And while hatred is nothing new in the history of human civilization, what is new is the increasingly lethal form it can take, through assault weapons that have no place in a civil society.

To go from the joy of Pride on Saturday to Sunday’s news about the tragedy in Orlando felt horribly numbing and paradoxical. I had slept in Sunday morning with my husband, exhausted after a long day of celebrating at Boston’s Pride Parade. We were looking forward to a rare, free day to do laundry and walk our dog, until I checked my texts. The magnitude of the tragedy soon became clear over social media. The deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Over 50 killed at an LGBTQ dance club in Orlando, many of whom were LGBTQ people of color out to celebrate solidarity and community at Latin@ night. As videos gradually came out of club goers carrying their wounded friends out onto the street, my heart broke. Whether or not we call this terrorism – domestic or otherwise – obscures the point that hate violence, by definition, terrorizes the community it targets. It creates fear and insecurity amongst all of us who have been historically attacked and victimized, whether for our religion, our race, our gender, or for who we love. And rest assured this brutal mass killing is first and foremost hate violence against the LGBTQ and the wider Latina/o communities, no matter what the religious beliefs of the shooter. There is so much hatred in our country still, against so, so many. I had dinner with my sister last night after the killings. She is an abortion provider visiting Boston for a conference, and she and her colleagues are still reeling from the shootings at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, killing three. This coming Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the brutal shootings in Charleston’s Emanuel AME church, killing nine. Four years ago, an armed man walked into a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, and killed six. And while hatred is nothing new in the history of human civilization, what is new is the increasingly lethal form it can take, through assault weapons that have no place in a civil society. The one thing I know for sure is that if we are to diffuse hatred, if we are to move through the pain that currently surrounds us like a fog, making it hard to look around us, then we must be the change we wish to see in the world. We must approach this horrific loss with love and strength, even as we rightfully feel anger and fear. Hatred only begets hatred, and right now, compassion and empathy are painfully limited resources. GLAD unequivocally offers our understanding and support to the Muslim community in our country, many of whom are LGBTQ and most of whom unequivocally denounce violence in the name of religion and have condemned this horrific attack.  We will not support those inside or outside our community who use this tragedy as a pretext to attack Islam. One person, or even multiple people, can never represent the views of an entire community or religion. To assume so would be to commit the same wrongs of those who stand against us. As the President remarked at a press conference on Sunday, we must be defined not by the hatred of a man who feared what he could not understand, but by the love and joy of the people whose lives he took. Our thoughts are with the friends and families of those killed and wounded. To learn more of how you can help the victims and families affected, please visit www.weareorlando.org.