Orlando: 911 Transcripts

Note he makes no mention of homophobia, just opposition to bombing Syria.

Orlando: A Question Of Evidence

The FBI has found no evidence so far that Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people and wounded more than 53 at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, chose the popular establishment because of its gay clientele, U.S law enforcement officials said.

“While there can be no denying the significant impact on the gay community, the investigation hasn’t revealed that he targeted Pulse because it was a gay club,” a U.S. law enforcement official said.

Soon after the shooting in the early morning of June 12, top U.S officials such as the FBI director and U.S. attorney general described it as both a hate crime and an act of Islamic terrorism. The shooting rattled the gay community, which felt singled out by Mateen.

“People often act out of more than one motivation,” Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said in the days after the attack. “This was clearly an act of terror and an act of hate.”

A month later, though, a complete picture of what motivated Mateen remains murky and may never be known since he was killed in a shootout with police and did not leave a manifesto. Officials said there is no evidence thus far that Mateen, 29, was gay or that his attack was motivated by homophobia.

The assessment is based on interviews and an examination of his computer and other electronic media.... 

Washington Post.

The 'Mateen was a secret gay' line always soumded like a silly fantasy.

And as for his choice of target and motive... fuck knows.

PS Looks like last night's massacre in Nice might not have been an act of Islamist terror.

Orlando: In No Way Is This Man A Weirdo Who Can't Be Trusted

The ever reliable Sun.

Orlando: You Clearly Know Fuck All Mate

The Independent.

Orlando: Men

We may never know exactly why Mateen did this or the extent to which “radical Islam” played a role, but the very next day a white Christian male was arrested with explosives in his car driving towards LA Pride. Religion, with its aggressively strict concentration on traditional and conservative values, is a place to which men in crisis can turn.

For thousands of years, faith has been used to keep straight men at the top of the ladder, but religion itself not the actual problem. It is masking the fact that masculinity is failing to adapt to the changing world where women are breadwinners and gay couples can start families. Since Sandy Hook, there have been an astonishing 998 mass shootings in America. Two of the perpetrators were Muslim, but all were men. Surely this suggests that this is a wider problem with masculinity. Until we reassess what it means to be a “real man” then men will continue to beat their wives and murder LBGT people to ease their own self-loathing.

Toxic masculinity was just as much to blame for the Orlando shootings as radical Islam, Louis Staples, Independent Voices.

Yup.

Mind you, there's much that could be said about the nexus between radical Islam and machismo, particularly in the West.

PS This is kinda connected, I guess; Shame And Sexuality: What is internalised homophobia?, BBC News magazine.

It's not really, I just thought it was interesting and don't know where else to put it.

Orlando: Omar

Omar Mateen, the gunman who murdered 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando early Sunday morning, may have actually been gay himself and was leading a double life.

Mateen's horrifying attack on Pulse nightclub was initially thought to be a homophobic attack rooted in extremist Islamic ideology.

But now his ex-wife, a former police academy classmate and clubbers have stepped forward to say they think Mateen was gay and had been visiting Pulse since 2013.

Investigators think he could have traveled to Pulse - which was a two hour drive from his home in Fort Pierce in Southern Florida - so he wouldn't have been seen.

It's also been revealed that Mateen used gay dating apps Grindr and Jack'd to chat to men online and was friends with draq queens at the club.

Signs that Mateen could have been gay emerged as far back as 2006 when he asked a male classmate out on a date.

At the time Mateen was said to be going to gay clubs and chatting up men.

Mateen's first wife, Sitora Yusufiy, 27, whom he met online in 2009 and married soon after, told Daily News his family think he murdered the 49 because he was in turmoil about who he really was - not because he was an Islamic extremist...

[Some say he was a regular at Pulse]

Daily Mail.

The Sun.

Oops!

The 'all homophobes are secretly gay' is a well-worn trope - but, despite several high-profile cases involving right-wing politicians and evangelical preachers, is rarely true.

It also serves to absolve heterosexuals from any blame for their homophobia.

Please bare in mind that just because someone says something - here, a woman spurned - it doesn't mean that it's true.

Though the evidence here seems rather compelling.

If it is true, this is still about homophobia, as Omar was a victim of it, too.

Turned this round quick, Dave. Guardian.

Orlando: Morrissey

Although the gunman who massacred 49 people at an Orlando gay club is said to have been 'repulsed' by homosexuality, he nonetheless left behind a slew of self-adoring 'selfies'; a handsome man gazing enchantedly at his own face. It is therefore acceptable for him to lovingly admire his own maleness, but it is not OK for other men to like other men. Does Islamic scripture say it is fitting for a man to sit alone taking adoring photographs of himself? I doubt it.

Meanwhile, Donald Thump, probably America's next President, reacts to the Orlando massacre by explaining how, if the people within the club were themselves armed with guns, then there would have been fewer casualties. This, of course, is his way of avoiding any words of support to the Orlando gay community (it is their own fault for going into a nightclub without hand grenades). Donald Thump would therefore probably claim that the massacred children of Sandy Hook would still be alive today if only they'd had the common sense to carry sawn-off shotguns to school. The Thump response to Orlando is therefore anti-gay and pro-gun possession. Ann Coulter will be waving her baseball cap and cheering. It's all going so well for America!

Unfortunately, CNN obliged the gunman once again with a flashing flood of publicity - which is all he ever wanted, and which will encourage the next shooter to prepare for international fame. Why show the gunman's face? Nobody needs to see it...

Hate-rosexuality, True To You.

One of her less bobbins missives.

It would be churlish to point out that the sleeves to Morrissey's solo records have been a succession of 'self-adoring selfies'.