Although the impact of the Pulse massacre was felt most acutely in the city of Orlando, particularly by the queer Latino community, the pain that took place affected LGBT+ people worldwide. In the aftermath, crowds from Soho to Sydney held vigils in solidarity with those who died. The same day Dean Eastmond joined the Birmingham vigil, he was told he was critically ill. It was a bittersweet irony that the one city on earth that offered hope for his life was also the place where 49 people had been murdered...
SHUTTERSTOCK
On 12 June this year, Omar Mateen took the lives of 49 queer people, mainly of Latino origin, at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, in an act regarded as the biggest attack on American people since 9/11. A day later, with the Pulse massacre still fresh on everyone’s minds, I sat uncomfortably opposite a doctor as he told me that I have cancer. To be precise, I have Ewing’s sarcoma — a rare and aggressive soft tissue and bone cancer — growing off the ninth rib on the right-hand side of my chest.