At a vigil for the victims of the Orlando mass shooting, the Mayor of Philadelphia looked profoundly sad while the City Council President appeared exasperated.
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The grounds surrounding City Hall were, if just for a moment, considered a sacred space Monday evening for mourners who gathered on them to grieve the loss of 49 individuals who were murdered by 29 year-old domestic terrorist Mr. Omar Mateen, an American citizen who became radicalized by extremist literature on the internet and who, after carrying out the bloody massacre in Orlando, Florida, which injured more than 50, pledged allegiance to ISIS.
Sunday morning’s mass shooting, billed as the deadliest in American history, had a Philadelphia connection: among the victims was an 18 year-old girl named Akyra Murray. The mother of the late Ms. Murray wasn’t at the candlelight vigil but rather was listening in on a mobile phone held by a woman who stood close to the podium, where speaker after speaker, including Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and Philadelphia City Council President Darrell Clarke, delivered impassioned remarks and stern rebukes.
Mr. Kenney, a visible ally to the LGBTQ community and who was referred to by one speaker as the most progressive Mayor the city has ever seen, became emotional when talking about Ms. Murray, a star athlete at a Catholic school (West Catholic Prep) who he had seen play against the basketball team of Neumann Goretti, also a parochial school.
In contrast to both the Mayor’s body language, which suggested profound sadness, and temperament was City Council President Clarke, who, in addition to lambasting the gunman, who was a husband and father, and the circumstances that enabled his terror – Mr. Clarke called the shooting utterly ridiculous and stated that magazines capable of housing dozens of rounds of ammunition isn’t even necessary for hunting – used a portion of his mic-time to, in an exasperated tone, talk local politics; specifically, getting meaningful gun laws passed in Harrisburg, a place where anything resembling gun control is viewed as a non-starter.
Both Mr. Kenney and Mr. Clarke, who was joined by almost every member of City Council, assured the LGBTQ community – which had attended the vigil by the hundreds – that they were not alone and were loved.
Sobbing, particularly from a group of teenage girls mourning the loss of Ms. Murray, could be heard during every speech, including the one given by Ms. Nikki Lopez, who when much younger had often attended Pulse, the gay nightclub where the shooting occurred.
“The dance floor at Pulse nightclub was my space for transcendence and liberation,” said Ms. Lopez, who urged onlookers to “let the dance floor continue to be your authentic space of liberation. Don’t let fear strip that power away from you.”
An activist, who was among the last to speak, emphasized that the shooting targeted the LGBTQ community – the father of the shooter said he became enraged not long ago after seeing two men kissing – and was, as a result, a hate crime, though the FBI Director yesterday said its not yet clear what role anti-gay bigotry had to do with the nightclub shooting.
For those who attended the vigil, no further evidence than the 49 people dead inside of a popular gay club is needed to prove an anti-gay bigotry.
The (perceived) hate shown towards the victims by Mr. Mateen, who according to witnesses was a regular customer at Pulse, was responded to by many Philadelphians not just with love, but with pride… gay pride.
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