Hundreds in Macon mourn Orlando massacre victims

The sun was setting in Tattnall Square Park on Monday as a crowd of about 300 listened in silence, holding white candles to remember the dozens who were gunned down early Sunday morning in a gay nightclub in Florida.

At least 49 people inside Pulse, a popular club in Orlando, were slain by a single gunman, who was killed by police.

Tom Bullington, 33, stood at Monday’s vigil with his partner. The two had driven to Macon from Warner Robins after learning about the event on Facebook.

“I wanted to do something good, something meaningful,” Bullington said. “We can’t do anything directly to help people in Orlando, but at least we can do something to show that we exist here as much as we do there. ... I feel as though our community is kind of scattered wherever we go. It’s sad that events like this are the only moments where we get to come together.”

The massacre moved 22-year-old Bentley Hudgins to create the event on Facebook, to invite the public to remember the victims. The diverse crowd included families, couples and singles, along with pet dogs.

“What happened, it really hurts,” said Hudgins, a Mercer University senior. “It affects everybody, but it really hits home when you feel like you’re a part of that group.”

Hudgins said he was up late Sunday night reading news stories about the victims.

“I thought about it and I thought, ‘I can get really sad, or I can bring people together to love each other and help each other through it,’” Hudgins said. “There’s no place for hate here.”

The mass killing occurred in the midst 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 has been to Pride parades before 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.”

Cathy Dillard, 59, of Griffin, sat in a lawn chair beside her longtime partner as dozens of victims’ names were read aloud from the park’s stone terrace near Oglethorpe and College streets.

“I’ve seen a lot of changes,” Dillard said. “As much as it breaks my heart that there’s still this type of discrimination and hatred toward our community, I see so much progress. I never thought I’d see the day when me and my partner could get married. Not in my lifetime and not in Macon, Georgia. And then to see the outpouring of love across this country ... That right there tells you there’s change. It gives me hope.”

The gunman, identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen, had alleged ties to the radical Islamic State terrorist group and was inspired by online “radical” extremism, according to a Miami Herald report.

Imam Adam Fofana, of the Islamic Center of Middle Georgia located in Centerville, said Muslims in Georgia have united to denounce the Islamic State and the actions of Mateen. Fofana said he sees the killings as a hate crime and doesn’t think 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.”

This story was originally published June 13, 2016 at 9:20 PM with the headline "Hundreds in Macon mourn Orlando massacre victims."