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ST. LUCIE WEST • TRADITION
YourVoiceWeekly.com VOL. 4/ISSUE 33
YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2016
Community responds to Orlando tragedy
Mitch Kloorfain/chief photographer Linda Bartz, vice mayor of Port St. Lucie (left), Mayor Greg Oravec and his wife Tonia (right) and more than 100 supporters participated in a candlelight vigil outside Tattle Tails, a LGBT owned and operated nightclub in Port St. Lucie following the massacre of 50 people in Orlando. The shooter was a resident of St. Lucie County.
Patrick McCallister STAFF WRITER
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
ST. LUCIE COUNTY — On Sunday, June 12, Port St. Lucie and the world woke to news of a shooting at an Orlando nightclub. As the information swirl became more congruent, three things emerged. It was the worst mass shooting in American history. The shooter lived and worked in St. Lucie County. The shooter seemed to be targeting gays. “I awoke to my mom calling me at 8 (a.m.) telling me to turn on the television,” Cory Pfister, treasurer and secretary of Port St. Lucie’s Pride of the Treasure Coast, said. “The last time she
did that was (during the Sept. 11 attacks) when I was in college.” The Orlando Police Department ended Omar Mateen’s shooting rampage at about 5 a.m., nearly three hours into the deadliest attack on American soil since 2001. By that time, he’d killed 49 and injured 53. Those numbers are subject to change by publication. Mateen was the 50th death in the attack. As an investigation into Mateen and search for any possible additional terrorists reached into Port St. Lucie on Sunday, Mayor Greg Oravec and Police Chief John Bolduc had a press conference. Oravec said the city had to turn to “continuing what makes our country great and bringing
all people together and practicing love.” “If the roots of the shooter’s hate extend into our community, we will not rest until they are ripped out,” Oravec said at the press conference. Pfister said the local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, LGBT, community generally feels safe and welcomed in Port St. Lucie, St. Lucie County and the Treasure Coast. “Yesterday morning the (St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office) contacted Tattle Tales (Nightclub), our one and only LGBT establishment, and told them, ‘We have your back,’” Pfister said. Tattle Tales, 8283 S. U.S. Highway 1, Port St. Lucie, will host a
benefit for victims of the Orlando shooting on Saturday, June 18, at 10 p.m. — Out LOUD for Orlando. The nightclub hosted an impromptu vigil on Sunday, June 12. Pride of the Treasure Coast is transitioning to ONE Treasure Coast. Among its aims is creating a community center in Port St. Lucie to provide education, support groups and other helps to members of the LGBT community. “As far as ONE Treasure Coast goes, we don’t want to take this tragedy and twist it in our favor, to our benefit, but this is exactly why we need a center, a center to
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