On June 12, 2016, Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL was the scene of the second deadliest terror attack by a single person within the United States, leaving 50 people dead and 53 injured. The gay club was hosting a Latin night when the shooter arrived with a semi-automatic rifle and a pistol. In a stand-off that lasted three hours and ended in the death of the assailant, the Pulse nightclub was put on the historical map and the queer community was rocked across the country.

            As the civil rights movements of the late 1900s and early 2000s evolved, so too did the role of the gay bar. No longer needed as a clandestine meeting place for underground lovers, gay bars have shed the shrouds of secrecy and embraced the limelight of tourism and gentrification, as Hank Cancél told The Guardian in 2016.

            Now, they are a place where queer individuals are free to express their sexual and gender identities and to celebrate who they are.

            This may be, police think, one of the reasons that Pulse was chosen as the target for the June 12 attack.

            Violence, though, is not a weapon that the LGBTQ community is unfamiliar with.

            Vigils for the victims were held coast to coast. A GoFundMe campaign started by Equality Florida to support victims and survivors raised over $767,000 in nine hours as news spread and had broken a GoFundMe record by June 15, with over $4 million in donations by over 90,000 people. Now, the owner of the club plans to reopen the building as a memorial and museum in 2020.

            Perhaps in a similar way to how Stonewall swelled the anger of the community to a breaking point, the Pulse shooting brought the national community together. Clubs and bars are still places where freedom and pride are celebrated and Pulse is another yet another club that has left its mark on the culture of the queer community.