As rainbow flags fly at half mast across the country, at least 100 UC Berkeley students, faculty and Berkeley community members attended a vigil Monday to commemorate the lives lost at the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida.
The shooting that took place Sunday morning at a gay nightclub killed 50 people and left 53 injured. The attack is the largest mass shooting in U.S. history.
“This vigil is about us, our community, our heart,” said Billy Curtis, the director of UC Berkeley’s Gender Equity Resource Center.
Curtis, who has family from Orlando and came out as a gay man in the Florida community, said that during these times, the LGBT community needs to band together and support each other.
“We have racism, Islamophobia, homophobia coming together in this context of violence and the worship of death to kill,” Curtis said. “Let’s focus on healing and moving forward.”
Vice Chancellor of Equity Na’ilah Nasir said in light of this “unbelievable and unthinkable” tragedy, UC Berkeley will be making efforts to make the campus safer and more welcoming for members of the LGBT community.
These efforts include the University Health Services and the Gender Equity Center offering counseling and therapy on campus specifically for members of the LGBT community.
“We must operate from a place of love, a place of compassion and a place of deep humanity,” Nasir said at the vigil.
According to Councilmember Kriss Worthington, individuals were killed for being Latino, transgender and gay. He, however, also expressed worry for the Muslim community.
“How many innocent Muslims will be blamed unfairly when Muslims too are picked on far too frequently?” Worthington said.
Likewise, during the event, Nasir attributed the attack not to religion but instead to prejudice toward the gay community.
“There is no religion or manifestation of God that condones the evil we saw yesterday,” Nasir said.
Although the Orlando shooting can never be undone, Leslie Ewing, the executive director of the Pacific Center said people should rise up and fight for assault weapon restrictions.
“We are at a tipping point … (we must) demand that the Democratic party make this a platform issue and offer a ban on assault weapons,” Ewing said. “We may not be able to cure, but we can do something.”
AJ Hill, a campus senior, said regardless of the outside debates around gun violence and Islamophobia, the LGBT community should be focusing on strengthening its community.
“The fact remains that we are human and we have a right to live and breathe and be happy in the space that we call our own, and we have the right to a community,” Hill said. “And please, for whatever you can, don’t let them take that away from you, because if we lose that, then it’s game over.”
