Local LGBT leaders devastated over Orlando attack

As one gay pride celebration ended in Des Moines and another starts this week in Iowa City, leaders Sunday mourned victims of the rampage in a Florida nightclub but found solace in the resiliency of the lesbian, gay and transgender community.

A committee organizing events this week in Iowa City plans to meet Monday to see what it can do to help victims of the Orlando gay nightclub shooting and promote pride in Iowa City and across the state, said Jewell Amos, chairwoman of Iowa City Pride.

'We may not be helping the people in Orlando, but we definitely want to be building our own community stronger,” she said. 'We will keep an eye on things. Now, I'm actually looking forward to (pride week events) even more because I feel I need some connection with the queer community. I just want to meet them and take that extra time to tell them how much I appreciate them for being in our community.”

Andrew Harrison, owner of Belle's Basix, a gay club in Cedar Rapids, said Sunday's shooting conjured one of his biggest fears for the past 19 years - that someone would enter his nightclub with a gun. Over the years, there have been rumors and plenty of unkind words hurled at the bar and its patrons.

'It could be words or it could be guns,” Harrison said. 'We've been through a lot worse as a community. That's one of the good things that the gay community does is get together when times get tough.”

Harrison organized a candlelight vigil at Belle's Basix to 'let people know that we're not scared.”

Jason Zeman, a committee member for the Iowa City Pride organization and owner of Studio 13, a gay club in Iowa City, echoed that sentiment.

'It's always in the back of your mind when you own a gay pride club,” he said. 'You hope people have a sense of right and wrong. But it's a part of the world we live in. You can't live in fear and you can't let it control you.”

Zeman said he was devastated when he heard about the Orlando shooting while attending the Des Moines gay pride festival with a friend this weekend.

The bar owner said he plans to hire more security at his club this week while looking for ways both his business and Iowa City Pride can help victims of the shooting.

'I think we are one of the safest bars and have great community support,” Zeman said. 'The act of one crazy person is not going to change what we do and who we are.”

In a statement, the head of Iowa's largest LGBT organization decried the ease with guns can be acquired and vitriol that has been directed at the gay community.

'And so, Orlando was the perfect storm of hate violence and gun access,” One Iowa Executive Director Donna Red Wing said in the statement. 'All of LGBT America mourns today. And all of LGBT America is more afraid than it was yesterday.”

Authorities identified the assailant as Omar S. Mateen, 29, of Port St. Lucie, Fla., and said he had pledged allegiance to a leader of the Islamic State terror group just before the attack.

Amos said she cautions others from making judgments based on stereotypes, especially stereotypes against Muslims and those in Islamic communities being tied to radical extremism.

'I'm not very familiar with the Muslim culture,” Amos said. 'But there are a lot of basic beliefs they have that don't coincide (with the radial acts). We have enough radical Christians in our society. Radical is radical. There are extremists everywhere, and they're the ones that are dangerous.”

She said her wish for the world is that people 'work on trying not to hate,” regardless of their backgrounds.

'I've got a little girl. I want her to hug everybody and love everybody and be happy. I want to make a better place for her.”