Pulse nightclub, the Orlando LGBTQ venue that was the site of a horrific mass shooting in 2016, is now a national memorial.
“A place of acceptance and joy became a place of unspeakable pain and loss. We’ll never fully recover, but we’ll remember,” Biden said at the signing ceremony for the law creating the memorial. “May no president ever have to sign another monument like this.”
Biden was flanked by survivors of the shooting. Images of the 49 victims killed on June 12, 2016 by a gunman with a semiautomatic rifle were displayed on video screens.
The law designating the memorial was approved by the Senate earlier this month and the House in May.
According to Axios, “The Pulse nightclub law is part of an effort to build a permanent memorial at the site to include a reflecting pool, an open-air museum and an education center with gardens and a public plaza.” The project will cost $45 million dollars, but no federal funds will be used for its development.
Pulse should be a “shrine in perpetuity, literally a monument to a loss that occurred there, and an absolute determination that we’re going to deal with this every single solitary day and make sure that we’re not in a position to see this happen again,” the president said.
USA Today provides additional context on Biden’s Pride month initiatives:
Biden also commemorated Pride month by appointing advocate Jessica Stern as a special envoy to advance the human rights of LGBTQ people around the world. Stern is executive director of OutRight Action International, a New York-based group that works to address human rights violations and abuses against LGBTQ people.
The special envoy position was created in the State Department in 2015 but has been vacant since Stern’s predecessor, Randy Berry, left the job in 2017. Then-President Donald Trump chose not to replace Berry.