“Invisible During My Own Crisis”: Responses of LGBT People of Color to the Orlando Shooting

ABSTRACT

On June 12, 2016, the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida was the target of one of the country’s deadliest mass shootings. Pulse, a gay nightclub, was hosting a Latin Pride Night the evening of the tragedy, which resulted in the death of 49 victims and 53 casualties, over 90% of whom were lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Latinx people, specifically. The present research investigates the narrative responses from LGBT people of color (LGBT-POC) following the tragedy. Results included an analysis of 94 participant narrative responses. Results were collected online from a sample of LGBT-POC with varying sexual, gender, and racial identities. Thematic analysis revealed four major themes: (1) Violence is Not New for LGBT-POC; (2) Personal Identification with Victims; (3) Lack of Intersectionality in Others’ Responses to Orlando; and (4) Acknowledgment of Intersectionality across LGBT-POC. Discussion focuses on describing the ways in which LGBT-POC responded to the shooting regarding their multiple minority identities. Implications of this research reinforce the need for continued intersectional research with LGBT-POC.

KEYWORDS:

• Hate crime
• intersectionality
• Latinx
• LGBT-POC
• minority stress
• Orlando

Notes

^1. We use Latinx to avoid the use of gendered language (i.e., Latino, Latina, Latino/a) and to be inclusive of individuals with Latin American ancestry or with other Spanish-speaking country ancestry who do not endorse gender identities within a gender binary.