Pulse at 10: The Fight for Safety, Belonging, and Survival Continues

June 12 marked 10 years since a gunman killed 49 people and wounded 58 others during “Latin Night” at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It was at the time the largest mass shooting in U.S. history and remains the single largest such attack on the LGBTQ and Latine communities. 

After an initial surge in funding and other support in the wake of the attack, BIPOC queer and trans communities in Orlando (and throughout Florida) are still navigating longstanding and emerging challenges. Over the past decade, Florida has become a primary testing ground for restrictive LGBTQ policies. These include the “Don’t Say Gay” and “License to Discriminate in Healthcare” laws, bans on gender affirming care, anti-trans bathroom legislation, and, most recently, the “Anti-Diversity in Local Government” law, which punishes cities and counties that celebrate diversity by repealing or defunding local policies, programs, and events. Even rainbow crosswalks have become one such battleground.

Queer and trans organizers are fighting these restrictions with increasingly limited funding and capacity as much of philanthropy has retrenched from funding DEI. In response, Borealis deepened our commitment by doubling our Fund for Trans Generations up to $4 million a year. We also spoke with two Fund for Trans Generations grantee partners—Arianna’s Place in Fort Lauderdale and The Queer Trans Project in Jacksonville—about the evolution of community belonging and safety over the past decade, their hopes for the next 10 years, and philanthropy’s role in realizing that vision.

What was your connection to Pulse and what do you remember about that time? 

Arianna Lint, Arianna’s Place: I worked the club scene in Orlando and actually checked IDs at Pulse on a few occasions. It was a place where folks went to relax, to be with the community. When the shooting happened, I was living in Fort Lauderdale. I was very affected because I knew people who were there—a good friend of mine survived it. It’s still an incredibly tragic chapter for the local community and the world. 

Cielo Sunsarae, The Queer Trans Project: I was a high school junior in Fort Lauderdale. I wasn’t out until I was almost a college graduate, so I didn’t learn about Pulse until years later. It’s interesting that I didn’t know about it being from Florida. Even though I have no direct connection to it, as an out and avid activist now, it is deeply impactful. It’s a real memory of community and siblings lost.

Alexis Williams, The Queer Trans Project: I was based in Jacksonville, which is conservative. We didn’t hear too much. A year later, I started attending University of Central Florida, where they had this mural painted in remembrance. That’s when I learned more and realized, I’m living where this happened. It could have been me or one of my friends. I thought why didn’t this get more attention, but it felt obsolete outside of Orlando unless you were queer.

Ten years later, how are Florida’s policies affecting LGBTQ communities and organizations?

Alexis Williams, The Queer Trans Project: In Jacksonville, we’re fighting city council on everything. Our local LGBTQ center lost all of their government funding pools. The mayor is scared to fund anything that’s DEI. They’re threatening to press charges against one of our coordinators for warning people about ICE’s presence in the city. We’re not just fighting the governor, but also local elected officials.

Cielo Sunsarae, The Queer Trans Project: These electeds are scared they might lose their title or lose money while our lives are actually at stake. If they’re scared, imagine how scared we are. There’s an organization in Orlando that serves the LGBTQ community that has had to remove any mention of LGBTQ or women from their website. Anything that could be remotely considered DEI has to be stripped from their website in order for them to keep operating.

Arianna Lint, Arianna’s Place: I was in talks with the city of Miami for a project, and they told me they couldn’t work on it past January 1, 2027. No city can fund or work on projects led by the LBGTQ community, especially the trans community. Unity within the LGBTQ community, and within activist movements, is more important now than ever. There is a need and space for more groups to join the fight. 

What is philanthropy getting right—and wrong—at this moment?

Cielo Sunsarae, The Queer Trans Project: In response to the anti-DEI wave, philanthropy is telling orgs to merge. That’s not the answer. There’s enough money in philanthropy for all of us to thrive, but because philanthropy wants to fund safer, larger orgs, small ones are suffering. I know people working at orgs that have merged and they’re at the edge of their seat waiting to be laid off because when orgs merge, there are only so many positions. 

Alexis Williams, The Queer Trans Project: We’re also seeing a lot of sunsetting. Only so many funders openly support LGBTQ initiatives, and a lot of them are closing up or revisiting their grantmaking practices. Now’s not the time. This is when philanthropy should be stepping up and saying we still need our LGBTQ centers. In fact, we need more. When hospitals and bigger non-profits can’t do it, us little guys show up and do the work with significantly smaller resources and budgets. 

Arianna Lint, Arianna’s Place: They need to listen and have real conversations about what’s happening. Many funders who used to support us don’t because of the current conditions, but they won’t talk to us about it. At the very least these funders should be responding to our emails about what happened to our funding or what we can do to be funded again. Or even if we can’t be funded, there are other resources we can be receiving. 

What does survival and resistance look like right now? What’s most needed? 

Cielo Sunsarae, The Queer Trans Project: In this day and age, direct service is activism. It is social justice because the state of the world right now wants us dead. By existing another day, we are defying what they want. It’s that simple. 

Alexis Williams, The Queer Trans Project: So many RFPs ask how are you making systematic changes? We are, just maybe not in the way funders think. I can’t always help someone get elected, but I can give someone a binder and tape and they’re not going to want to kill themselves. We need both to exist: advocacy to influence institutions, and help to the people. 

Arianna Lint, Arianna’s Place: More unity and collaboration with other activists and movements, and more respect from institutions. We’re all being marginalized. Not just trans people. All of us. 

In the legacy of Pulse, remembrance alone is not enough. Orgs all across the country, like Arianna’s Center and The Queer Trans Project, need sustained investment, so that LGBTQ communities not only endure this moment, but shape belonging, joy, and safety in their own terms. Are you a funder seeking to meaningfully resource LGBTQ communities? Join us.