Brisbane vigil for Orlando in Stuff

I already wrote a big spiel about it on Facebook, but I decided to go to the vigil last night.

I packed my big candle and holder and lighter in a plastic bag, my umbrella in my pocket and went on down there. Of course the dykes on bikes were already there hogging up a lot of the room, but there were quite a few police there looking after things and keeping their bikes to one side to make room for all the people. Reddacliff Place isn’t that huge for a big crowd, but it worked out well enough. As I was walking there, I walked past the huge ice-rink set up ion King George Square, which I guess is why the vigil wasn’t held there instead (where there is a lot more room).

Anyway, it was sad, and nice. There were a lot of speakers, including the deputy Prime Minister and the local member for Brisbane City. It was nice to hear Shelly Argent speak in person, as I’ve had her on my Facebook for a few years now. She is a local LGLT-supporter and mother of one gay son and one straight son, and has always been adamant about them both being treated as total equals.

As seen in the status above, Harry’s story was heartbreaking. To have the shooting happen at 2am when the club was about to close. Another speaker spoke about how the size of the Pulse nightclub is probably the exact same size as Sporties here (the gay bar right by my house that I barely ever go to).

At the end of the vigil, we did the one minute silence and the only sound was the buses going in and out of the bus tunnel beneath us. Then there was as much noise as possible from the crowd, because we wanted to go out with noise rather than silence, if there’s the off-chance that there is actually an after-life and that these poor victims could hear us, in whatever way, shape or form that is, could be, or isn’t.

Some people from the crowd wanted to speak, but the organiser said that if he let one person speak, he’d have to let everyone speak. Then there was some silence going on, and then next thing I know this woman gets up on stage to spill her thoughts. It was a little bit awkward to start with, but I soon realized she was a transgender latino woman. Her ‘speech’ went on for quite some time and some people left, but I decided I’d stay for it. The thing she said that stuck out the most for me was, “Have some recognition for us, we’ve been struck from more than one side.”
And yeah. They (Latino’s) have been. The Latino’s appear to be a tight-knit community themselves, and God-knows I’ve seen enough of them on RuPaul’s Drag Race over the years, so they certainly love their drag too. I actually love latino guys, with their foreign accents and darker sun-kissed skin, but unfortunately I don’t speak Spanish. Anyway her speech went on for ages and then another woman spoke after her, but hers was only short.

It literally began to rain as I blew out my candle and waited at the lights to cross the street to go back home. I had to hold my candle in my hand, as it was still hot and I didn’t want to risk putting it back in the bag. My candle was actually quite the hit. I had a few guys and girls comment to me on it, as everyone else had the usual small ones and ones in cups that you usually take to vigils. I had this sitting at home and figured it was a good time to make use of it. And it was nice, you know. I just thanked everyone who mentioned to me that they liked my candle. I wasn’t there to outshine anyone at a ‘best candle’ contest lol.

Anyway, I only snapped two pics and one vid of the evening.

FB people have already seen this, but this was my candle. I was conscious of the flame getting too close to anyone, especially when some woman walked through with a HUGE-ASS Latino FLAG. I was thinking like, “Geez woman, you want to go up in smoke??”

I just moved away when people got too close. I knew from lighting it at home that the flame could get quite big, but it behaved itself standing there.