Fri 17 Jun 2016 In: International News View at Wayback View at NDHA
A regular customer of La Madame gay bar says as a result of the mass shooting he no longer feels safe going out at night in Xalapa and that the local LGBTI community “lives in fear”. Yerania Rolón, Blog Expediente Speaking to GayNZ.com, the Xalapa local, who wishes to stay anonymous for his own safety, shared his knowledge of the mass shooting that took place at La Madame gay bar in Xalapa on 22 May. Official reports place the number killed at 7, with 12 injured however witness reports put the number of dead at 15. He says “My first feelings were of concerns – I thought of all my friends, of the people I saw on the weekends. As the days went on I felt quite sad thinking that I could have been there. It was something that felt so close to me, even though we see it as something that would only happen in movies.” Two of his friends were heading to the club on the night of the shooting but heard the news before they arrived and made their way home again. Another of his friends was not so lucky and was at La Madame when the shooting took place. “I haven't wanted to ask him anything as I assumed he had gone through something very traumatising,” he says. “A person that was there on the day of the attacks mentions that the attackers shot at her table. She was with a young guy who she had just met, who covered her to protect her from the bullets. She survived, but was shot on the leg as she was begging the attackers for mercy. “Some other friends told me that, after shooting at that table, the attackers sprayed bullets at all of the other people that were at the bar.” The Xalapa local says he already felt unsafe in most other places but didn’t feel this way in La Madame. “I knew people in La Madame and I thought that whatever conflicts happened there were due to street fights or excessive alcohol drinking.” Following the shooting, he doesn’t feel as safe. “I wouldn't feel safe going out at night at the moment.” For the LGBTI community in Xalapa, he says “There is a lot of uncertainty, everybody lives in fear. “We thought for sometime that it was a persecution against us.” He believes it was a drug related crime and that the shooting was a result of a “war between two different groups that sold drugs and were in the wrong place.” La Madame operated in this building since February when it moved from a smaller venue. The regular customer says he believes the gay bar that previously occupied the venue had experienced similar attacks linked to organised crime, but nothing of this magnitude. When asked how he felt knowing that the world is mourning and fundraising for those who lost their lives in the gay club shooting in Orlando, but the English-language media is not even reporting on the events in Xalapa, he told our reporter that he feels “very sad”. “But I also understand they are different incidents–there is fear.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 17th June 2016 - 8:01pm