#Orlando

loneberry:

As a queer person born and raised in Florida I feel compelled to comment, but too emotionally agitated to do so right now.

I will paste some of the things I wrote on twitter, as reminders for myself and my friends…

While eating dinner with a friend tonight I was horrified by what I saw on TV–the Orlando shooting is being used as an occasion to celebrate the racist police state. On the news more attention was paid to how good the police are than the actual grief of the queer community. The police and the security state are being positioned in the media as the protectors of queers. Some of us may be feeding into this framework. For instance, framing the shooting as a “hate crime” rather than “terrorism” still encourages the immediate & intractable expansion of state power. Will hate crime legislation help queers of color? (Remember, *THE POLICE* are now protected under hate crime law in Louisiana. Relying on the law and state power often backfires.)

How can we mourn and express our grief and rage without propping up and allying ourselves with the racist, homophobic security state?

My queer comrades, we are being tested. Don’t let the police state use our grief to authorize the state of exception, racism and US imperialism.

Keep in mind the shooter was a cop lover who beat his wife, studied criminology, was into guns, and was a guard at a juvenile detention center. We need to be talking about the relationship between toxic masculinity and homophobia too.

I feel sick.

Good night.