{"id":1497,"date":"2016-06-12T22:56:51","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T02:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=1497"},"modified":"2017-11-26T19:24:41","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T00:24:41","slug":"boston-vigil-for-orlando-massacre-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2016\/06\/12\/boston-vigil-for-orlando-massacre-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This Is Not The Time For Silence!\u2019 Boston Vigil for Orlando Massacre Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to have a moment of silence,\u201d shouted one of the Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence standing on the steps of Boston\u2019s Trinity Church at tonight\u2019s vigil for 50 people murdered and more than 50 injured when a gunman opened fire in the early hours of this morning at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida<\/a>. \u201cThis is not the time for silence!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people standing in Copley Square cheered.<\/p>\n

The Orlando attack is considered the deadliest mass shooting in American history.<\/p>\n

In Boston, the attack coincided with the night following the city\u2019s annual Pride Parade. Mourners gathered at 8 p.m. in Copley Plaza, holding candles and rainbow flags. The vigil was organized by the Sisters, radical activist drag queens who describe themselves as \u201cqueer nuns\u201d and \u201csacred clowns of our community.\u201d The ceremony followed a 6 p.m. vigil at the Parkman Bandstand on Boston Common<\/a>. Another vigil is planned to be held at Boston City Hall Plaza at 6 tomorrow evening.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence lead a vigil at Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t go to sleep last night,\u201d Nathan Bixby of Boston, one of the organizers of the Boston Common vigil and a speaker at the Copley Square ceremony, told me before the second event. \u201cI kept seeing news of it. I read the headlines. I read a paragraph. I couldn\u2019t handle it. \u2026 I felt the need to heal, to show compassion to all those who were affected. I just wanted to do something because I couldn\u2019t sit here and not do anything. I needed to do something to help my community and to help Orlando. We need a lot of healing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both noticed that Boston Pride wasn\u2019t doing anything more than a moment of silence,\u201d Jeremy Comeau of Canton, one of the organizers of the Boston Common vigil told me, \u201cand we felt something more was appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just going to act the fuck up,\u201d Sister Lida Christ said before the Copley Square vigil.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mourning will not be a justification for racism. Our mourning will not be a justification for more war,\u201d Khury Petersen-Smith told the crowd. A Boston Black Lives Matter and part of the International Socialist Organization in the United States, he said the attack arose in the context of politicians policing which bathrooms transgender people are allowed to use. And, he said, it comes after Black Lives Matter protests have shed light on police violence. \u201cThe police will not make our community safer. We have to fight to make our community safer. \u2026. We all deserve something better than this.\u201d<\/p>\n

(All photos here copyright 2016 Greg Cook)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The vigil in Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence lead the vigil at Trinity Church in Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"One<\/a>
One of the Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence comforts a mourner at the vigil at Trinity Church in Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The vigil in Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The vigil in Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence lead a vigil at Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The vigil at Trinity Church in Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The vigil in Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Nathan<\/a>
Nathan Bixby speaks at the vigil in Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Singing<\/a>
Singing “Amazing Grace” from the steps of Trinity Church at a vigil in Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The vigil in Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The vigil in Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Khury<\/a>
Khury Petersen-Smith speaks at the vigil in Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The vigil in Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence lead the vigil at Trinity Church in Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The vigil at Trinity Church in Boston’s Copley Square for victims of the Orlando massacre, June 12, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to have a moment of silence,\u201d shouted one of the Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence standing on the steps of Boston\u2019s Trinity Church at tonight\u2019s vigil for 50 people murdered and more than 50 injured when a gunman opened fire in the early hours of this morning at Pulse, a gay nightclub […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,108,1],"tags":[14,32],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1497"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1524,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497\/revisions\/1524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}