In other words, both of these shootings took place within sanctuaries where people sought refuge from the world, where they felt safe, and where they came to celebrate, mourn, and - at the most basic level - connect with humanity. Pulse was undeniably a place of refuge and safety for the queer Latinx community of Orlando, Florida, just as the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue was a place of refuge and safety for the Jewish community of Squirrel Hill. Gay bars were the places that people went when they were kicked out of their homes by their parents and were the sanctuaries for those who had been kicked out of their own houses of worship for being sinners. A bar in Wyoming is facing criticism after selling T-shirts.
They were the places where they could hold their partner's hand and where two men or two women could dance together and see their reflection in everyone else on the dance floor. The shirts were sold at a bar less than an hour from where gay college student Matthew Shepard died after being brutally beaten in 1998. The gay bar was the place where they could seek refuge from a hostile world. For members of the LGBTQ community, who were often rejected by their own religions, dance clubs and gay bars became their sanctuaries. Synagogues and other houses of worship are considered sanctuaries: places of refuge or safety. Despite these potential differences, I also sense some deeper similarities.
