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Culture of homophobia and gun violence
Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan failed to recognize in his June 17 and June 24 e-Kilili newsletters (his response to me in this newspaper notwithstanding) is that the LGBTQ and allied persons who died were targeted precisely because they identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and because they happened to be straight allies who were celebrating with their LGBTQ friends. What happened in Orlando did not happen in a vacuum: what occurred there was the result of a culture of homophobia and gun violence. What happened in Orlando was a hate crime.
I honor the work Congressman Kilili has done on behalf of the LGBTQ community of the CNMI, but that doesn’t excuse the glaring omission in his June 17 newsletter and the lack of a follow-up statement in his June 24 newsletter.
The Congressman’s reasoning is an all too familiar and insidious line of rhetoric espoused by many people in the wake of the Orlando massacre, and one that the stateside LGBTQ community vehemently denounced to remind everyone that the attack happened at a gay nightclub and that those who died were members of the LGBTQ community.
When you gloss over the fact that those who died were killed because they were LGBTQ and allies of LGBTQ people, you deny everyone else the opportunity to hear their stories. That they were lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and were celebrating with their straight allies in a space that was supposed to be safe cannot be overemphasized.
When people in positions of authority and power fail to recognize that the victims were LGBTQ and LGBTQ allies, they give tacit approval to others who would do the same and in doing so, perpetuate homophobia and misunderstanding in our community.
I look forward to working with Congressman Kilili and to continuing this conversation with him and others about meaningful gun control legislation and about eradicating homophobia and anti-LGBTQ violence in our community.
Jonathan Pangelinan Del Rosario Cabrera
Gualo Rai
