tend to act out at more marginalized communities. “Any marginalized community is at higher risk for gun violence, because people that are animated by bigotry. Orange signs held by Gays Against Guns activists reminded onlookers of the many mass shootings that have occured in the U.S. There are also the bare facts about gun violence disproportionately affecting LGBTQ people, among other minority populations, with guns being used in 60% of bias-motivated homicides of LGBTQ people, according to the most recent (2017) tracking. If I wasn’t so open about who I was, I never would’ve been able to do this.” Further, she likened the struggles, including the “depression” felt by many LGBTQ youth, to those of anyone dealing with the emotional fallout of gun violence.
In 2018, young organizers of the first March for Our Lives (more of which just took place over the weekend in locations across the country) said they had derived inspiration for the movement from that of marriage equality, with Parkland shooting survivor and activist Emma González telling Yahoo Life at the time that being queer and being such a visible activist is “definitely linked for me personally. Anyone would have to be a monster to not be affected by 19 kids being murdered.” “We’re part of humanity,” Walker explains to Yahoo Life. “That’s why Pride and GAG are always going to be connected.” (Photo: Richard Renaldi) “Nightclubs and bars have been our sanctuaries when the rest of the world kept us out,” Jay Walker of Gays Against Guns says. That was true on Sunday, especially with the group’s masked leader, also dressed in white, standing at the helm with a large, glittering disco ball - a very gay reminder of the specifics of Pulse.īut, some may wonder, how else is gun violence an LGBTQ issue? It’s always a powerful display and one that stops even typically unfazed New Yorkers in their tracks.
In 2018, a large group held a procession at March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C. This way of publicly holding space for those killed has become a signature of GAG, which has a policy to get out into the streets within 48 hours of any mass shooting - most recently by hoisting child-sized coffins through the streets of New York and, right before that, having veiled human beings honor the victims of Buffalo’s shooting in the pouring rain. They stood silently, each carrying a placard with the photo, name and some details about a person killed at a mass shooting, from Orlando and Las Vegas to Buffalo and Uvalde. The vigil had nearly 100 "human beings" - volunteers, dressed in all white and with faces veiled, who each represented a person lost to gun violence. A "human being" dressed in white held space for those lost to gun violence.