pulse
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Remembering the Pulse Nightclub Tragedy: 1 Year Later
One year ago June 12, I awoke to a flurry of text messages and missed calls from friends demanding that I turn on my television. It was a Sunday morning, and like many black gay men who reside in the nation’s capital, I was in hibernation, sleeping off one too many Jack and Cokes. When…
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Youngest Victim in Pulse Nightclub Shooting Pleaded to 911 Dispatcher, 'I Don't Want to Die'
Akyra Murray, 18, had just graduated from West Catholic Preparatory High School in Philadelphia. She was set to play college basketball at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pa. On June 12, she had traveled with her family to Orlando, Fla., and gone out to Pulse nightclub to celebrate the closing of one chapter in her life…
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#PulseShooting: A Homegoing for Our (Queer) Dead
Last week I attended a church member’s funeral. Hues of black and brown formed a beautiful palette as the saints marched in their white-and-black vestments. White for the sacredness of the one to whom the service was dedicated, and black for their anguish. The preacher read Scriptures as the family processioned into the church. This…
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#OrlandoStrong: An Estimated 50,000 Attend Candlelight Vigil for Victims of Mass Shooting
An estimated 50,000 people jammed themselves into Lake Eola Park in Orlando, Fla., chanting, “One Orlando united” and “We remember” as they attended a candlelight vigil one week after the horrific mass shooting that took the lives of 49 individuals and injured 53 more at the gay nightclub Pulse, the Orlando Sentinel reports. “It’s not…
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Calif. Pastor on Orlando, Fla., Mass Shooting: ‘The Tragedy Is That More of Them Didn’t Die’
Mere hours after the Orlando, Fla., club shooter took the lives of 49 people, a Sacramento, Calif., pastor turned to his pulpit, delivering a hateful, violent speech saying that he was upset the shooter “didn’t finish the job,” the New York Daily News reports. “The tragedy is that more of them didn’t die,” the pastor, Roger…
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#PulseShooting: Gunman Reportedly Didn’t Want to Kill Black People: ‘You Guys Suffered Enough’
Patience Carter, 20, one of the survivors of the mass shooting Sunday morning at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., said that the shooter, Omar Mateen, 29, wanted to spare black lives from his violent rampage, CBS News reports. Carter had fled to the bathroom to seek shelter with other club patrons when the gunman entered and…
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Orlando, Fla., Mass Shooter Frequented Gay Nightclub Before Shooting: Report
The man who killed 49 people at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., on Sunday night had been to the gay nightclub several times before and was reportedly seen by at least four regular customers, the Orlando Sentinel reports. “Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times…
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Wife Tried to Talk Orlando, Fla., Shooter Out of Attack, May Face Charges: Report
The woman who was married to the Orlando, Fla., shooter has revealed to federal investigators that she tried to talk her husband out of the attack, NBC News reports. Noor Mateen, the wife of Omar Mateen, who ultimately died in the shooting, told FBI agents that she was with her husband when he bought ammunition and…