On Saturday, tens of thousands in Indianapolis celebrated the LGBTQ community in Indy Pride's Cadillac Barbie IN pride festival and parade downtown. However, on Sunday evening, the community came together again, but on a much more somber note.
"We need to be unified, we need to be coming together, we need to do things, like last night with our vigil," Indy Pride President Jason Hinson-Nolen says. "We need to do those things where we're able to be in a space together because that unity, that time together, is not letting fear dominate what's going on in our lives."
Early Sunday morning, 29-year-old Omar Mateen entered Pulse Nightclub, a gay club in Orlando, killing 49 and injuring 53 people. The shooting is the deadliest in American history.
A SWAT team later shot and killed Mateen in the club.
Indy Pride held a vigil in the Egyptian Room at the Old National Centre on Sunday night, and in a note posted on their Facebook page, they shared their grief with the victims and their families, adding that by joining together, they could "illustrate to the world that we are not scared to be who we are and to love whom we love."
Though investigators are still trying to figure out Mateen's motives, his father said on Sunday that his son had been disturbed by two men kissing in Miami in front of is three-year-old son.
I do think that this tragedy does affect more than the LGBTQ community.
"I do think that this tragedy does affect more than the LBGTQ community," Hinson-Nolen says. "I think it affects the wider population, but it presents an opportunity for us to unify in a message of love and compassion for other people."
According to NPR, Mateen called 911 and pledged his allegiance to ISIS before the shooting, although his connections with the terrorist organization is still unknown.
At the vigil, leaders from various religious communities in Indianapolis spoke.
The Executive Director of the Muslim Alliance of Indiana, Rima Khan-Shahid says "In this dark time we urge all Americans, including our Muslim brothers and sisters, to build up and participate in communities."
Echoing President Barack Obama's speech from earlier Sunday addressing the shooting, Rabbi Paula Winnig hopes the pattern of mass shootings ends.
"I for one am tired of gatherings after mass shootings in the United States," Rabbi Winnig says. "I've been doing it for 30 years, it's enough already."
Hinson-Nolen says that currently, people can help the victims and their families by donating blood, and donating to a GoFundMe page, set up for Florida Equality to raise money for local organizations.
