Gay community reaches out to LGBT publications after Orlando mass shooting

World Today

Orlando’s gay community is grappling with a terrible sense of loss as they learn that so many friends are among the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting.

Some are using social media to follow developments. Others are turning to Orlando’s gay media publications, balancing their grief with the need to tell the story of the shooting.

CCTV’s Steve Mort reports from Orlando.
Follow Steve Mort on Twitter @mobilemort

For Billy Manes, editor of Watermark, a newspaper that has served the city’s large LGBT community for more than 20 years, covering the horrific events at the Pulse nightclub is personal.

“It’s the most important issue that we will ever put out of Watermark,” Manes said. “I thought that last year’s marriage equality issue was the most important issue we would ever put out, but no.”

Manes has also pressed for gun control legislation since his husband took his own life using a firearm.

Meanwhile, after Monday night’s vigil, more events are being held to remember the dead over the coming days, including at churches, Islamic Centers and Orlando’s University of Central Florida which lost one of its students, Juan Ramon Guerrero, in the massacre.