IN a single moment at the hands of a lone gunman, innocent lives were taken in what has been described as the worst mass shooting in American history.
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Our own prime minister, Malcolm Turnball, was joined by leaders across the globe in declaring the murder of more than 50 people in an Orlando night club as an ‘attack on all of us’.
The shooting has been declared an act of terrorism carried out by Omar Mateen who, it has been reported, chose to target a gay night club after feeling enraged by the sight of two men kissing in public only days before.
An act of terror it no doubt is. Embedded at its foundation is violence and hate designed to destabilise our freedom with fear.
It divides and dismantles unity and feeds intolerance, discrimination and hostility.
But do we separate from an ‘act of terror’ the fact this appalling tragedy is also a hideous hate crime impelled by homophobia?
If we are shocked and outraged by ‘an act of terror’ that took the lives of innocent people, we should be as equally horrified by the homophobic motivations.
Most of us will not experienced first-hand the extreme and direct impacts of hate-fuelled crime or violence. But for our gay and lesbian communities, hate, violence and fear is a reality.
It can be a sideways look on the street, a flippant remark or offensive ‘joke’. It can be a physical attack over the clothes you wear, the person you choose to hold hands with. It can start on the school playground and be endured for a lifetime.
This was an attack on our freedom. But where does that equality of freedom begin when homophobia is pervasive and the right to live proudly as who you are without fear, for many, does not exist?
Are you only granted that freedom without question if you are a white, Christian, heterosexual?
And do you react differently if you view this atrocity as a gay-hate crime?
If we are going to accept this awful moment in our history as ‘an attack on us all’, we accept that it is an attack on all human beings regardless of race, religion, gender and sexual preference.
It can not be generalised, nor should it be any less atrocious because of where it happened and who it happened to.
And when we do that, honestly and with purpose, without an agenda and with open eyes and hearts, we stand alongside each other as equals.
