More than 130 people gathered in Katoomba’s Carrington Place last Tuesday night (June 14) for a candlelight vigil to commemorate the victims of the recent massacre in Orlando, Florida – the worst mass shooting by a single gunman in US history.
The Blue Mountains Vigil for Orlando – organised by lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) community group Pink Mountains – commemorated the 50 killed and 53 wounded when 29-year-old Omar Mateen went on a shooting rampage at Orlando gay club, Pulse.
Participants at the 7pm vigil, one of many such events held around Australia and the world, decorated the square on Katoomba Street with rainbow flags, listened to speeches and lit dozens of candles – many of which burned well into the night, hours after the vigil ended.
Among the speakers was local lesbian woman Maggie McNulty, originally from the United States, who spoke about the pain, anger and frustration she felt at the massacre’s effect on her birth country and the LGBTIQ community worldwide.
“I want to learn how better to hold those kind of frustrated feelings in a different way that doesn’t involve hatred and can still keep me somehow softened and not violent – because, in the extreme, that’s what fundamentalism is about,” said Ms McNulty.
Pink Mountains co-convenor Peter Hackney placed the Orlando tragedy within the context of global homophobia.
“This is an event that happened on the other wide of the world and it feels like there’s not much we can do … but I think there really are things we can do combat homophobia,” said Mr Hackney.
“I think we can be ourselves, I think we can be proud of who we are, we can be open and honest about our relationships, and show the world that we’re good people and just as deserving of love, respect and acceptance as anyone else,” he said.
Member for Blue Mountains Trish Doyle attended the vigil and gave a heartfelt speech which promoted love as the antidote to hate – a sentiment shared by several other speakers.
“We must focus on love, not hate,” said Ms Doyle. “We must push back because it’s the power of love, rather than the love of power, that we need to talk about at the moment.”
Blue Mountains City councillors were prevented from attending the event due to a concurrent council briefing in Springwood, however Blue Mountains mayor Mark Greenhill and Blue Mountains City Councillor Romola Hollywood sent official apologies and sympathies on behalf of the council.
Earlier on Tuesday, the council took the decision to fly the rainbow LGBTIQ pride flag at half mast in Civic Place, Katoomba, with the flag remaining in place for the week.
