Orlando LGBT Paper Editor: ‘I Don’t Even Know If My Friends Are Alive’

As editor of Orlando’s LGBT newspaper “Watermark,” Billy Manes always encouraged gay people to “disengage” from the thought that they could be victimized for their sexuality.

 

But after a shooting at an Orlando gay club early Sunday morning left 50 people dead — and news that the gunman was outraged over seeing two men kiss — Manes told NBC News in an emotional interview that he wasn’t sure he’d done the right thing.

 

“When I see 50 people shot in cold blood two blocks from my house, it changes my mind a little bit,” he said, adding that while he didn’t know why 29-year-old Omar Mateen chose the Pulse nightclub as a target, the shooting seemed to him like a hate crime.

 

“We need to understand: this was a gay bar where 50 people were killed,” Manes said.

 

Read More: Orlando LGBT Paper Editor: ‘I Don’t Even Know If My Friends Are Alive’ – NBC News