Leaders of Kansas City’s LGBT community are dealing with a mix of emotions in a roller coaster year.
“One year ago we received such a great victory from the Supreme Court,” said Hamburger Mary’s owner Jeff Edmondson. “And then one year later struck with the most devastating, deadliest attack [by mass shooting] on any location in the United States.”
It's a crime that John Long, the publisher KC LGBT magazine Camp, characterizes as a hate crime aimed at the gay community.
“It does look like a hate crime. A man who didn’t like homosexuals. Who was upset when he saw men kissing and went in and specifically targeted a nightclub,” said Long.
Long says despite this, LGBT people across the country are not alone in sharing the grief.
“Whether it’s school children or whether it’s people in a nightclub. People still see them as victims, and that’s what I think draws the compassion of everyone is that innocent people through no fault of their own were killed by hate,” said Long.
Adam Gebhardt of the Mid-America Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce shares the sentiment.
“One thing that’s important to me at least, is that it’s so easy to call this an event that occurred against gay people,” said Gebhardt. “But I think something else that comes of this is that there were African-Americans, there were Latinos, there were straight allies involved in this nightclub shooting.”
Many in LGBT communities across the country, including here in KC, are struggling with how to handle the attack.
“When you’re being attacked for just being who you are, there’s almost no way to not take it personally,” said Edmondson, who described the state of KC’s LGBT as “devastated.”
Others are turning their reaction to politics.
“A lot of people are frustrated with gun control,” said Edmondson. “I hope it will not only turn into action in a positive way locally, but nationally as well. To motivate our country to not allow situations or do what needs to be done to not allow situations like this to ever occur again.”
------
Brian Abel can be reached at brian.abel@kshb.com.
