One year after celebrating the most joyous pride month in US history with the Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in this country, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and the nation as a whole are now in mourning. As of this writing, at least 50 people are dead and 53 were injured when a madman unleashed hell inside a gay nightclub in the wee hours of Sunday, June 12.
This is by far the worst mass shooting in American history.
Law enforcement officials identified the shooter as Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old American citizen who lives in Port St. Lucie, Fla. He was killed in a shootout with police inside the Pulse nightclub. In explaining a possible motive, Mateen's father told media that his son became "very angry" after seeing two men kiss in downtown Miami a few months ago. Authorities are calling this an act of terrorism.
The nation has been through this so many times in the last decade that we might as well lower our flags to half-mast on a permanent basis. We were horrified by the slaughter of 27 children and adults at a school in Newtown, Conn., in 2012. We were aghast at the murder of 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007. The body count in Orlando bumps those two mass shootings way down on this country's grizzly and growing tally.
