In the aftermath of the shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando in which 49 people were killed and 53 injured, gay pride parades are increasing security. Expecting more participants than usual, many will commemorate the Florida shooting.
On Friday, as funerals began, the FBI was investigating a threat against a celebration in Houston next Saturday. On social media, a message said: “There will be a massive shooting at the pride parade in Houston, Texas.”
Martha Montalvo, the city’s acting police chief, said her department and federal investigators were aware of the threat, which was posted on Twitter. It was quickly deleted, but not before members of the public had taken screenshots, according to a local report.
In Seattle, owners of bars and clubs serving the LGBT community have been invited to “active shooter training” sessions, ahead of the pride parade next weekend. Two sessions have been booked out.
“A hundred people have signed up for Monday night’s event. It’s full. We will probably have to add other events,” Joe Mirabella, a city spokesman, told the Guardian.
“It makes me sick to my stomach that we even need this training, it makes me sad.”
Mirabella acknowledged that it took nearly four hours for the Orlando shooter to be stopped. “But the training should give club owners some comfort and useful information that they never need to use,” he said.
In Boise, Idaho, organizers said attendance at pride celebrations this weekend could more than double, to 25,000.
“It’s turned into this outpouring where everybody wants to show that we are strong in Boise, that we are a community that cares for each other,” said Rodney Busbee, executive director of Boise Pride Fest, adding that in order to strengthen security, the parade route had been shortened.
New Orleans is holding its pride celebrations this weekend. The parade scheduled for Saturday evening in the French Quarter will be preceded by a memorial march, the public being asked to bring signs of support for those killed and injured in Orlando. The city is employing local, state and federal resources to increase security for the event, organizers said, without elaborating.
The city’s mayor, Mitch Landrieu, said at a press conference that the Orlando shooting was “an attack on the LGBT community and the hate is an attack on our freedom”. Promising tight security, he also warned that events such as parades and festivals were “soft targets” for acts of terror.
In Denver, the Tracks nightclub announced it was increasing security and would donate a portion of ticket sales to victims of the Orlando massacre. More than 2,000 people attended a vigil outside the club last Sunday.
Pride celebrations began in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday. The city’s mayor, Greg Fischer, asked the public to show solidarity. On Twitter, he said: “No matter sexual orientation, gender, identity, race, background, religion or nationality, we in Louisville stand united.”
Pride celebrations are taking place this weekend in Portland, Maine, Norfolk, Virginia, and Providence, Rhode Island. In Polk County, Florida, just a few miles from Orlando, rainbow flags and pictures of victims of the shooting were in evidence as pride celebrations began.
Washington DC and Los Angeles held pride events last weekend. In California, hours after the Orlando shooting, a man was arrested, his car containing assault rifles and explosives.
In Seattle, Mirabella said he and other LGBT city officials had shed “so many tears” since last Sunday but now expected “a huge turnout” next weekend. In Chicago, where Illinois senator Mark Kirk made public a letter asking the FBI to “ensure safety” at pride events next weekend, more than a million attendees are expected.
Kirk wrote: “Given the importance of the LGBT community to my constituency in Chicago, Illinois, I want to make sure that … the FBI Chicago field office offers the maximum security possible so that, in the wake of the Orlando massacre, we can have the safest pride parade ever.”
Next Saturday, the Chicago parade will begin with a moment of silence at 11.59am. Photographs and the names of all 49 who died in Orlando will be held aloft.
Richard Pfeiffer, a parade organizer, has marched every year except one since 1970. He said security was being stepped up dramatically.
“People are not going to stay away,” Pfeiffer said. “They are not going to let one murderer stop them from being out on the street and being proud of who they are. We’re expecting larger crowds.”
Pfeiffer did not take part in the first Chicago parade, he said, watching from the sidelines because he was “not quite ready” to come out. That march was organized a year after the Stonewall riots in New York sparked the first version of a so-called pride march, and with it the modern gay rights movement.
