American Stage, as shocked and disgusted and heartbroken as the rest of America, sent out an email Monday afternoon expressing sympathy and solidarity with Orlando's Pulse Nightclub and the LGBT community.
"Our thoughts go out to all whose lives were lost, their loved ones, and the LGBTQ community (many of whom are part of our theatre community)," the email read.
Their email, no doubt, mirrors many going out around the country today. We certainly covered this in our news section — between Kate and Scott, they have it covered.
Except for one thing, and American Stage touches on it in the e-mail's next paragraph:
"Theatre has always been, and will always be, a sacred space for people of any race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation to share ideas, increase understanding, and celebrate diversity."
I went to college at UCF in Orlando, where I discovered tech theater and realized I didn't have to act to be around the art form I loved. I attended college, I should note, well before Ellen came out on network TV, back when sitcoms were more Three's Company and less Modern Family. The theater department at UCF — and the greater Orlando cultural community to which those theater professors introduced me — immersed me in a world where, on occasion, I was the straight minority.
I didn't care — I wasn't raised to think I should. I met some of the warmest, most caring people in Orlando, people who worked in theater and at nightclubs and at Disney. Many of them found people with the same genitalia more attractive than people with different genitalia, and if that sounds like a weird way to word it, well, that's because that's how I started to think about my LGBT schoolmates/colleagues/acquaintances/friends: As people whose sexual preferences were no more my business than the details of their circumcision or favorite sexual position. The larger lesson I learned? That physical love comes second to real love, and you can't reduce a person to their sexual predisposition.
I like to think no matter where I went to school, I would have grown into an adult who wasn't a bigoted asshole, but I do wonder — had I not had those Orlando experiences, would I understand it?
Thank you, Orlando.
American Stage says it best: The arts offer anyone a safe haven to be themselves without fear of emotional abuse. A massacre at a gay nightclub hits the arts community where we live, so to speak.
It's Pride month, guys. Find a way to make love speak louder than the hate, OK?
PULSE VICTIMS FUND
Equality Florida established a GoFundMe Account; they've already raised over $1,700,000 of the current $2,500,000 goal. The funds raised will go directly to the victims and families affected by this tragedy.
This article appears in Jun 9-16, 2016.
