything away, the people that have been taken from us so early are just like all of us. They’re human in the end. In the end their love that they had with one another was still love.
I get questioned a lot about my own sexuality, and as to why I prefer not to even bother with that kind of thing. But when it comes down to it, I’m more than proud to say I identify myself as a pansexual individual. For those who don’t know what that means …
Pansexual.
Not limited in sexual choice
with regard to biological sex,
gender, or gender identity.
As many have said before me, love in the end is love no matter the person.
We can’t fight hate with fear, we can’t fight hate with guns or violence. What we can do is pick ourselves up and use our words in order to try and change what ignorance is being spread across the country.
—kristin valentine buechler
Flommist Kristin Valentine Buechler is an artist, traveler, and professional dreamer. Copyright © 2016 Kristin Valentine Buechler. Top image borrowed from SOML.
To support the victims of the Pulse shooting, please donate here. Also, jetBLue is extending an offer of free travel to/from Orlando for immediate family members/domestic partners of those impacted by the shooting, details here.
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