A LGBT youth center in Sarasota opened Monday to offer hugs and compassion to anyone in the community that needs it following Sunday morning’s mass shooting at a gay dance club.
Donna Hanley, executive director of ALSO Youth, said she opened the doors of the center, which is normally closed on Mondays, to offer everyone a place to seek comfort. The center’s goals are to promote health, safety and personal growth for the gay community.
“We are all devastated by the loss of life and the harm and its repercussions to the entire community,” Hanley said. “We felt that it was really important that we opened our doors to everyone and anyone that needs support or can offer some support.”
“The LGBT community is a caring and loving community that lives in a world that isn’t so caring back to them,” she said. “The more we can demonstrate that we are just like anyone else, so in any crisis anywhere around the world people gather together, then why wouldn’t we? and even more so, more importantly.
“Why not offer a donut, a cup of coffee, a smiley face, a hug to anybody that needs it?”
Hanley says she has received phone calls and emails from around the world offering support to LGBT youth in Florida, but she says the Orlando shooting affects everyone.
“We cannot just be blase about it,” she said. “It’s very easy to be numb to the idea that it’s not my city, it’s not my town, it’s not my community. Every single one of those people has family, friends, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles — this affects everyone.”
Grace Wickerson, a youth representative on the ALSO Youth board, says she came to the center to show support and meet with other members of the community. Like many others, she woke to the news of the shooting with a bombardment of alerts on her phone.
“It sunk in about yesterday for me, but as days go on it’s harder,” Wickerson said. “I feel like we are starting to come together now. It will go down in history as a day of infamy, but I feel like the more we come together and the more we can share our stories and talk about it the more it will help us heal.”
Candle light vigil tonight
Shannon Fortner, founding president of the Harvey Milk Festival, joined ALSO Youth on Monday to organize a candle light vigil followed by a ceremony led by Dee Graham at Five Points Park in downtown Sarasota.
Some members of the LGBT community said they were afraid to be out in large groups following the shooting, but Fortner said the event offered a safe place to gather together.
“It’s about showing support to one another,” Fortner said. “Coming together and realizing we support each other. It’s a comforting element to be surrounded by those from our community, doing the vigil and offering that safe space to be in together.”
Fortner said the local LGBT community will move forward: “It’s very important for us to unite and focus and realize we still have a lot of things we need to work on and to still be raising awareness. This is 2016, and we’ve had a lot of challenges. We’ve also had a lot of changes come up — 2015-16 was a really great year for the LGBT movement.
“This is just a reminder that we have a lot of work to do. Evidently, these changes aren’t approved by everyone.”
