13 Jun Reaction to the massacre in Orlando
To all media and citizens,
We express our outrage and unspeakable grief on the occasion of yesterday’s attack on the gay-club Pulse in Orlando, Florida, which resulted in the loss of 50 lives, while another 53 LGBTI people from the USA were seriously wounded.
We extend our condolences to all of the friends, partners and family of those killed, as well as all the non-heterosexuals in Orlando and the USA who happened not to be in the Pulse yesterday, but who do perceive this attack as a reflection of the long-standing hatred and violence against sexual and gender minorities.
The tragedy that shook the world yesterday must be articulated with the rights words and understood within its entire complexity and history. This attack is a reflection of the historically and globally nourished and sustained homophobia. It is an outline of the longstanding dehumanization which gives ground to the horrific act of murdering over 50 people and shooting as many others in cold blood. An outcome not only of the radical wing of the religious and fundamentalist violence, but also of the state-governed, systemic violence that the non-heterosexuals in the US, and nearly everywhere else in the world, face. This is, above all, a homophobic attack. And we must not forget, homophobia IS NOT a mental diseases, HOMOPHOBIA IS THE OUTCOME OF THE HISTORY OF SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND CULTURAL VIOLENCE PERPETUATED BY AN ENTIRE SYSTEM, which can freely be given the name of HETERO-FASCISM.
Moreover, as an act of violence which is being related, either as an individual inspiration or as an organized action, with ISIS, this monstrous atrocity also serves as an outcome of the geopolitical invasions of the western capital and the legacy of imperialism, perpetuated to date with the various quasi humanitarian “Western” invasions over the countries of the “East”. Therefore we must also perceive this horror through the point of view of the violent geopolitical rhetoric of “eye for an eye” – the magic vicious circle of action-and-reaction, the sole outcome of which is violence, suffering and death.
That is why, now, while we are mourning, we must come to understand that we must not allow mad interventionist and retaliatory violence to emerge as a reaction to this loss and tragedy. While we are mourning, we must not resort to the fanaticism of the security provided by erecting a militant and paternalist state apparatus suspending the law, pursuing selective and racist targeting of certain populations and abolishing the universal human rights of all citizens, such as we have witnessed in the reactions of the Western countries after previous terrorist attacks attributed to ISIS.
Our grief at this particular moment, the vulnerability we are facing, must lead to the creation of different politics, politics of care, politics of solidarity and support and not politics of attack, occupation and violence. The experienced vulnerability and exposure, the heavy barriers between religion, race, ethnicity and nation must be overcome and turned into a source of alliances for resistance against any violence.
Nothing can make up for the lost lives or provide comfort to the loved ones. There are no words to express this loss and the pain that the families of the victims, their friends and comrades are going through. However, petrified with pain, we call for solidarity, we call for anger and resistance against the violence over all people, especially the LGBTI people who are most directly and unequivocally under assault right now. This world must change, and we must all be part of that change.
Enough with the hate, enough with the violence! Enough with fundamentalism, whatever form it takes, wherever it comes from!
13.06.2016
Skopje
Coalition SEXUAL AND HEALTH RIGTHS OF MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES
LGBTI Support Center – Helsinki Committee of the Republic of Macedonia