PHOTOS: Community and national advocacy leaders discuss how to honor Pulse victims through action

(Photo by Bellanee Plaza)

ORLANDO | The Human Rights Campaign, Equality Florida and GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention group founded by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, convened a panel on June 13 to honor the 10-year remembrance of the Pulse nightclub shooting.

The panel was moderated by Brandon Wolf, a Pulse survivor and chief spokesperson for Equality Florida, and focused on reflecting on the progress the LGBTQ+ and gun safety movements have forged since Pulse. The panel discussed how community members can take actions to build on that progress to honor Pulse victims in the decade ahead.

“Six days after the shooting, at his funeral, I promised my best friend that I would never stop fighting for a world that he would be proud of,” Wolf said. “Since then, so much has changed. Our community has been under siege from a right wing hellbent on hoarding freedom for themselves, our rights have been rolled back, and the very spaces we set aside to reflect and remember have been desecrated. But one thing has not changed: the strength of our community to, in the face of hate, shine brighter and bolder than before. May the 10 year remembrance be a moment to reflect, grieve, harden our resolve, and recommit to honoring the memories of those stolen from us not with hollow sympathies or empty words, but with action.”

On the panel was Emma Brown, executive director at GIFFORDS, Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, Stratton Pollitzer, executive director of Equality Florida, State Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith and Wolf.

“Far too often, guns are used in our country to inflict violence on people whose lives look different, whose ideas are different, or who love differently,” Robinson said. “Common sense gun reform is an LGBTQ+ issue, and just as we fight for health care access or non-discrimination laws, we also fight for our right and the right of our loved ones to live in safety. Today we rededicate ourselves to this work, to honoring them with action. We will see it through, no matter how long it takes.”

Watermark Out News attended the panel. View our photos below.

Photos by Bellanee Plaza.