Five years after a gunman killed 49 people, and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting at The Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida; the US Congress have voted in favour of making the site a national memorial.
The Congress passed the motion unanimously, and the house has already passed it’s version of the bill last month. The measure will now go to President Joe Biden who is expected to sign it into law.
The legislation was introduced by Republican Senator Rick Scott, who was Florida’s Governor at the time of the massacre. Speaking to the bill he recalled that speaking to parents who lost children in the attack, and attending their funerals was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do.
The mass shooting was the deadliest in US history until the 2017 shooting in Las Vegas that saw 60 people killed and over 400 injured.
On June 12th the gay club was hosting a Latin night when a 29-year-old gunman entered the venue and began shooting people. The situation developed into a stand off between police and the offender as he held people hostage in the night club. After several hours police entered the building and the gunman was killed in an exchange of fire.
The owners of the venue have outlined their plans to build an LGBTIQ museum and memorial on the site. They have formed a foundation to raise funds for the project, and singer Ricky Martin signed on as their national spokesperson. The project was originally slated to be completed in 2020, but has been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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