After the fatal shooting and hostage incident in 2016, Orlando police appeared outside the Pulse nightclub.
Geral Domora/Getty Images
- The nightclub in the United States where the horrific massacre occurred will become a national monument.
- A gunman rushed into the venue and carried out one of the worst mass shootings in the United States.
- US President Joe Biden has officially recognized June as Pride Month.
US President Joe Biden will designate the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, as a national monument on Friday to commemorate the site where 49 people died in the mass shooting.
Five years ago, a gunman rushed into this popular venue and fired with an AR-15 assault rifle and pistol. This is one of the deadliest modern mass shootings in the United States.
Unlike his Republican predecessors, Biden seeks to emphasize the equality of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities, officially recognized Pride Month through an announcement on June 1 and nominated LGBTQ officials to be the highest in the US government Positions, and other actions.
The Democratic president also urged LGBTQ Americans to enjoy full rights, including the passage of the Equality Act in Congress, and pointed out that many states in the United States lack protection measures.
People visit the monument on the way to the Pulse nightclub.
The White House said on Friday that he also appointed Jessica Stern, the head of the New York-based human rights organization OutRight Action International, as the special envoy of the US State Department to ensure that US diplomacy and foreign aid include LGBTQ rights.
In Florida, the authorities classified the shooting as an act of Islamic extremism by a 29-year-old Afghan American citizen. But civil rights activists claim that the 2016 massacre was also a hate crime against gay men and Latinos who frequented the club.
The new Orlando website will join the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco and the Stonewall Hotel in New York City, a national monument that commemorates the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement following the riots that followed police raids on gay bars in 1969.
After signing legislation establishing the National Pulse Monument in Florida, Biden will speak at the White House with the openly gay Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
Biden tried to change the practice of former President Donald Trump, who did not officially recognize Pride Month.
He has ordered federal agencies to protect LGBTQ people under federal anti-discrimination laws. He also overturned the Trump era ban on transgender people from serving publicly in the U.S. military and flying the rainbow pride flag at the U.S. Embassy.
