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Speaker 3: Ten years ago, on June twelfth, a shooter killed forty
Speaker 3: nine people and injured dozens of others at the Pulse
Speaker 3: nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It was one of the worst
Speaker 3: mass shootings in US history. It remains this country's deadliest
Speaker 3: attack against the LGBTQ plus community, who were the majority
Speaker 3: of the victims, along with mostly LATINUS and Latinas you know.
Speaker 4: I've heard a lot of conversation today about is this terrorism?
Speaker 1: Is it a hate crime?
Speaker 4: No, I would say that it's both without a doubt.
Speaker 3: Well, ultimately, the Pulse massacre was not considered a hate
Speaker 3: crime by the FBI. The fear and the sense of
Speaker 3: loss of safety was immediate for the LGBTQ community across
Speaker 3: the country.
Speaker 5: And that's according to our reporting.
Speaker 3: A decade after the Pulse Nightclub shooting, the trauma and
Speaker 3: the healing is ongoing. The shooter was killed by the
Speaker 3: police in the incident, and while there have been legal cases,
Speaker 3: including charges against the shooter's widow, federal and local police investigations,
Speaker 3: and even feyer requests, there has yet to be any convictions.
Speaker 3: Survivors and the victims' families are still seeking accountability.
Speaker 6: You've got all of that. No memorial, Yeah, I want
Speaker 6: to lack Quarentina area.
Speaker 3: And a way to memorialize the forty nine people who
Speaker 3: lost their lives.
Speaker 7: A decade ago.
Speaker 3: From Futro Media, it's Latino USA. I'm Maria Josa Today Pulse.
Speaker 3: A decade later, we hear from a survivor about his
Speaker 3: journey since that tragic day.
Speaker 8: He tells us what justice.
Speaker 3: Could look like for him and the community of survivors
Speaker 3: and families of the victims, who're also going to look
Speaker 3: at the repercussions of Pulse, how there are new forms
Speaker 3: of violence against the LGBTQ plus community, and how this
Speaker 3: violence now comes in the forms of laws and policies.
Speaker 3: Back in twenty sixteen, Latino US they covered the mass
Speaker 3: shooting at Pulse in the wake of one of our
Speaker 3: nation's biggest tragedies. It is worth remembering that attacks on
Speaker 3: queer people of color in this country are nothing new,
Speaker 3: and Rinaldo Leanos Junior helped with that coverage back then
Speaker 3: as an intern.
Speaker 9: Jacqueline Garcia is from the Real Grand Valley of South Texas.
Speaker 9: She found out hours later that her friend of six years, Frank,
Speaker 9: was one of the forty nine victims.
Speaker 3: Ray has continued to cover the LGBTQ plus community since then.
Speaker 3: I'm going to pass the mic now to him. He
Speaker 3: spoke with Joshua Ernandez Garion. He is one of the
Speaker 3: survivors of Pulse.
Speaker 1: It's June twenty sixteen.
Speaker 9: Georgeua is twenty two years old and a shift manager
Speaker 9: at McDonald's in Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 10: That night, I was supposed to be get off at
Speaker 10: ten pm. I was getting short on my registers, so
Speaker 10: I can't count everything.
Speaker 9: The math isn't mathing, and it's throwing a wrench in
Speaker 9: its plans for the night.
Speaker 6: I say, my friend, they're going to fight with me.
Speaker 9: Georgehua is planning to meet his friends at Pulse to
Speaker 9: dance the night away after a long day of work.
Speaker 1: It's Latin night.
Speaker 9: He finally sorts out the accounting and clocks out at
Speaker 9: around eleven thirty pm. He rushes home to get club ready.
Speaker 10: So I get on to balls at twelve twenty in midnight,
Speaker 10: almost one hour before they close.
Speaker 9: He dashes to the bar and orders a drink. As
Speaker 9: closing time nears, Georgehua heads to the bathroom.
Speaker 6: And then I hear the shot.
Speaker 9: At first, he thinks it's part of the music. His
Speaker 9: gut tells him to take a closer look, and as
Speaker 9: he makes it to the bathroom exit, a group of
Speaker 9: people rush toward h it's him. He realizes what he's
Speaker 9: hearing is gunshots.
Speaker 6: So I say on my mind what I.
Speaker 9: Do In that split second, he decides to stay in
Speaker 9: the restroom with about a dozen other people. Then the
Speaker 9: gunman enters and shoots at them with a semi automatic rifle.
Speaker 6: I get a shot on my left arm.
Speaker 9: He lay there bleeding for more than three hours with
Speaker 9: other victims around him. In that moment, Joshua thinks I'm
Speaker 9: gonna die. Finally the police make their way to him.
Speaker 10: They take me in an amboleance, so I say I
Speaker 10: had to mutch pain on my belt. When they check
Speaker 10: my belly, they see that I have another shot.
Speaker 9: He goes into emergency surgery. The gunshots impacted four of
Speaker 9: his organs.
Speaker 6: I still have a bullet inside of me on my.
Speaker 1: Bike, Joshua says.
Speaker 9: The doctors couldn't not remove the bullets because it could
Speaker 9: risk leaving him paralyzed or dead. His physical recovery has
Speaker 9: been a long journey.
Speaker 10: All that time, my mom and all my family member
Speaker 10: was with me, and I have a nurse in my
Speaker 10: house that she come almost every day.
Speaker 9: It took him about two years to recover, but even
Speaker 9: today he doesn't have full strength in his arm. The
Speaker 9: shooting changed him at his core.
Speaker 6: It's hard miss a lot of trauma.
Speaker 10: Sometime when I when I close my eyes, I see
Speaker 10: when I was on the floor on that restaurant.
Speaker 1: It feels like it happened yesterday.
Speaker 6: So then.
Speaker 1: He's grateful to be alive.
Speaker 9: The Opportunia, yeah, he feels he needs to use his
Speaker 9: voice for the forty nine people who lost their lives
Speaker 9: at night at Poles Arenti, Georgia, is part of a
Speaker 9: collective named POLSE Families and Survivors for Justice. They advocate
Speaker 9: for accountability. They've been raising concerns about what else contributed
Speaker 9: to the high death toll that night. Beyond the shooters
Speaker 9: bullets and motives. For example, could code violations at the
Speaker 9: night club have been partially at fault, like the tall,
Speaker 9: black nylon fence that was on the perimeter of the
Speaker 9: club that night. An investigation by The Orlando Sentinel revealed
Speaker 9: that the fence was not permitted and that it obstructed
Speaker 9: some from escaping during the attack. However, the city told
Speaker 9: the Orlando Sentinel this violation was not considered a safety issue.
Speaker 9: He believes that this contributed to the life's loss that night.
Speaker 9: In twenty twenty four, eight years after the shooting, the
Speaker 9: Orlando Police Department found that a month before the shooting,
Speaker 9: the Orlando Fire Department documented several code violations at Pulse.
Speaker 9: They included broken doors, blocking of exits, and unpermitted renovations,
Speaker 9: which some argue was a big issue when law enforcement
Speaker 9: arrived on the scene, what was mapped out on the
Speaker 9: floor plans didn't match the actual layout of the night club.
Speaker 9: During the police's investigation, the club owners were never interviewedque Yet,
Speaker 9: for him, the owners also have a responsibility. For years, Georgshua,
Speaker 9: other survivors and victims families fought for an investigationation like
Speaker 9: this by authorities, but many were disappointed with its outcome.
Speaker 9: The co owners of the nightclub, Barbara Poma and her husband,
Speaker 9: Rosario Poma, were not charged with anything. Over the years,
Speaker 9: there's also been debate on how to honor the forty
Speaker 9: nine people killed. There have been slow moving efforts to
Speaker 9: build a memorial and a museum to this end. Almost
Speaker 9: a month after the shooting in twenty sixteen, Barbara Poma,
Speaker 9: the co owner of the nightclub, created the One Polse
Speaker 9: Foundation with this very goal, among other commitments, to support
Speaker 9: the survivors and victims' families. But the NBC News affiliate
Speaker 9: station in Orlando found that those promises were not kept.
Speaker 11: Quickly and quietly, goals changed. First that promise to help
Speaker 11: those most impacted by the tragedy. By twenty nineteen, it
Speaker 11: was gone from the mission statement.
Speaker 9: Polma told the NBC station that they were trying not
Speaker 9: to duplicate efforts, and then in late twenty twenty three,
Speaker 9: the foundation dissolved with no memorial and no museum. The
Speaker 9: city of Orlando has now taken over the project to
Speaker 9: build a memorial on the Pulse site.
Speaker 6: I don't feel good with the city either, because they
Speaker 6: know their owner.
Speaker 9: Meanwhile, some Florida leaders continue to push anti LGBTQ actions
Speaker 9: and rhetoric. Just last year, the state painted over the
Speaker 9: Rainbow crosswalk near the Pole site that had been in
Speaker 9: place since the one year anniversary of the shooting, and
Speaker 9: Florida Governor Rond De Santis removed any mention of LGBTQ
Speaker 9: and Latinos during last year's annual honoring of the Pulse victims.
Speaker 9: This past March, the city of Orlando demolished the Pulse site.
Speaker 9: They're expected to open the memorial in twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 9: Georgshua and some of the other survivors and victims' families
Speaker 9: are still skeptical that it'll actually happen.
Speaker 10: It's sad because we do not have no memorial, so
Speaker 10: it's hard to call siera as when I see something
Speaker 10: loya gre.
Speaker 9: They remain committed to seeking accountability for the lives taken
Speaker 9: that night. As we mark ten years since the tragedy,
Speaker 9: Georghua wants the victims to be honored and remembered.
Speaker 10: It is time to they make the memorial, because it's
Speaker 10: time to us hail.
Speaker 9: In the past ten years, these forty nine angels haven't
Speaker 9: been able to rest in peace.
Speaker 10: Georghua says Temple Yes, according to Yah the counseling.
Speaker 1: And it's time to give them that piece.
Speaker 3: That was Latino USA producer Naldo Jr. Coming up on
Speaker 3: Latino USA. We unpacked the reverberations of the Pulse shooting
Speaker 3: for the LGBTQ plus community and talk about how to
Speaker 3: protect their rights and safety. Ten years after Pulse, Stay
Speaker 3: with us Notes.
Speaker 12: Scenaro presents the Chief My Corner with Via Rivera, the
Speaker 12: podcast work Dura, motherhood and pop culture Collide. I'm Ria Rivera,
Speaker 12: your host and your honorary homegirl, bringing when You Raw,
Speaker 12: Combo's healing moments and a little bit of spicy cheese
Speaker 12: me every week Catch the Teeth My Corner with b Rivera,
Speaker 12: an original podcast series from Sonaro. Wherever you listen to.
Speaker 3: Podcasts, it's Latino USA. I'm Marian Hossan. We are looking
Speaker 3: at the impact of the Pulse shooting a decade later
Speaker 3: and how anti LGBTQ plus rhetoric, how the policies and
Speaker 3: violence is actually threaded from that tragedy up until today.
Speaker 3: So to better understand this broader context, I spoke with
Speaker 3: Carl Charles. He's an Atlanta based trans attorney with Lambda Legal,
Speaker 3: an organization that helps fight for the civil rights of
Speaker 3: LGBTQ plus people in the United States. We discuss what
Speaker 3: the state of rights are for this community today. When
Speaker 3: I think back about the Pulse shooting, I remember so
Speaker 3: clearly just feeling this horror, a massacre in basically very
Speaker 3: Latino and Latina centric gay club. When I was younger,
Speaker 3: in my twenties, I was hanging out at all the
Speaker 3: Latino and Latina queer clubs in New York City, and
Speaker 3: so it felt like, oh, my god, this could have
Speaker 3: been me and my friends in the nineteen eighties and nineties.
Speaker 3: And so when you heard about Pulse, what do you
Speaker 3: remember immediately understanding about what had just happened in our country.
Speaker 4: I remember distinctly where I was when I heard about
Speaker 4: the Pulse massacre. It was early in the morning. I
Speaker 4: was waiting for my train back to New York City,
Speaker 4: and I had been in Philadelphia for a trans health
Speaker 4: conference at which I was presenting. I was still early
Speaker 4: in my legal career, and my dear friend called me
Speaker 4: and told me what had happened, and I sobbed sitting
Speaker 4: on the floor of Pennsylvania's Union Station. I can barely
Speaker 4: believe it was ten years ago just telling you that story.
Speaker 5: I mean, you're getting emotional right now, Carl, I am.
Speaker 4: It is a heartbreak that will never leave me, and
Speaker 4: it echoes, it reverberates across time for so many of us,
Speaker 4: and particularly for the Latino and Latina members of the
Speaker 4: LGBTQ community.
Speaker 1: What would you.
Speaker 3: Say has been one of the lasting impacts of what
Speaker 3: happened at Paul's for the LGBTQ community in the United States.
Speaker 4: From a personal perspective, I will share with you that
Speaker 4: when I go to gay clubs, I know where the
Speaker 4: exits are. I listen for particular sounds, I watch who's
Speaker 4: going in, check and see if there's security, and I
Speaker 4: know I am not alone in that assessment. Polls represented
Speaker 4: such a foundation of the Latino Latina LGBTQ plus community
Speaker 4: in Central Florida. There are so many clubs like that
Speaker 4: and places like that across the United States that were
Speaker 4: havens for the LGBTQ plus community, and now people are
Speaker 4: wary of going out and being in those places in
Speaker 4: the same care free manner that they once were, knowing
Speaker 4: that this can be the outcome. I mean, I am
Speaker 4: incredibly troubled and disappointed to highlight that in November of
Speaker 4: twenty twenty two, in my hometown of Colorado Springs, where
Speaker 4: I was raised, the Club Q shooting occurred. You know,
Speaker 4: we had almost a very similar incident occurring in a
Speaker 4: place where LGBTQ people have fought to be safe and
Speaker 4: to be together. And so this is the backdrop in
Speaker 4: which LGBTQ plus people are living.
Speaker 3: And what happened at Pulse ten years ago has been
Speaker 3: called an act of terrorism but not a hate crime.
Speaker 3: Help us to understand how this can be seen as
Speaker 3: an act of terrorism but not be categorized as a
Speaker 3: hate crime. It feels entirely confusing and disrespectful.
Speaker 4: I am in agreement with you, and I think this
Speaker 4: example in particular highlights in some ways the limits of
Speaker 4: the law to remedy immense harm that is done to
Speaker 4: people marginalized communities into the LGBTQ plus community. In particular,
Speaker 4: Hate crime statutes often depend on sufficient evidence to demonstrate motive,
Speaker 4: and it is wholly contingent upon the people who are
Speaker 4: investigating these kinds of crimes, and hate crimes often are
Speaker 4: too narrowly construed. They are don't often capture the nuances
Speaker 4: of these horrific incidents.
Speaker 3: Is there a thread from the Pulse shooting to the
Speaker 3: kind of rhetoric that we are living through today in
Speaker 3: a second Trump administration?
Speaker 4: Sadly, I think there are many connections to be made
Speaker 4: about the anti LGBTQ plus rhetoric that we are seeing
Speaker 4: now tracing back to the circumstances that gave rise to
Speaker 4: the Pulse massacre. I think that the rhetoric at this
Speaker 4: moment is really heightened, especially coming from state and local leaders.
Speaker 4: You know, the governor of Florida has not been shy
Speaker 4: about supporting anti LGBTQ measures, things as sort of atmospheric
Speaker 4: as refusing to allow sidewalks to be painted in rainbows.
Speaker 5: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says all crosswalk murals must be
Speaker 5: removed by this week or the state will withhold transportation
Speaker 5: funding to unicipalities.
Speaker 4: You know, these symbolic things that tell a community you're
Speaker 4: welcome here, you belong here, we celebrate you. Trying to
Speaker 4: control those symbolic communications is really astounding, and I think
Speaker 4: speaks to the moment that we find ourselves in. The
Speaker 4: Trump administration in the first iteration didn't do what they
Speaker 4: are doing as effectively now, and that is trying to
Speaker 4: divide us as a community, trying to create a separation
Speaker 4: between trans people and LGBQ people right where there is
Speaker 4: no division. We are connected in more ways than we
Speaker 4: are different. And I think that they learn from the
Speaker 4: first administration and now have adjusted their game plan, as
Speaker 4: we can really see very clearly in Project twenty twenty
Speaker 4: five to zero in on attack transgender people, creating basically
Speaker 4: a boogeyman in the trans community and using that as
Speaker 4: a scapegoat for every every issue at any turn. Right
Speaker 4: and now here, we are really trying to hold the
Speaker 4: levees against a cultural moment that seems to be regressing
Speaker 4: towards very homophobic and transphobic perspectives. And this is part
Speaker 4: of our history. We march forward, we secure rights, people
Speaker 4: are harmed and suffer along the way, and we continue
Speaker 4: to push back against the forces that would remove us
Speaker 4: from society.
Speaker 8: We'll be right back, Yes, hey, we're back.
Speaker 3: I'm going to wrap up my conversation with Carl Charles
Speaker 3: now he's a lawyer with Lambda Legal. Now we are
Speaker 3: going to turn to LGBTQ rights in today's courtrooms. Carl
Speaker 3: is a lead litigator on the federal case brought by
Speaker 3: Lambda Legal against the Trump administration for trying to prevent
Speaker 3: trans and non binary people from obtaining accurate US passports.
Speaker 3: Why does this matter clearly for the queer community, but
Speaker 3: also for people who are not trends or who are
Speaker 3: not queer. Why should their ears be perking up and
Speaker 3: saying no, no, this shouldn't be happening for all of us.
Speaker 4: We all should be concerned about what happens to the
Speaker 4: most marginalized people in our communities. I think people outside
Speaker 4: the LGBTQ plus community should be especially concerned about the
Speaker 4: way that this administration has weaponar it's rhetoric and zeroed
Speaker 4: in with precision towards the rights of LGBTQ plus people,
Speaker 4: because if they can do it to this so called
Speaker 4: disfavored group, there's very little stopping them from doing it
Speaker 4: to many more people. In some respects, LGBTQ plus people
Speaker 4: are the canary and the coal mine of our democracy.
Speaker 4: Where our rights and protections go, so go those of
Speaker 4: many other people.
Speaker 5: Which brings me to the question of sports, which is
Speaker 5: everywhere in US culture the Supreme Court is hearing a
Speaker 5: case on the.
Speaker 10: DHAKA today, high stakes arguments about whether states can ban
Speaker 10: trendsgender athletes from competing in girls and women's sports teams.
Speaker 3: So what is this case and what are you expecting
Speaker 3: might happen and what do you think the repercussions will be?
Speaker 4: So LAMB de Legal and the ACLU have litigated for
Speaker 4: several years now BPJ versus West Virginia Board of Education
Speaker 4: and several other defendants. And we began representing our client
Speaker 4: BPJ back when she was eleven, who was open about
Speaker 4: being transgender, and who wanted to play school sports just
Speaker 4: like all of her friends. And that's really what's at
Speaker 4: the heart of this case. And yes, it is now
Speaker 4: up in front of the Supreme Court, and it asked
Speaker 4: the question, what really is at the heart of title mind?
Speaker 4: Does Title NIND really stand for equal access, equal participation
Speaker 4: regardless of a person's sex or is it only when
Speaker 4: a school decides a person sex or thinks it is
Speaker 4: appropriate or what have you. And we've marshaled all of
Speaker 4: that behind the humanity of a trans girl and she
Speaker 4: is withthstanding a great deal of harassment and attacks all
Speaker 4: for just being herself and for wanting to reap the
Speaker 4: same benefits of school sports as any of her peers.
Speaker 3: So I'm going to share something that recently happened to
Speaker 3: me with my family in Mexico. A cousin of mine
Speaker 3: who's older, used a term that I didn't understand, and
Speaker 3: then I was like, oh, this is an insult to
Speaker 3: the gay and queer community. And I stopped him right
Speaker 3: there and I said, Primo, you cannot use that term.
Speaker 3: And when you use terms like that in a family setting,
Speaker 3: it is disruptive and it's an insult. How can people
Speaker 3: be good allies to your community?
Speaker 4: Now, I just want to say thank you so much,
Speaker 4: Madia for taking the time to call in your family member,
Speaker 4: to call in your primo and say, hey, you're creating
Speaker 4: an environment where people don't feel welcome, where people do
Speaker 4: not feel like they want to be their full selves.
Speaker 4: No one would do that to you, so please think
Speaker 4: twice before you do that. Connecting with her friends and
Speaker 4: family about these issues, about issues impacting LGBTQ plus people
Speaker 4: in the United States and around the world, is as
Speaker 4: important in my view as any court case, because, as
Speaker 4: my friend Chase Strangio at the ACL, you said recently,
Speaker 4: Our legal arguments didn't change.
Speaker 13: What fundamentally changed with people's understanding of connection to the demands,
Speaker 13: the humanity, the tangible experience of gay people. And it
Speaker 13: was a massive shift, and it had taken decades.
Speaker 4: And that comes through things like what you did with
Speaker 4: your prima. It comes through conversations, relationships, It comes from
Speaker 4: talking about our experiences in our lives and connecting authentically
Speaker 4: with others around us. That's really the way that we
Speaker 4: continue to move forward in our fight for LGBTQ plus equality.
Speaker 3: So as a country, your words about how we should
Speaker 3: be reflecting on the ten years since the Pulse massacre.
Speaker 4: It's hard not to say that it's a somber moment.
Speaker 4: I text my friends on the anniversary every year, and
Speaker 4: we market and we mourn. I hope that the people
Speaker 4: who were lost to the Pulse massacre. I hope that
Speaker 4: if they were here, they would feel proud of what
Speaker 4: we have done in their name, which is try to
Speaker 4: change the world to make it a different and better place,
Speaker 4: a place where something like Pulse would be impossible. I
Speaker 4: know we're not there yet. I know we have much
Speaker 4: work to do. You know, I think that the next
Speaker 4: ten years for me are charting a course where we
Speaker 4: continue to move forward in the fight for LGBTQ plus equality,
Speaker 4: remembering always and taking with us those we have lost
Speaker 4: far too soon.
Speaker 5: Charles, thank you so much for joining me on Latino USA.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Mariet.
Speaker 3: That was carl Charles, an attorney with Lambda Legal, and
Speaker 3: our hearts go out to all of those who lost
Speaker 3: loved ones at Pulse and also to the survivors. Our
Speaker 3: episode was produced by Renaos Junior. It was edited by
Speaker 3: Nicole Rothwell and Benny le Ramidez. It was mixed by
Speaker 3: Julia Caruso. Fact checking for this episode by Rosanna Aguire.
Speaker 3: Fernande Echavari is our managing editor. Nancy Trujillo is our
Speaker 3: production manager. The Latino USA team also includes Stephanie Lebau,
Speaker 3: Luis Luna Glori mar Marquez, Lueta, Martin, Monica Moreles Garcia,
Speaker 3: JJ and Adriana Rodriguez. Finny leiter Amidis and I are
Speaker 3: executive producers. I'm Your Host Maria no Josa. Latino USA
Speaker 3: is part of Iheart's Mike Udura podcast network. Executive producers
Speaker 3: at iHeart are Leo Gomez and Arlene Santana. Join us
Speaker 3: again on our next episode. In the meantime, you can
Speaker 3: find us on all of your social media. I'll see
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