Pulse Massacre

Orlando’s ABC affiliate reports: More than 150,000 people gathered in downtown Orlando Saturday for the 12th annual Come Out with Pride festival, the first since the Pulse nightclub massacre five months ago. The event, which celebrates the LGBTQ+ community, began at noon and featured an afternoon parade through Thornton Park. Pulse employees and relatives of the slain served as parade …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: The city of Orlando has reached a deal to buy the Pulse nightclub for $2.25 million and plans to eventually transform the site of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history into a memorial. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer told the Orlando Sentinel on Monday that the city won’t rush to change the club, once a mainstay …

The Windy City Times reports: A Far South Side grade school will not co-host a haunted house that contained, among other depictions, a representation of the June 2016 shootings at the Pulse nightclub, according to CPS officials. Fernwood Elementary School, 10041 S. Union Ave., was advertised by promoters as the location of a haunted house entitled The Room: A Journey …

Pink News recaps: A mother who lost her son in the Orlando Pulse massacre has spoken out ahead of the Presidential election. Christopher Leinonen died in the horrific attack in June, when a gunman opened fire in the Pulse gay club, killing 49 people and injuring 53. “Think about Christopher. He lost his right to vote. You still have the …

Via press release: Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, released a new digital ad in Florida: “Ricardo.” It features Ricardo Negron-Almodovar, an Orlando resident and survivor of the tragic June attack on the Pulse nightclub, who emphasizes the importance of voting to make real change. Today is …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: An Orlando man accused of posting online threats toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in South Florida was indicted Thursday in federal court. According to court documents, Craig Allen Jungwirth, 50, posted threats against the LGBT community in Wilton Manors on Facebook on Aug. 30. Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: When Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen applied for a security job in 2007, he first had to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. The company that hired him, G4S, told the state that a doctor gave Mateen a clean bill of mental health. But after the June killings opened Mateen’s life to nationwide scrutiny, the doctor named …

From Jacksonsville’s ABC affiliate: A Georgia pastor and and conservative political activist was arrested Friday morning on charges of child molestation and aggravated child molestation. Ken Adkins, 56, of St. Simons Island turned himself into police at about 9 a.m., according to officials with Georgia Bureau of Investigation. GBI was requested on Aug. 12 to assist officials with the accusations …

The Daily Beast recaps: Ellen Page and Ian Daniel are at the home of an Orlando man named Eddie. It’s been five days since his friends Juan Guerrero and Christopher Andrew Leinonen were killed during a friend’s 21st birthday party at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, two of the 49 people killed during the worst incident of violence against LGBT people …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: Orlando Health and Florida Hospital will not bill survivors of the Pulse nightclub massacre for out-of-pocket medical expenses, officials announced Wednesday. Instead, the hospitals will write off an estimated $5.5 million or more in care. “The pulse shooting was a horrendous tragedy for the victims, their families and our entire community,” Orlando Health President and CEO …

Orlando’s ABC affiliate reports: First responder Gerry Realin worked nearly round-the-clock after the Pulse terror attack on June 12. But now, because of the PTSD that followed that tragic night, his family could lose everything, Realin’s wife said. Jessica Realin said a loophole in state law lets police departments off the hook when their officers get PTSD. They said a …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: Dozens of field offices backing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign will soon be opening across the state – and one appears to have been set up across the street from the Pulse nightclub. The office on the 2000 block of South Orange Avenue was closed Friday afternoon, but dozens of chairs were set up and signs backing …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: The Pulse nightclub shooter’s father attended Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s rally in Kissimmee Monday night. Cameras captured Seddique Mateen, Omar Mateen’s father, standing in the crowd. He later told a reporter for WPTV, a Palm Beach-based NBC affiliate, that he wanted to attend the rally as a member of the public and a Clinton supporter. …

Next week Sen. Marco Rubio will keynote an Orlando event hosted by the extremist anti-LGBT Liberty Counsel. The event falls two months to the day after the Pulse Massacre, about which Rubio cried crocodile tears of faux solidarity before declaring that the attack convinced him to run for reelection after all. The Tampa Bay Times asked Rubio how he reconciles …

IMPORTANT UPDATE BELOW. Earlier….. Entertainment Weekly reports: Orlando’s Pulse nightclub will reopen as a memorial for the 49 people killed at the venue in the June 12 mass shooting, its owners announced via Facebook Sunday night. The news was shared on the onePULSE foundation page, a nonprofit established in the aftermath of the attack to “provide financial assistance to the …

Rolling Stone reports: On Wednesday, Christine Leinonen gave one of the most moving, heartwrenching speeches at the Democratic National Convention thus far. The mother of Christopher “Drew” Leinonen, one of the 49 shooting victims killed by Omar Mateen after he opened fire in Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, appeared at the DNC to speak of the loss of her only child …

From the Orlando Sentinel: Michelangelo Dominguez’s mother watched with pride Monday morning as the 13-year-old and other Boy Scouts picked hundreds of weathered American flags from the lawn outside the Dr. Phillips Center in Orlando. He helped collect mini-flagpoles stuck in the dirt around wet teddy bears and melted candles left for the 49 victims killed more than a month …

Via Billboard Magazine: On Tuesday, GLAAD, in cooperation with Interscope Records, released a lyric video for the single “Hands,” which benefits the victims and families affected by the Orlando mass shooting. “Hands” — which was released July 5 — tells the story of the power held in one’s hands: “They can break the world/ They can change it too.” The single …

My latest column has been posted to the website of Britain’s Pride Life Magazine, where instead of my usual recap on the state of LGBT rights in America, I’ve written about today’s one month anniversary of the Pulse Massacre and how June 12th went for me. As many of you know, I’m from Orlando and today’s piece is in response …

From the Associated Press: Police arrested 10 protesters who were holding a sit-in Monday in the lobby of the building where U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio has his Orlando office on the month anniversary of a massacre at a gay nightclub. The protesters were arrested on misdemeanor trespass charges when the building closed to the public Monday evening, at the request …