Orlando Marks Fifth Anniversary Of Pulse Massacre

From Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer:

In the years since the tragedy, we have worked to increase the visibility of Orlando’s LGBTQ+ community and celebrate our city’s diversity during annual events like Come Out With Pride and on murals throughout the city. We proudly fly the Pride flag at City Hall and at soccer games. Businesses now display stickers provided by the Orlando Police Department to show that they’re safe places for all residents.

“Orlando United” was our call to action five years ago, but it is up to us all to ensure that this isn’t simply a slogan that we bring out annually as we mark the time that’s passed since the tragedy. Instead, it must be part of our core commitment to real change.

Orlando was called to action on June 12, 2016. Our city was asked to find in ourselves the strength to respond with empathy when faced with an unthinkable act of violence. We are still working every day to honor the 49 angels and every person impacted by the Pulse tragedy with action. Together, we continue to make Orlando a more inclusive, welcoming and equitable community for all.

The Orlando Sentinel reports:



Orlando could become a national icon of equality through the National Pulse Museum and Memorial, a project led by the onePULSE Foundation that seeks to transform the property into a national monument.

“It’s a combination of the memory of what happened there, but also Orlando’s response to this tragedy. It caused a lot of pain, a lot of sadness, but at the same time a union that I had not seen before,“ said Jerick Mediavilla, who visited the site again in 2020 alongside his husband, state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith and Ricky Martin, who, joined the onePULSE Foundation as a national spokesperson in February 2021.

This week, the U.S. Senate designated Pulse nightclub as a national memorial with the bill sent to President Biden’s desk.