ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Community members in St. Pete will gather Friday afternoon to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting, one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.<\/p>\n
The remembrance ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. at the intersection of Central Avenue and 25th Street in the city\u2019s Grand Central District, the former site of the Progressive Rainbow Street Mural. Organizers say the event will focus on reflection, remembrance, and solidarity while honoring the 49 people killed and 58 others injured in the June 12, 2016, attack at Pulse nightclub in Orlando.<\/p>\n
Although the rainbow mural at the intersection was painted over last summer as part of a state mandate, the location remains a significant symbol for the LGBTQ+ community in St. Pete.<\/p>\n
For many local residents, the tragedy continues to have a lasting impact. Some had personal connections to the victims, while others say the attack remains a painful reminder.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis impacted the entire country, the gay community, the LGBTQIA community, their friends, their allies, and people who love and support them,\u201d said Rob Hall, who plans to attend the ceremony. \u201cWe want to show up and recognize them and carry on that love and support forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attendees say the anniversary is also a reminder to stay vigilant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think more than ever there\u2019s this worry and this threat of what is going to happen next,\u201d said Gabe Alvez, another ceremony attendee. \u201cBringing awareness that we have to be on alert and recognize situations that can bring great harm to our community is important.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event will feature speakers and provide an opportunity for community members to gather in support of one another. Organizers include St. Pete Pride, Justice Over Everything, the Contigo Fund, and the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Community members in St. Pete will gather Friday afternoon to commemorate the 10th anniversary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1564,274,28,115,139,596,16956,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,835],"class_list":["post-305152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-angie-angers","tag-app-top-stories","tag-florida","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-pinellas-county","tag-pulse-shooting","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}