Gay rights activists and members of the LGBT community throughout Kansas are in shock in the wake of the massacre of at least 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Saturday night. Stephanie Mott, State Vice-Chair of Equality Kansas, says people she’s spoken with are feeling a wide array of emotions.
Mott says that LGBT people are being harassed, assaulted and sometimes killed every day somewhere in the country and she sees a direct connection between the proliferation of anti-LGBT measures coming from state legislatures and the violence directed at gay people.
Mott says anti-LGBT laws send a message that violence against people who are different is acceptable and adds that many vulnerable young people are also driven to suicide by anti-gay rhetoric from political and religious leaders.
