On March 1st we published a blog discussing Emma Gonzalez, the student activist from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Her identity as a bisexual woman of color and her efforts to fight gun violence in the United States go hand-in-hand, as we pointed out that queer people have been at the forefront of every prominent liberation movement.
March 24th was the March for Our Lives, and witnessing the mass support the students had for their cause was inspiring to me (the author of this post who was in attendance on Pennsylvania Avenue) and many others. The march is estimated to have been made up of 1.2 to 2 million people in the US, with several hundred thousand in Washington, DC alone. Emma Gonzalez and her fellow student organizers/activists have our continued and full support.
Young people in the United States are familiar with gun violence. Youth gather in schools and fear that they will be victims. This fear is familiar to LGBT people as well. Recent events such as the Pulse nightclub shooting in June 2016 in addition to a past of police raiding of queer spaces creates the emboldened feeling of pride of being in a space such as gay bar or club. Queer people gathering in one place is safer than it used to be, but it still paints targets on our backs. The illegalization of sales of assault weapons will prevent another tragedy such as Pulse.
