Macon vigil planned for Orlando mass killings

People in Macon are invited to gather for a candlelight vigil in Tattnall Square Park at 8 p.m. Monday to remember the dozens who were killed in the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida.

About 50 people were slain by a single gunman who opened fire inside Pulse, a popular LGBT nightclub in central Florida, early Sunday morning.

“What happened, it really hurts,” said 22-year-old Bentley Hudgins, a Mercer University senior who is organizing the vigil. “I’m bisexual, and I’m a member of the queer community. It affects everybody, but it really hits home when you feel like you’re a part of that group.”

People are encouraged to bring their own candles to the gathering, which will take place at the park’s stone terrace.

The mass killing occurred at the start of national Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month, which has been celebrated in cities across America each June since the 1960s.

Hudgins said he’s been to the pride parades in June and “the empowerment and the solidarity that you feel when you’re celebrating who you are — when most of the time you feel like you can’t hold hands with someone that you love in public — it’s so special.”

“I just wanted everybody in the community to feel like we still love each other, and we’re still there for each other,” Hudgins said. “In the face of hatred, you speak truth and love, and you don’t step down from your pride.”

The gunman, identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen had alleged ties to the radical Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.

Imam Adam Fofana, of the Islamic Center of Middle Georgia, said all Imams in Georgia have united to denounce IS and the actions of Mateen. Fofana said he sees the killings as a hate crime and doesn’t feel Mateen’s actions were motivated by religion.

“There is no place in any religion that I know that would give anyone the kind of power to murder people in this way, innocent people being killed in this brutal way just for their choice of life,” Fofana said. “We are human, we are one humanity. We are asked by God to love one another and care for one another.”

Fofana said he hopes there will be a way “to turn this sad event into a victory for these people who died.”

For more on this story, return to Macon.com and read Tuesday’s Telegraph.

This story was originally published June 13, 2016 at 1:50 PM with the headline "Macon vigil planned for Orlando mass killings."