Members of the LGBTQIA community carry a giant rainbow flag as they march against discrimination during the first Pride March in Davao City on June 1. Gay rights advocates here condemned the massacre inside a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. (Ace R. Morandante/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY — The LGBT community here expressed condemnation of the Orlando, Florida shooting that killed at least 49 people, and injured 53 others.
Astrid Padillo, one of the founders of the United Lesbians of Davao, said they are mourning with the lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender community in Orlando in the shooting last Sunday that is tagged as the deadliest mass shooting in the United States’ history.
“This is a lesson for everyone. Even if our calls will come to reality. Even if we see the LGBT flag raised in every building of any country, the fight for equality is unceasing and never ending,” Padillo told Davao Today, Monday, June 13.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation identified the suspect as Omar Mateen, 29, who was born in New York.
The FBI said that they interviewed Mateen twice in 2013 and 2014 for alleged “terrorist ties”.
Resist Islamophobia
Meanwhile, peace and sexual diversity rights advocate, Mags Maglana said that the public should “resist the temptation to give in to Islamophobia.”
“The investigation in the coming days will provide a better understanding of who the gunman Omar Mateen was, his profile and motivations,” Maglana said.
“We should also be prepared to resist the huge temptation to give in to Islamophobia, and to pit Muslims and the LGBTQIA (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual) community against each other.
Maglana said the belief systems that convinced the suspect “that non-heterosexuals deserved to be killed” and that allowed him to walk armed into a bar and kill civilians should be condemned.
“Mateen may have been killed in the raid, but the beliefs and institutions that propped him up will remain unchallenged if people waste their energies on only condemning what have been set up as the convenient ‘enemy’,” said Maglana.
Unaccepted in Islam
For her part, Amirah Lidasan national chairperson of Suara Bangsamoro said the act “can never be accepted in any religion or culture that teaches how to value life in general and respect the lives of others.”
“No one should glorify the killing even if it is being espoused by groups who use the language of Islam in their criminal acts. Islam and the traditions of Prophet Muhammad teach believers to be understanding of other beliefs, faith, practices and religion,” said Lidasan.
Lidasan said the Islamic religion reminded them that there should be no compulsion in religion.
“Rather, Muslims are compelled to do ‘dawah’ or spread the word of Allah through the teachings and best practices of Muslims,” she said.
Lidasan said the public should not be hasty in judging his words and actions are glorified by Muslims all over the world.
“We are horrified by this criminal act,” she said.
“Suara Bangsamoro believes that the struggle for freedom from oppression is what binds Muslims with other people of faiths, nations and people with different sexual preferences,” Lidasan added.
First pride march in Davao
John Bengan, a professor at the University of the Philippines Mindanao said the incident “casts a shadow” on what should have been a time of solidarity on the month of June which is commemorated worldwide as the Pride Month.
“We just held our own first Pride March here in Davao and this tragedy casts a shadow on what should have been a time of solidarity,” Bengan said.
He said, in spite of the significant strides that advocates had made in recent years, the incident “is a disturbing reminder that gay and transgender men and women are primary targets of hate crime, even in supposedly progressive nations in the West.”
“We know that the U.S. has been struggling with gun control policies, but perhaps it’s also important to recognize that the shooter went after people like us–the so-called queers of society,” he said.
‘Act of terror’
US President Barack Obama has condemned the incident, calling it an “act of terror”.
He described the Pulse nightclub as “more than a night club.” “It was a place of solidarity, empowerment where people would come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds and to advocate for their civil rights,” he said.
Obama also reminded the public of the debate on the prevalence of firearms in the US.
“This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or in a movie theater, or in a nightclub. And we have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be,” the US president said. (davaotoday.com)
