61. The Pulse Nightclub Shooting

Snarky Opener (0:00)

Even when there is a major act of violence committed against gay people, conservatives would much rather call it an act of terrorism than a hate crime.

You nasties, it's both.

Episode Introduction (0:29)

Hello, my LGBTQuties, and welcome back to another episode of A Jaded Gay. I'm Rob Loveless and, today, I am a jaded gay, just because I've been running around non-stop.

Not giving myself enough time to relax and decompress, and I know I should be. And I'm trying to be more aware of that, but I just haven't been taking enough time for myself.

So, I need to start doing that, and I'm hoping to start doing that going forward. But alas, here we are.

Pulse Nightclub Shooting (0:51)

And just warning you, upfront, today's episode is going to be heavier. We are talking about the Pulse nightclub shooting, which happened seven years ago.

And while this is a painful part of our community's history, I still think it's really important to discuss because, you know, especially among my straight friends, I hear them say, Yeah, but things are better for gay people today.

And yeah, things are better. But I think I've said this before, that doesn't mean things are great for gay people.

And things like Matthew Shepard's death in the '90s and the Pulse shooting show how much hate and hostility the LGBTQ+ community continues to face.

And hopefully, this is a reminder that we need our community and our allies to really step the f up. Thoughts and prayers are not enough.

We need people to practice tolerance and acceptance, especially politicians, who I believe their inflammatory language gets people riled up and think violence is then acceptable.

So, we'll get into it, but first tarot time.

Tarot (1:43) 

So, the card for this episode is the Nine of Pentacles in reverse. As you know, Pentacles is tied to the element of earth.

So, it's very grounding. It's feminine energy, which is asking us to reflect and meditate.

And Pentacles is kind of a funny card because it's usually tied to prosperity, but I really like to think of it more as emotional prosperity. In numerology, the number nine means we're close to the end of a cycle.

You know, we go from one to ten, so we're almost there. We're nearing completion, and there's solitude in that. But when we draw this card in reverse, it's really focusing on our self-worth.

You know, sometimes we might be questioning if we're enough, whether we're valuable, and it can signify that we really need to focus on ourselves and really kind of practice self-love to increase our self-worth and know that we matter.

And usually, that comes from within, whether it's speaking up for what we want, investing in new skills, doing something nice for ourself, something like that.

So really just ties this overarching theme of discovering our self-worth and being worthy for ourselves. And with that in mind, let's get into the episode.

A Brief Background of Pulse and Orlando (2:34)

So let me start off by saying blanket trigger warning. This episode is going to be extremely uncomfortable.

I'm sure many of you are already familiar with this, but if you're not, this is a really tragic, dark, scary topic we're talking about. So, get ready for it. Anyway, here's a little background info.

So, Pulse was a gay bar, dance club, and nightclub in Orlando, Florida, founded by Barbara Poma and Ron Legler, and opened on July 2, 2004.

Barbara actually had a brother named John who died from AIDS in 1991. And according to its marketing staff, the nightclub was named for John's pulse to live on.

Barbara wanted Pulse to be more than just another gay club, and it was actually a community hub for HIV prevention, breast cancer awareness, and immigrant rights.

Pulse also partnered with educational and advocacy groups such as Come Out with Pride, Equality Florida, and the Zebra Coalition.

And also, important to note, Orlando has large Hispanic and LGBTQ+ populations.

Now I couldn't find numbers from 2016 for reference, but according to the 2022 Census Bureau, 34% of Orlando's population is Hispanic.

And in 2021 it topped ParkSleepFly’s list for most LGBTQ-friendly travel destinations in the United States. Now, I couldn't find precise data regarding Orlando's LGBTQ population, but the Williams Institute estimated that 5% of its residents are LGBTQ+, which is roughly 93,000 residents.

So, with that in mind, let's turn our attention to Saturday, June 11, 2016. Pulse was hosting its Latin Night, which was a weekly Saturday night event.

Apparently, there were about 320 people inside at the club, which was serving last-call drinks at around 2 am on Sunday, June 12.

RuPaul's Drag Race contestant and drag queen Kenya Michaels was performing right at this time, and that's when 29-year-old Omar Mateen entered the club.

The Shooter (4:19)

And I really don't want to spend too much time on him because I want this episode to be focused on more of the victims of this horrific tragedy and the reactions and responses that followed.

But we do need to get some facts out on the table about Omar.

So, he was born in New York to Afghan American parents and later moved to Florida as a child, where he displayed an interest in violence and his behavioral problems in school included struggling academically and receiving numerous suspensions.

And here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:

“While a sophomore attending Spectrum, an alternative high school for students with behavioral issues, classmates told The Washington Post that Mateen cheered in support of the hijackers during the September 11 attacks and that he stated that Osama bin Laden was his uncle who taught him how to shoot AK-47s, all of this before knowing that bin Laden was the mastermind of the attacks.

After his outburst, Mateen's father arrived at the school to pick him up and slapped him in the face, with Mateen later being suspended for five days after the incident. Soon after the September 11 attacks, "he shocked other students on his school bus by imitating an exploding plane", reported The New York Times.”

He went on to work as a recruit for the Florida Department of Corrections, and then from 2007 until June 2016 he worked for British-based security firm G4S Secure Solutions.

Now, under Florida State law, for him to work as an armed guard, the company was required either to make a full psychiatric evaluation of Omar or to administer a quote-unquote validated, written psychological test, but there were some red flags with how the screening was conducted.

Here's an excerpt:

“Carol Nudelman, the psychologist listed on the character certification submitted by G4S to the state, said she stopped working for the company in 2005. After the shooting, Nudelman, who according to the records of the security company G4S, was said to have evaluated and cleared Mateen for his firearms license in 2007, denied ever meeting him or having lived in Florida at the time and said she had stopped her practice in Florida in January 2006.

G4S said Mateen was not actually interviewed by a psychologist, but rather, a psychologist evaluated the results of a standard test used in job screenings, and his test was evaluated by the firm that bought Nudelman's practice, Headquarters for Psychological Evaluation.”

And it turns out that between 2006 and 2016 over 1500 forms were submitted erroneously listing Nudelman's name, including Omar's.

Upon investigation, it turned out Dr. Syed Shafeeq Rahman, a family psychologist who had close ties with Omar's family, gave him a medical clearance.

Now G4S admitted Mateen's form had a quote-unquote clerical error and clarified that he had instead been cleared by Rahman, who was from the same firm that bought the wrongly named doctor's practice.

Rahman had not interviewed Mateen but evaluated the results of a standard test used in the screening he undertook before being hired.

However, in 2013, G4S removed Omar from his job at a courthouse because of threats he made toward co-workers, including one threat where he claimed he would have al Qaeda kill a deputy's family.

Now they still kept him as an employee and transferred him to a kiosk at a gated community in Palm Beach County, but never told the community or its property management company about why he was moved there.

He also visited Saudi Arabia twice in March 2011 and again in March 2012. And in May 2013, the FBI investigated Mateen after he made inflammatory remarks while working as a security guard.

He had told his coworkers that his family was linked to al Qaeda and that he had joined Hezbollah. After 10 months, the investigation was closed, and it was determined that Mateen was not a threat.

However, in July 2014 he came to the FBI's attention again when he was linked to Moner Mohammad Abu Salha, an American who had traveled to Syria and committed a suicide bombing in late May 2014.

Now, despite all this, Omar had no adult criminal record and held an active concealed carry permit and an armed security guard license.

And he was also married twice. Once in April 2009 to a woman he met on Myspace. They separated after four months and divorced in July 2011.

And in 2011 he met his second wife on a dating site, and they were married in September of that year. They had a son together in 2013 but his wife reportedly left Omar in December 2015.

And two weeks before the Pulse shooting, Omar legally purchased a Sig Sauer SIG MCX semi-automatic rifle and a 9mm Glock 17 handgun.

He also tried to buy body armor and 1000 rounds of bulk ammunition at another shop, but the staff became suspicious and turned him away.

And prior to the attack, he posted the following on Facebook:

"The real muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west ... You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes...now taste the Islamic state [sic] vengeance". 

The Shooting (8:49)

So going back to the Pulse shooting. Sunday, June 12 at 2:02 am, Omar bypassed Officer Adam Gruler, a uniformed off-duty Orlando Police Department officer working extra duty as a security guard, and opened fire on the crowd.

At first, some of the patrons at Pulse thought the gunfire was part of the music or firecrackers, and because of the loud music and darkness of the club, there was a lot of confusion about what was happening.

A bartender took cover beneath a glass bar. Another person shielded herself in the bathroom by covering herself with bodies.

And Imran Yousuf, a recently discharged Marine Corps veteran working as a nightclub bouncer, immediately recognized the sounds as gunfire and ran over to a locked door that people were huddled around, too terrified to move. He opened it and allowed approximately 70 people to escape.

Meanwhile, Gruler witnessed Omar shooting two patrons attempting to escape through an emergency exit, and he fired two shots at the gunman.

However, Gruler was only armed with a handgun, which was severely disadvantaged against the rifle Omar was using.

And upon being shot at, Omar went back into the nightclub and continued shooting as he walked through Pulse.

Apparently, he sometimes fired at bodies without checking whether they were already dead.

At 2:04, so just two minutes later, additional officers arrived and exchanged gunfire with Omar, who moved deeper into the nightclub and began a hostage situation in one of the bathrooms.

And in less than five minutes, Omar had fired approximately 200 rounds, pausing only to reload.

So, he's now in the women's bathroom, and his rifle jammed, which he discarded before switching to his Glock 17 pistol, and he also claimed he was carrying explosives.

Meanwhile, people trapped inside Pulse were calling and texting family and friends and 9-1-1.

In fact, a total of 603 calls to 9-1-1, were made by victims, family members and friends of victims, bystanders, and rescue workers during the entire shooting.

At 2:09, the club posted on their Facebook saying, everyone get out of Pulse and keep running. And over the next 45 minutes, approximately 100 police officers were dispatched to the scene.

At one point, Omar stuck his head out one of the bathroom windows, and police shot at him.

After about 15 to 20 minutes, SWAT arrived and had the officers withdraw, since they were quote unquote not really in tactical gear.

And at that time, the last shot by Omar was fired between 2:10 and 2:18 am.

At 2:22 am, he placed a 9-1-1, call in which he referred to the Boston Marathon bombers as his quote-unquote homeboys, and made reference to Abu Salha, that American citizen we spoke about, who died in a suicide bombing in Syria in 2014.

And he went on to make two additional calls throughout the shooting. Meanwhile, police worked to evacuate people from the club.

Between those who were killed and those who were injured in hiding, there were so many people lying on the dance floor. In fact, one rescuing officer shouted, if you're alive, raise your hand.

By 2:35 am police had managed to extract nearly all of the injured from the nightclub, except for 12 people who were hiding in dressing rooms. And Omar remained in the bathroom with the hostages.

At 2:45 am, he then called News 13 of Orlando and said, "I'm the shooter. It's me. I'm the shooter." He then said he was carrying out the shooting on behalf of ISIS and began speaking rapidly in Arabic.

Between 2:48 and 3:27 am, police hostage negotiators spoke with Omar by telephone three times, and he claimed he had bombs strapped to his body and had a vehicle in the parking lot with enough explosives to take out city blocks.

At 4:21 so more than two hours after the first shots rang out, eight of the hostages escaped after police had removed an air conditioning unit from an exterior wall.

Around 4:29 am, Omar told negotiators that he planned to strap explosive vests to four hostages, strategically place them in different corners of the building, and detonate them in 15 minutes.

At that point, Orlando PD officers decided to end negotiations and prepared to blow their way in. At 5:02, Orlando Police began attempting to breach the building's wall.

Due to the structure of the bathroom's exterior wall, they were unable to blow open a big enough hole.

But at 5:07, 14 SWAT officers successfully breached the building when a policeman drove a BearCat armored vehicle through a wall in the northern bathroom.

They then used two flashbangs to distract Omar and shot at him. And at 5:14 am, he engaged the officers. At least 11 officers fired about 150 bullets, and he was shot eight times.

And at 5:17 am, it was reported that the shooter was down. And then the remaining hostages were searched by police for guns and explosives.

Aftermath & Reactions (13:12)

So, in his rampage, Omar killed 49 people and wounded 53. Over 90% of the victims were of Hispanic background, and half of those were of Puerto Rican descent.

And this attack is the deadliest act of violence against LGBTQ+ people, surpassing the 1973 UpStairs Lounge arson attack.

And it's also the deadliest terror attack in the United States since the September 11 attacks in 2001.

The Pulse nightclub shooting was also the deadliest mass shooting by a single shooter in US history, up until the Las Vegas shooting that took place on October 1, 2017.

And as a gay man, this attack was the first time that I realized, like, oh shit, people actually hate us that much that they'll kill us. I mean, I'd only been out for a year and a half at that time.

Obama was still president, and that June was actually the first time I ever went to Pride in Pittsburgh.

And that night, I was out till three in the morning with some friends, and later Sunday, I had to drive across the state to visit family.

And my friend was on her phone, and she was like, oh shit, there was a shooting at a club.

Now at that point, details were still coming out, so it wasn't specified it was a gay club, but when we did realize what happened, I felt, like, terrified.

And to be completely honest, to this day, I still feel scared going to gay quote unquote safe spaces because I'm always wondering, is something like this going to happen again?

Anyway, following the attack, rumors and reports came out speculating on Omar's sexuality, that he was gay, but the FBI was unable to verify any claims.

His father said that he had seen his son get angry after seeing a gay couple kiss in front of his family at the Bayside Marketplace in Miami months prior to the shooting, which he suggested might have been a motivating factor.

However, in 2018 it was determined by Omar's cell phone records that the final selection of Pulse appeared to have been made based on the lack of security, not specifically because it was a gay club.

And people were frustrated because some felt it downplayed that this was a hate crime.

But I think it's important to note that this was an act of terrorism and an act of hate directed at the LGBTQ+ community.

And while we're talking about hate, I think it's really important to note that there were some really terrible reactions to the Pulse shooting.

I mean, I remember reading a Buzzfeed article highlighting the disgusting things people were tweeting about the mass shooting. And I couldn't find it when I was preparing for this episode.

I'm wondering if the article was taken down or if the tweets were deleted because, obviously, in more recent years, a lot of hate speech and false information has been flagged and removed from Twitter.

But I remember seeing the F slur getting thrown around a lot. People were rejoicing that it was gay people that have been killed and they deserved it for their quote-unquote, lifestyle choices.

And honestly, the rhetoric kind of mirrored reactions during the AIDS crisis.

So just a reminder that conservatives are all pro-life until that bundle of cells is anything other than a straight, cis, white, rich male that votes red anyway.

As the events of that night unfolded, then, Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency, as did Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer.

President Obama ordered that the federal government provide any assistance necessary to pursue the investigation and support the community, and issued a proclamation for United States' flags upon nonprivate grounds in buildings around the country and abroad, to be lowered to half-staff until sundown June 16.

Police forces across the country announced plans to increase security at LGBT landmarks such as the Stonewall Inn and at Pride Month events, including {ride parades.

Also, I think it's important to note that in the days following the Pulse shooting, Democratic lawmakers filibustered for 15 hours on the floor of the Senate in an attempt to stop people on terrorist watch lists from purchasing firearms.

But the proposals were defeated, largely along party lines.

Immediately following the shooting, many people lined up to donate blood at local blood donation centers and bloodmobile locations when OneBlood, a regional blood donation agency, urged people to donate.

But remember, the FDA doesn't like gay blood, and the fact that surge in blood donations was for a shooting that happened at a gay club shown a spotlight on the FDA's blood band that's based on fear and not science.

Here's another excerpt from Wikipedia:

“Despite expressions of frustration and disapproval by a number of gay and bisexual men, and LGBT activists across the country and a group of Democratic lawmakers urging the ban to be lifted, the FDA stated on June 14 that it had no plans to change the regulation and will reevaluate its policies "as new scientific information becomes available."

Meanwhile, Equality, Florida, the state's largest LGBT rights group, started a fundraising page to aid the victims and their families, and in the first nine hours, they raised more than $765,000.

And by September 2016 they raised over $7.85 million.

On July 7 of 2016, Pulse owner Barbara Poma formed a charity organization called One Pulse Foundation, and on November 8, 2016, the city of Orlando announced plans to buy the nightclub for $2.25 million, to turn the site into a memorial for the victims and survivors of the shooting.

However, in December of that year, the deal didn't go through because Barbara cited personal and emotional connections to the site as the main reasons as to why she chose not to sell the property.

But since then, One Pulse has been raising funds for a memorial museum and scholarships.

Also, there is a Pulse interim memorial in Orlando, and I'll include the link to that in the episode description.

Episode Closing (18:07)

And obviously, that all took place seven years ago, but since then, I feel like we've seen an increase in inflammatory language in politics.

There's been more threats against LGBTQ+ people. There's been an increase in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

And I do feel that really, with all that hostility, it can lead to an increase in violence against the LGBTQ+ community, and that can be really difficult to deal with, because it's like, what can we do?

We're just one person. We're not on Capitol Hill making the laws. We can't necessarily have people change their minds and opinions. So, what can we do?

And I mean, honestly, I think it goes back to the tarot. We need to realize our self-worth and our self-worth as a community. We need to keep raising our voices when inequalities happen.

We need to speak out against violence. We need to speak out against the things that are afflicting the LGBTQ+ community.

We need to share this with our friends, our families, our allies so that they are actually aware of what's going on and that they can better support us and speak up for us as well because we can't do this alone.

And I know this is obviously a super grim topic to talk about. It's really uncomfortable.

I'm not feeling great right now, but it's important that we don't forget these things because this is an example of why we need equal protections and why we can't tolerate hate, and we need to speak out against hate.

And I'd also encourage you to donate to One Pulse if you're able to because I do think it's important to preserve this history, as terrible as it is, just as a reminder that we need to keep standing up and fighting for ourselves, for our community, and for our equal rights and protections.

So, thank you all for listening. Please consider sharing this episode with your family and friends and straight allies so that we don't forget this terrible event, that the victims' memories live on, and that we can have more supporters on our side to help protect us.

Connect with A Jaded Gay (19:33)

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And remember, every day is all we have, so you got to make your own happiness.

Mmm-bye.