Dan patrick on gay club deaths

At moments like this we're expected to find words that encompass a full range of emotions - grief, anger, resignation, outrage, and, we would like to believe, resolve and hope. I don't know how to do that, not in an America where so many have become inured to mass shootings. Saturday night's gay nightclub shooting in Orlando is the worst such in American history.

Should that matter? Is it more horrific than any school shooting? How can one make any moral comparisons? And that's without shifting back to recall the carnage, much of it state-sanctioned, of the last century. The previous worst such event - a fire in a New Orleans gay clubthe Upstairs Lounge that killed 32 back in - has been lost to memory.

This event, the most horrific of all, is just the most recent episode of anti-LGBT violence. We often hear about an epidemic of anti-trans violence in this country, directed predominantly toward African-American women, but the fact is that violence is endemic. Twenty to 30 women are murdered every year, and have been for decades.

The annual Trans Day of Remembrance was created to mourn and memorialize those victims, and the inaugural Memorial Day was in ! Just as anti-trans violence is endemic, so is anti-gay violence. The gay bashings occur less frequently, but they occur throughout the country, including gay havens like New York and D.

Individuals and couples are the usual targets, many of which, unlike the anti-trans violence which often is domestic to some degree, are purely targets of an amorphous hate, as were the club patrons in Orlando. What I fear today is that the nomination of Trump has signaled to the haters that it is acceptable to get violent, to remove their self-imposed restraints, and act out their simmering self-loathing-induced hatred.

OP-ED: 'Anti-LGBT Violence Is Endemic in America'

We are fortunate that we have in our community, from the local to national level, strong anti-violence advocacy groups. Led by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programswe record hate crimes and share best practices with local governments and advocacy groups. We support and succor those most in need, raise funds to help the survivors and families of the dead, and interact with the FBI and local law enforcement.

This massacre, though, is bigger than anything we've confronted as a community. Wandering through the DC Pride Festival today, whose theme is, appropriately enough, LivePride, with its multiple meanings, I just read that the President has labeled this crime an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime. The murderer had sworn allegiance to the leader of Daesh, known as ISIS here in America, which has claimed credit for the attack, and was allegedly inspired by his disgust at the sight of two men kissing in Miami.

It seems that being openly gay or trans in America is still a radical act of living. Events are spiraling out of control. The viciously homophobic and transphobic Lt. Gov of Texas, Dan Patrick, posted a vicious tweet near the time of the slaughter. In an era of extremism and assault rifles, daily gun deaths and gag orders on physicians against speaking out for gun control, the emboldened fascists of America are having a wet dream - Islamic extremists slaughtering gay people, in a club that was advertising black and Latina drag queens.

Respond positively. This work of art, like many others, has the ability to uplift us, in the LGBT community and elsewhere, and to enable us to persevere with the hard work of creating community and a better America.