Londoners will have a chance to honour the victims of the tragic mass shooting in Orlando.
A candlelight vigil will be held at the Aeolian Hall on Tuesday evening.
Executive director Clark Bryan says the shooting really struck a chord with him.
“I felt that we needed to do something to bring some sort of healing and a chance for people to just talk about this together,” Bryan says.
Bryan feels like this tragedy is deeply rooted in underlying feelings of animosity, and could happen anywhere.
“This could very well have happened in our own community. There are people in our own community who would love to see gay people dead,” he claims.
He says that the LGBTQ community in London has been shaken by the shooting. “I think there is, I don’t want to say paranoia, but there is a feeling that there’s a vulnerability still in our community.”
The vigil is meant to give people the chance to discuss what happened and how it affects the LGBTQ community as a whole, according to Bryan.
“It really just provides that platform for people to talk about this, and to start the healing process, and to start, you know, maybe just that discussion what we can do about things like this,” says Bryan.
In light of the vigil, the Pridesmen Chorus London choir will make an appearance to honour the fallen, despite not being set to debut until next month.
“It’s set to debut July 21st during Pride, but we are going to be singing 3 songs which are very appropriate,” says Bryan.
The vigil at the Aeolian begins at 7:30pm Tuesday. The doors of the hall will open at 6:30pm.
**this story was written by Samuel Gallant. Samuel is a student in the Fanshawe College broadcast journalism program. He is performing a summer internship with Blackburn News.**
