Nearly two years since Carrboro mayor Lydia Lavelle celebrated marriage equality by getting married to her longtime partner, she was again surrounded in the same place by the LGBTQ community and her town.
This time it was to honor the victims of the largest mass shooting in American history, which was directed at patrons of a gay nightclub in Orlando.
“I first started attending gay bars when I was in college,” Lavelle said. “Many of my generation know what it’s like to say ‘I’m going to the bar this weekend.’ You didn’t have to identify the bar, everyone knew which bar you were going to.”
Because of the significance these establishments have in the LGBTQ community, former Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt said the Orlando shooting felt like a bomb was dropped on his house.
He said he frequently visited gay bars during his time as a teacher in Charlotte.
Carrboro Aldermen stand at the vigil held for victims of the Orlando Shooting.
“If I had been out I would have lost my job, that was made very clear to me,” Kleinschmidt said. “That’s how I lived every day, waiting for Friday and Saturday night and even then being terrified that I would be seen going into the sanctuary that was the nightclub.”
At the very establishment that was created to be a safe haven, Omar Mateen took the lives of 49 people and injured 53 more.
“I can see my face in many of the faces that died,” said former UNC student body president candidate Emilio Vicente. “It’s very important we acknowledge who specifically in the LGBTQ community was targeted. It was queer, Latino, Latina and people of color.”
Many who spoke at the gathering said they were lost for words.
Vice chancellor Winston Crisp said he doesn’t know what to say to concerned parents anymore.
So far UNC has had two groups of incoming first-year student orientation, some of whom were experiencing the campus for the first time.
The first group arrived the day a school shooting took place at UCLA. The second group arrived Monday.
“I can’t say the way I used to say ‘send them here, we don’t care who they are or what adjective you put in front of them, we’ll love them all just the same,'” Crisp said. “And that breaks my heart.”
The gathering ended with a moment of silence for the victims and their families.
Orange County Commissioners also sent a letter to local government leadership in Orlando on Tuesday night.
A GoFundMe has been created to benefit those impacted by the shooting.
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