Formerly from Binghamton, Rev. Miller Hoffman responded to the Orlando killings of gay people in Huffington Post. She advocates more "kissing in the street."
In the month when so many of us celebrate liberation and pride, within a week of the anniversary of the massacre of our black siblings in a Charleston church, in a place where we gather – in a place we are known to congregate to soak ourselves in laughter and community and self-worth – and in the wake of terrific successes as the long arc of justice bends toward recognition of our humanity and equality and worth…
This attack joins the wave of violence against lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer people. It joins the Stonewall Inn and the Upstairs Lounge and others as an invasion of our recreational sanctuaries. Our trans sisters of color are being killed and their bodies abandoned in horrifying numbers. Legislative and policy attempts run riot to humiliate us from bathrooms to cake shops, to demonize and criminalize our love and our pride and our spirit – attempts not just to destroy our body but to also crush our soul, to not only devastate our souls but to obliterate our bodies. To silence us, and to erase us. To make us unspeakable, unhearable, unseen.