Tag: massacre

Shane Sleeper reportedly planned to gun down members of his local LGBT community at gay bars. Police in Illinois have located a suspect accused of planning terror attacks on gay bars after mistakenly releasing him from jail. Shane Sleeper, 31, was initially arrested by police in February and has been held in jail since then. Originally, he faced misdemeanor charges of obstructing and resisting a police officer. The state attorney’s office later dropped those charges, but only to streamline the process...

Luis Javier Ruiz is also attending a march to celebrate 'freedom from homosexuality' A survivor of the Pulse nightclub massacre says he has found Christ and is no longer gay. After the tragedy that left 49 dead in an Orlando gay nightclub, Luis Javier Ruiz says God has taken him from his past. He made a Facebook post on 27 April explaining his change. ‘I should of been number 50,’ he wrote. He explained that going through pictures from the night of the...

"My fears had come true and he did what he said he was going to do." In a shocking statement, the widow of the man who killed 49 people in a 2016 shooting spree at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub admitted she knew he had been planning a massacre for some months. USA Today reports that, in a 12-page handwritten statement to the FBI, Noor Salman claimed she saw her husband, Omar Mateen, prepare for the June 12, 2016, assault. Written just hours after...

Oliver Award-winner singer Matt Henry has released a personal tribute to the victims of the Orlando massacre. The official video – released today exclusively via Gay Times – displays the power of love – regardless of gender and sexuality. Matt performed the song Love is a Battlefield with Kinky Boots’ co-creator Cyndi Lauper on her recent UK tour – also dedicating the track to those affected by the tragedy. Matt currently stars as fabulous drag queen Lola in Tony and Olivier...

As we reported earlier today, the official White House website hails June as “National Homeownership Month,” “African-American Music Appreciation Month,” “National Caribbean-Ameriacn Heritage Month,” “National Ocean Month,” and “Great Outdoors Month.” However, it makes absolutely no mention of the fact that it’s also Pride month, too. That’s just one of several reasons people are furious at Donald Trump for a tweet he sent late last night to ostensibly pay tribute to the victims of the Pulse massacre last year, which...

"Warning: All homos will burn like faggots in hell." Police handcuffed an anti-LGBT protestor outside Orlando’s Pulse nightclub today, the one-year anniversary of the brutal attack on the nightclub that left 49 dead and many more wounded. https://twitter.com/MLopardiWFTV/status/874309529231667200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newnownext.com%2Fpulse-orlando-protestor-arrest%2F06%2F2017%2F The unnamed suspect was one of three demonstrators holding signs reading homophobic messages like “Sin = Death” and “Warning: All homos will burn like faggots in hell” As he was cuffed, the crowds chanted “Love conquers hate.” https://twitter.com/MLopardiWFTV/status/874308448971870210?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newnownext.com%2Fpulse-orlando-protestor-arrest%2F06%2F2017%2F Authorities have not said why he was detained, but...

Pulse nightclub will be holding memorial events on Monday to mark the six month anniversary of the deadly shooting. Orlando nightclub Pulse is set to reopen and host a vigil marking the six month anniversary of the deadliest mass shooting in US history. Pulse announced the Remembering Our Angels event on Thursday (December 8) on social media. https://twitter.com/pulseorlando/status/807331414505046016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw According to the Orlando Sentinel, the club will reopen twice on Monday with a candlelit vigil and a moment of silence at 2:02 am, the...

Today is Orlando Pride. To mark the special occasion, Queerty asked Orlando lesbian transgender photographer Melody Maia Monet to share a sampling of her amazing photos of the local LGBTQ community along with captions, taken before and after the Pulse Nightclub massacre of June 12, 2016, in which 49 souls were lost. Aftermath: Pulse Nightclub Memorial July 2016. After: Pulse Vigil Candlelight vigil Lake Eola July 26 honoring 49 souls lost. Before: MarcoMarco Party at Pulse Fashion show at Pulse April 2016. Before: Leather Night Leather Night at BarCodes March 2016. Before:...

A mother who lost her son in the Orlando Pulse massacre has spoken out ahead of the Presidential election. Christopher Leinonen died in the horrific attack in June, when a gunman opened fire in the Pulse gay club, killing 49 people and injuring 53. In a ad for the Human Rights Campaign, Christopher’s mother Christine Leinonen opened up about the tragedy. She wrote: “My son Christopher Leinonen was shot and killed at the Pulse nightclub along with his boyfriend Juan and 47 other people. “This is definitely...

Imran Yousuf put his own life in danger to save clubbers from Omar Mateen's rampage. They don’t come much braver than former U.S. soldier Imran Yousuf. On the night of the Orlando Massacre in June, up to 70 lives were saved from terrorist Omar Mateen – and each of those survivors have Imran’s quick-thinking to thank. In an interview with The Advocate, Imran, who was working on the club’s door the night Omar Mateen claimed 53 lives. According to the Advocate,...

Omar Mateen’s first wife, Sitora Yusufiy, has spoken about her relationship with the gunman behind the Orlando massacre. In an interview with Crime Watch Daily, Yusufiy revealed that she believed gunman Omar Mateen was gay and his attack on the Pulse nightclub was carried out to impress his father. Yusufiy believes her ex-husband was gay and tormented by his openly homophobic father, which led to his violent tendencies. Yusufiy makes her assumptions on Mateen’s sexuality based on the fact that “he was...

You may remember a post from earlier this year involving certifiable creepcake Craig Jungwirth, the Beach Bear Weekend organizer who took it upon himself to tell The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to “man up.” It soon became clear he was using the event primarily to scam money out of unsuspecting members of the gay community. In case anyone needed further evidence that he’s crazy and otherwise inadvisable, Jungwirth is now threatening Peacock Panache, the publication that first broke the news about his profound unseemliness. According to...

It has been two months since a lone gunman opened fire on Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, killing 49 and injuring 53 others. For Christine Leinonen, whose only son was killed that night, her life will never be the same. Leinonen sat on her couch with a stack of old photographs of her son on her lap when ABC news recently visited her. “He was one of the good ones,” she said. “You would have loved him as your neighbor, as your son, as...

While Trump tried everything in his power to roll out a newly empathic and huggable persona at the Detroit Electronic Club on Monday, anyone with even the vaguest semblance of human consciousness could easily see through the ruse. The abrupt about-face is doubly transparent when you consider the Republican presidential nominee and crepuscular gasbag plans to attend a fervently antigay event being held this week in Orlando — exactly two months after the Pulse nightclub shootings that killed 49 people and left...