Hundreds of people gathered Monday night on an empty lot in Baltimore's Station North to mourn the lives lost in a shooting rampage at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla.
"Today, we are all LGBT," said Jabari Lyles, president of a community center that helped to organize the vigil. "It's times like these when pride is most important."
The memorial capped a day when gay, Latino and Muslim leaders in Maryland pledged a united front against hatred and violence. A wide spectrum of community groups called on the nation to spurn both the homophobia believed to have motivated the attack and the Islamophobia it could inspire.
"We are not going to allow this massacre, which is not Islamic, to drive a wedge between the Muslim and LGBT communities," said Patrick Paschall, executive director of FreeState Legal Project, a legal advocate for low-income LGBT Marylanders.
Many victims of the Florida massacre were Hispanic and gay.
"Not only is it the biggest mass shooting in United States history, but it targeted the Latin night, the LGBT community," said Lillian Amaya, a founder of IRIS Baltimore, a Latino LGBT group that formed in February. "You're talking about a hate crime that has multiple complexities. ... It's just so much."
Orlando police said 29-year-old Omar Mateen, a New York-born resident of St. Lucie County, Fla., called 911 and pledged allegiance to the terrorist group known as ISIS before he turned an assault rifle and handgun on revelers at a Latin music-themed party at Pulse, a popular club. He killed at least 49 people and wounded 53 others before he died in a shootout with officers, authorities said.
Nationally, calls for healing were joined by pitched political sparring over security and gun control. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump repeated calls to ban Muslims from entering the country, while Democrat Hillary Clinton stressed defeating "the barbarity we face from radical jihadists."
In Maryland, mourners gathered at events around the state, from churches in Rockville and Columbia to McKeldin Mall at the University of Maryland, College Park.
At the Baltimore vigil, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the gathering revealed "a ministry of support" for the LGBT community in Baltimore.
"Being here is speaking volumes about who we are as Baltimoreans," the mayor said.
Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said Sunday's attack "targeted the LGBT community in a horrific way. ... We stand with you. We'll do our very best to protect you."
Davis also announced Monday night the department was offering security assessments for the city's LGBT bars and nightclubs. Officers can advise on security plans and surveillance systems, Davis said.
There are no immediate threats against clubs in Baltimore, Davis said. But after the shooting in Orlando, he said, "We are reminded of our vulnerabilities and that such evil acts can occur anywhere."
Businesses owners interested in an assessment should contact Lt. Jeffrey Shorter, Jeffrey.Shorter@Baltimorepolice.org.
Gays, lesbians and transgender people and their allies found the attack particularly heinous because clubs such as Pulse have long been safe gathering spaces.
"Frankly, many of us in Baltimore are as numbed as we are hurt, as we are routinely forced to confront hatred and violence every day as other parts of our identity interact with society's systems," said Lyles, president of the GLBT Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland.
The center and other groups organized Monday night's vigil, at Charles Street and North Avenue, with a goal to unify people who typically might have little interaction but are equally devastated by the tragedy.
Despite the groups' differences, they share the same burden of discrimination, leaders said.
They expressed concern not only about violence against gays, lesbians and transgender people, but against Muslims because of a backlash against Islamic extremism.
Amaya and Alfredo Santiago were among the founding members of IRIS Baltimore seeking to build a bridge between Baltimore's Latino and LGBT communities. In light of the tragedy in Orlando, they sought to also connect with local Muslims.
"As a proud Latino gay man, I don't blame this on my Muslim brothers and sisters," Alfredo Santiago said at an event Monday morning in Mount Vernon with the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Sen. Richard Madaleno, an openly gay member of the Maryland Senate, joined the groups in stressing that neither the shooter nor ISIS represent Islam or its followers. He said the attacks should not shake ties the LGBT community has with the Muslim community.
"ISIS have killed far more Muslims around the world than Americans and other Westerners," Madaleno said. "This is not about Islam, this is a group of sociopaths. They have a hate-filled ideology."
Members of the Islamic council also condemned the massacre.
"The LGBTQ community has been one of the strongest allies against Islamophobia," said Zainab Chaudry, council spokesperson. "For them to be targeted by an individual who is believed to be Muslim is especially horrific. It is unbelievable.
"We do not condone this violence, and we are not going to stay silent while this type of homophobia is taking place," Chaudry said.
Organizations vowed to continue helping communities heal in the coming days. IRIS Baltimore invited people to come to the next meeting of its monthly support group at 6 p.m. Friday at Familia Adelante in Highlandtown.
At Chase Brexton Health Care in Mount Vernon, therapists attended Monday's vigil to listen to concerns and connect people with mental health resources.
"What we're going to try to do for most of this week is completely open up and make ourselves available to community members who need an ear to listen, some space to process everything going on and need to not feel alone," said Nate Sweeney, executive director of Chase Brexton's LGBT Health Resource Center.
Donna Yaffe, a psychologist for the health center, said the unity displayed Monday could help with the grieving process.
"There are so many different kinds of groups of people that are persecuted and hated for their differences," Yaffe said. "People need to be embraced for their differences and not hated for their differences."
In Station North, Monica Yorkman stepped slowly through the crowd. "I'm giving everybody a hug," said the self-described community activist as she approached a burly man in sunglasses, a slight young woman with ice cream, and several others, old and young, Latinos and African-Americans.
Each smiled and opened their arms.
The Associated Press and Tribune Newspapers contributed to this article.
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