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Woke up to find this headline everywhere…

1. My heart goes out to all the victims: Those who were murdered, those who are alive but injured–mentally or physically, those who are waking up and scrambling to find the status their loved ones, and all of the other LGBTQ folks around the country who fear for their lives and safety.

2. Using an anti-gay violence to promote an agenda of Islamophobia is unacceptable.

3. Calling this a “possible terror attack” solely in reference to the killer’s ethnic/religious background is unacceptable.

4. Calling this a “possible terror attack” in reference to the fact that all of the victims were at a known GAY nightclub, effectively making it a targeted hate crime, is valid, but totally left out of mainstream reports.

Why is it that, during a time of relative growth in the salience of LGBTQ justice issues, this factor is not at the forefront?

If the killer wasn’t a Muslim, would we still call it terrorism?

If the killer was an old white NRA guy upset about same-sex marriage, would we even think of calling it terrorism?