By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Local residents came out Sunday morning to show their support for the victims of the mass killing in Orlando, Fla.
An attacker, Omar Mateen, gunned down people in the Pulse, a gay night club. Fifty people, including Mateen, died at the scene. Another 53 were wounded.
With a rainbow flag, a handful of people gathered near the Four Corners in downtown Bowling Green. They were greeted by a show of hands – some gave them a thumbs up, some gave them a middle finger.
Bowling Green resident Amy Jo Holland said “it was not a pleasant experience.”
There were positives and negatives, she said.
Linda Tomajko, of Bowling Green, said some honked in support, others thanked them for being out.
A couple “preachers” showed up, she said. “One said he understood why God killed those people because they were sinners.”
Another said those at the vigil were destined for hell.
One preacher stood in front of them for 30 minutes and “bellowed at the top of his lungs,” said Gwen Andrix, another Bowling Green resident.
She said the reaction was “fairly typical” of what happens when members of the LGBTQ community gather to express themselves.
Tomajko said she was prompted to act because the attack struck close to home. She learned of it when she first got up this morning. There have been so many shootings in the past months, she admitted the impact on her has dulled.
“I have a lot of friends who are gay and trans,” she said, “and when I woke up this morning and saw that stuff… I was imagining so many of my friends and even myself who’s supportive of the effort. It absolutely broke my heart.
“This stuff happens every day,” she said. “The difference is instead of being one or two people, it’s 100, 50 dead and 53 injured. I felt like instead of sitting there and kind of wallowing, I wanted to do something.”
As she was leaving downtown this morning to bear witness, someone stopped and asked if a vigil for the victims would be held. So Tomajko put up an event page on Facebook, and tried to contact people for a vigil in the evening.
That vigil drew about 20 people, standing on the corner of the green space across from the police station. The response was friendlier in the evening.
Another vigil is planned for Wednesday (June 15) at 7 p.m. at the green space at East Wooster, South Church and South Grove streets in downtown Bowling Green.
