Ariel W.

Review of Pulse Nightclub

The Pulse was a nightclub frequented by the LGBT c...

The Pulse was a nightclub frequented by the LGBT community. It opened in 2004 in Orlando Florida. On June 12, 2016, 49 people were killed and 53 people were injured by a lone gunman. Most of the victims were Hispanic because the club was hosting a Latin night. At the time of the incident it was the deadliest mass shooting in the US only to be surpassed by Las Vegas a year later.

After the tragedy there was a lot of discussion about what to do with the Pulse. Barbara Poma, the owner of the Pulse first planned to sell the property to the city of Orlando. When negotiations over the deal stalled she decided to keep it and founded the OnePulse Foundation in 2017. Barbara has announced plans to turn the Pulse into a memorial and museum which she hopes to open in 2020. She has gone to both Oklahoma and New York to get ideas for how the memorial will look.

What is on the site now is a temporary memorial. After the shooting the city of Orlando paid to have a new smaller fence placed around the nightclub. The original fence was broken when first responders went through it to access the back of the club at the time of the incident. Covering the fence are pictures of the Orlando community coming together to honor the victims. At the memorial there is also a list of the names of the victims, an electronic guest book, and mementos and art work people have left behind.

If you want to visit the memorial you have to park on the street. Area businesses have erected signs warning people not to park in their lots. The site is monitored by a security guard paid for by the foundation. Visiting the memorial is a very emotional experience. Especially after having the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting happen in my own community on February 14, 2018. Gay, straight, man, woman, child, nationality, sitting in a church, or attending a concert, or a movie, or a nightclub, or a college, or a high school, none of it matters when a mass shooting happens in your community. Those people are your friends, family, neighbors, and co workers. Even though the memorial is temporary it does not look that way. It is very thoughtful and conveys the message that love triumphs hate. It is important to have a permanent place where the community can gather to mourn the loss of the bright and vibrant people who were taken in the prime of their lives by a senseless act of violence. My heart is with Orlando and all of those affected by the Pulse tragedy.