In the Wake of Orlando, Millennials Demand Love Over Hate

One year ago, our country said love is love, and recognized the right to marriage equality nationwide for the first time. But as the recent tragedy in Orlando has shown, the fight for equality is far from over. And while Orlando was, by all means, a tragedy, the LGBT community faces tragedy every day, in the form of pervasive, systemic homophobia and transphobia. Across the country, LGBT people are still at risk of being fired, denied housing, denied access to health care — denied their very existence — because of who they are and who they love. The LGBT community faces discrimination every day. So while the attack in Orlando was shocking, it wasn’t surprising.

As young Americans, Orlando reminded us that we’re especially at risk: we identify as LGBT at higher rates than previous generations. But we’re also the most diverse generation in history, and as the Orlando shooting demonstrated, LGBT people of color face even higher levels of risk. According to the latest FBI data available, black and Latino LGBT people are disproportionately subject to hate crimes.

When guns are thrown into this messy equation of hate, racism, and bigotry, the situation grows bleaker. Of the 49 victims from the Orlando shooting, the vast majority were young, gay, Latino men in their 20s and 30s. But it’s not just these mass attacks that pose a threat to our generation: in everyday shootings, young people are disproportionately the victims of gun violence. Every 70 minutes, an American under the age of 25 is killed by gunfire. As one person in our Gun Violence Prevention and Criminal Justice Reform #Fight4AFuture Network put it: “We are losing a generation to senseless gun violence.”

So what can be done to stem the daily death toll? As we saw this past week on Capitol Hill, even the most basic policy prescriptions are often out of reach because of a Congress that is not stepping up to protect the lives of our generation. One of the most basic yet critical policy proposals to prevent gun violence is requiring universal background checks on firearm purchases. This policy focuses on closing the federal loophole that allows individuals who are legally prohibited from purchasing firearms to sidestep the law and purchase firearms from an unlicensed dealer. In the weeks following the Orlando shooting, progressive leaders in the House and Senate have made an effort to vote on and pass background check initiatives, but even this important first step has thus far failed.

Orlando reminded us once again why, as young people, we need to change the culture of guns in America. But it also was a stark reminder that, in doing so, we must not fall into the trap of Islamophobia and xenophobia. As common sense gun violence prevention policy solutions were proposed, many opponents turned to scapegoating and fear-mongering to argue their position. But hate is what brought us to this point: the hate that drives somebody to turn a gun on another human being. Congress should protect us from that hate, and yet this week they showed their unwillingness to do so. This Congress continues to preserve, at devastating cost, the right to buy a gun for individuals convicted of a hate crime, or those on the terror watchlist. Terrorism is an expression of hate for the ‘other,’ and is often rooted in homophobia, Islamophobia, or racism. Congressional inaction to prevent terrorists from purchasing firearms reflects systematic failure to protect us not just from guns, but from hate. And to a generation that has fought for and internalized that love is love, this is unacceptable.

The foundation of our country — its greatest strength — is its social fabric: a rich and interwoven web of religions, cultures, ethnicities, and identities. And nowhere is this framework more evident, and more embraced, than in the Millennial generation, the most diverse generation in American history. Lately, this once-revered pillar of American identity has been compromised by an ever-normalized wave of Islamophobia, propagating hate speech and hate action against communities that deserve neither. But Millennials know that advocating for religious litmus tests or touting cultural assimilation as panacea is not how we will achieve safety. If we combat ignorance with education and understand the social capital afforded by cultural diversity and religious pluralism — as the Millennial generation has proved apt to do — then we can fight hate with love and acceptance.

Even in the wake of the Orlando shooting, we must remember that gun violence is more than just mass shootings. It is a complex, multifaceted issue that requires a complex, multifaceted response. We should look to the congressional action around background checks as the beginning of what will hopefully be the mainstreaming of gun violence prevention reform efforts in Washington and across the country. We should continue to fight for background checks, but we should also seek to address gun violence from a holistic perspective. This means focusing on preventing everyday violence that occurs primarily in cities and disproportionately impacts young people of color, in addition to making strides to prevent mass shootings. In order to save the most lives, we must.