New York Times columnist Frank Bruni, along with many in the mainstream media, are sure the Orlando massacre wasn't just an attack on LGBT Americans. Bruni writes:
But let’s be clear: This was no more an attack just on L.G.B.T. people than the bloodshed at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris was an attack solely on satirists.
Bruni, who is gay, frames the shooting as a broader attack on "freedom." Sure, freedom is under attack. But let's be clear, at least 49 Americans—most or all them LGBT—were slaughtered at the hands of a mad man, and another 53 are still fighting for survival in a hospital. Any way you slice that, LGBT people were the victims of Omar Mateen's rage after he reportedly witnessed two men exchanging a kiss, according to his father. Prior to the attack, Mateen was also making specific efforts to reach out to other gay nightclub owners on Facebook.
So one can perhaps make the intellectual argument that the massacre wasn't just LGBT specific, but as a fellow LGBT American, allow me to say what a completely bloodless argument that is. For the mainstream media to embrace the broader argument while bypassing the root of the anger is to deny the palpable fear that many LGBT Americans still feel while doing something as simple as holding hands while they walk down the street. In fact, far from being a random act, Mateen's rampage fits a global pattern of violence that's centuries old. As veteran LGBT activist David Mixner noted:
For the LGBT community, the news that terrorists aim to kill us is certainly not new. We have recoiled time and time again as videos show our brothers and sisters in the Middle East stoned to death or hurled off the tops of buildings. In Africa we see members of our community burned to death encased in the infamous ‘neckless’ (a burning tire around their neck). A generation of us witnessed first hand as our brothers endured a prolonged and brutal death from AIDS while our own government turned its back on us. American preachers have called for the death sentence for LGBT Americans and dispatched missionaries overseas to urge third world nations to inflict hate and violence on their own LGBT citizens.
At the same time that LGBT Americans were victimized in Orlando, it's important to keep in mind the universality of attacking the "other." In an era of volatile political rhetoric, where political "leaders" like Donald Trump have pointed the finger at countless minorities—including people of Mexican descent, immigrants, and Muslims—anyone who falls on the other side of that finger is a potential target. In this case, it was an act of same-sex love that appears to have ignited a rage-filled killing spree, but it could have been "baby parts" or the notion that one's race or religion is superior to another’s.
So at a time that teaches us to be suspicious of one another, we must hold fast to each other. Women, people of color, religious minorities, and LGBT individuals, are the easy scapegoats of hateful individuals who have been given license to dehumanize us. We must find common purpose and understanding and healing in the humanity that we all share.
But we can only gain strength from that shared experience if we are honest about the origins of the attacks we have suffered. To bypass one truth en route to the other misses the point altogether.
Editor’s note: I have updated this piece to reflect the fact that some of the victims in Orlando may have been straight allies of the LGBT community and not LGBT themselves.