At Brooklyn Vigil for Orlando Victims, Calls for Unity and Gun Control

Pictured: the rally at Grand Army Plaza. Photos by John V. Santore

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A Tuesday night vigil for the victims of Sunday's mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando at times felt more like a political rally for new gun control legislation. 

The Grand Army Plaza gathering drew several hundred mourners. Candles flickered amidst rainbow flags, "Amazing Grace" was sung by a chorus from Clinton Hill's Emanuel Baptist Church, and the names of those killed were read in groups of twos and threes for minute after painful minute. 

A woman named Khalisha Pressley who identified herself as the oldest daughter of slain Brooklyn native Brenda McCool described her mom as the "best mother ever." 

"You would never forget Brenda, I swear to you," Pressley said, adding that she wasn't surprised by reports that McCool died protecting her son, Isaiah Henderson.  

"My mother was such a fighter," Pressley said. "My mother was a Brooklyn girl, Flatbush all day." 

Pictured: Khalisha Pressley, center

As has happened repeatedly in the days since the shooting, speakers at the vigil called for unity between all people. 

"We must continue to join in solidarity," said Red Hook and Sunset Park Councilman Carlos Menchaca, the City Council's first openly gay member. "We're all here together as one family."  

Park Slope Councilman Brad Lander called for the New York to host "the biggest and the strongest and the most attended" Pride parade it has ever seen this June, while Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo, who represents Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, said the failure to speak out in the face of violence grants "permission and acceptance to this form of brutality," which can't be allowed to happen. 

The event also reached out to members of the Muslim community. Attendee Mohamed Q. Amin, 33, a Guyanese-American who founded the Caribbean Equality Project, told Patch that his message was one of "unity, love [and] celebrating our individuality." 

Amin said he sought not just tolerance but acceptance for both LGBT people and Muslims. 

"It's very difficult for us to find acceptance, [but] we deserve to be accepted as Muslims," he said. 

Such themes, however, were interspersed with repeated calls for new regulations on gun sales in the United States. 

Public Advocate Letitia James, who organized the event, kicked it off with a chant for gun control, and called for a ban on all so-called assault weapons, such as the one used by Orlando shooter Omar Mateen. 

"There is no reason for these deadly weapons of mass destruction to be legal," James said, expressing a sentiment also offered by Menchaca, Lander and others. 

"When you're ready to turn this grief into action, we must fight," said Kim Russell, a member of the Brady Campaign to Stop Gun Violence, who noted that 90 Americans are killed by guns each day. "Vote these craven politicians who take money from the gun lobby out of office." 

Similarly, Leah Gunn Barrett, who leads New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, said attention must be paid to those dying in "the slow motion mass murder" of which Russell spoke. 

While the crowd seemed unified on nearly all points, at least two members of the vigil were not happy with its focus. 

Shagasyia Diamond and Lala Zannell, both transgender women of color, said that too little attention is paid to trans victims of violence, despite its frequency. 

"It's bigger than guns," Zannell said. "You could take away all the guns and they're still going to kill us." 

Diamond said that while she supports gun control, the needs of trans women are often overlooked by other members of the LGBT community. 

"When we were living in fear, nobody cared," she said.