The Best Damn Newsletter in New Jersey!
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The Newsletter of the Gay Activist Alliance in Morris County Serving New Jersey’s GLBTI Communities Since 1972 Volume 42, Issue 6, Summer 2016
Gleanings Queer News from across the nation and around the world 49 people were killed and 53 others were wounded when Law enforcement officials said Mateen swore ala gunman opened fire and took hostages at a gay night- legiance to the leader of ISIS in a 911 phone call shortly club in Orlando, Florida, early on the morning of Sunday, before the shooting, in which he also mentioned the BosJune 12th. The shooter, identified by several law en- ton Marathon bombers, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan forcement sources as Omar Mateen, 29, was killed in a Tsarnaev. shootout with law enforcement after a three-hour siege. Mateen legally bought the two guns used in the The massacre — the worst mass shooting in the history of shooting in the past week, said Trevor Velinor, an assisthe United States — began when the gunman stormed the tant special agent in charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Pulse nightclub about 2 a.m. ET with a handgun and a Sig Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Tampa. Police said Sauer MCX, an AR-15-style rifle. that Mateen was a U.S. citizen but some of his family The carnage ended about 5 a.m. ET, when 11 Or- members aren't. lando police officers and three Orange County sheriff's Many Muslim groups swiftly rebuked the attack deputies stormed the nightclub and exchanged fire with Sunday. "We condemn this monstrous attack and offer our Mateen. City officials said about 300 people were in the heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of club at the time of the shooting. all those killed or injured," Rasha Mubarak, Orlando reLaw enforcement sources said that Omar Mateen gional coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic was born in New York in 1986 to Afghani parents who em- Relations, said in a statement. "The Muslim community igrated to the United States around 1980, and was listed joins our fellow Americans in repudiating anyone or any as living in Fort Pierce, about 125 miles south of Orlando group that would claim to justify or excuse such an appalon Florida's Atlantic coast. Mateen had active security ling act of violence." officer and firearm licenses, according to Florida records, President Barack Obama said Sunday afternoon and his family said he worked in security. that the massacre is "a further reminder of how easy it is The FBI first looked into Mateen in 2013 because for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets of a statement he had made about radical Islamic propa- them shoot people in a school or in a house of worship or ganda, law enforcement officials told NBC News. Ron a movie theater or in a nightclub." Hopper, an assistant FBI special agent in charge of OrlanThe American Medical Association (AMA), the do operations, said the investigation began after Mateen largest medical organization in the United States, passed made offensive comments to a historic resolution June co-workers. He was inter14th in response to the Inside Challenge viewed twice, but the invesweekend’s mass shooting. Challenge Information .......................... page 2 tigation was closed after the After years of tiptoeing GAAMC Events for July/August ........... page 2 FBI wasn't able to confirm around the topic of gun that he had ties to radical control, AMA leaders votPresident’s Letter ................................... page 3 Islam, Hopper said. The FBI ed to officially call gun July/August Q-munity Calendar............ page 5 interviewed him again in 2014 violence a public health Sangre Fria by Tony Puma ................... page 8 when it learned that he might issue and respond accordBuddies Corner....................................... page 9 have a connection to a U.S. ingly. That means flexing GAAMC Board Minutes ...................... page 10 suicide bomber, but the inthe organization’s powervestigation was closed beful political muscle on Bulletin Board ...................................... page 10 cause the FBI determined Capitol Hill to refocus So Long, Farewell…? .......................... page 10 that "contact was minimal federal funds toward GAAMC Information ........................... page 11 and did not constitute a substudying gun violence. stantive relationship," Hopper (continued on page 4) said.