In the midst of the debates over gun control and how to fight ISIS, I fear the country will forget that the mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., was a hate crime against the LGBT community ("Waking up to the Pulse," June 17).
While we've made several advances, Orlando shows an extreme form of the rising backlash against the advances in LGBT rights.
Many people won't acknowledge the fact that nearly every Orlando victim was LGBT because it forces them to confront the fact that they've spewed the same kind of rhetoric that led to this tragedy — calling us child molesters, claiming "religious freedom" as an excuse to discriminate, etc.
Some presidential candidates have stood with those who call for our executions. Pastors have already come out saying that the Orlando victims deserved to be killed.
Hatred of the LGBT community is not native to any specific religion; It is a societal wrong. People's thoughts and prayers mean nothing when they've been thinking and praying the same hateful things about the victims all along.
Melody Phillips, Baltimore