Ten Years Later: We Remember, We Resist, We Rebuild

June 12th marked ten years since the Pulse nightclub tragedy in Orlando. Forty-nine lives taken. Hundreds of thousands of lives changed.

We don’t believe in marking anniversaries without naming what they demand of us. That’s why we asked Marco Quiroga, Founder and Executive Director of the Contigo Fund and a member of the GSP Steering Committee, to share what these ten years have looked like from someone closely impacted on many fronts: as a queer Latinx immigrant, as an Orlandoan(sp?), and as someone who was on the ground when grief turned into action and organizing.

His reflection is a call to funders. A long overdue call to action.

Remembering the Tragedy

Ten years after Pulse, I remember first the 49 lives stolen — 90 percent rooted in Puerto Rican and Latin American immigrant families, including from Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Guatemala; most from Spanish-speaking homes; several undocumented; numerous Afro-Latinx, Black Caribbean, African American, White, or Asian; one a straight ally and Puerto Rican mother; most LGBTQ+; most in their 20s and 30s, with the youngest just 18.

I remember the scale of harm that early numbers could not capture: 298 primarily impacted, including 53 physically injured and 196 present inside the club; an estimated 1,592 immediate family members around them; 465 first responders; and hundreds of frontline community responders, myself among them. All of us forever changed.

As a queer Latinx immigrant who grew up in Orlando and helped build local immigrant youth movements like Above Status, this tragedy was home. It pulled me from national movement work back into the largest mass tragedy in modern U.S. history, on the grounds of my queer upbringing, in a city where Latinx and LGBTQ organizations received an average of only $40,000 a year across the region in foundation funding and where no “for and by” organizations formerly existed for LGBTQ Latinx people, queer immigrants, or trans and queer Black and Brown youth.

In the immediate aftermath, the OneOrlando Fund raised $31.5 million for survivors and families — the largest victims’ assistance campaign in modern history and the largest LGBTQ-focused philanthropic effort in the world up to that point, ensuring 100% of every dollar went directly to the families of the 49 and survivors.

But Pulse was more than a tragedy. It was a mirror exposing the systemic inequities — racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and violence — that shaped our communities long before that night. And yet, the crisis revealed a truth our movements have always known: those closest to the challenges are closest to the solutions. The movement infrastructure built since, from the early vision of the Contigo Fund to culturally grounded healing networks, proved that our healing and power-building are inseparable.

Ten years later, remembrance must move us beyond only memorialization and into a shared responsibility to dismantle the systems of dehumanization aimed at Latinx, immigrant, Black, queer, and trans communities in Florida and across the South, to build a future where they can thrive.

Ten years later, we call on philanthropy to invest in long-term resilience by shifting resources and decision-making power directly to grassroots leaders who were doing the work long before philanthropy learned their names or gave them titles.

Ten years later, we must stand with Puerto Rican and Caribbean kin seeking self-determination; defend undocumented and mixed-status families navigating an ever-increasingly inhumane existence; and defend the ability for queer and trans youth to dance and laugh and live in their fullness.

Ten years later, I still remember the pain, but the power and love of community help me carry that memory forward with purpose. I invite you to join us. Do not wait for tragedy to discover who is holding our communities together — show up for them now.

Ten years later, we remember, we resist, and we build a future shaped by those who have transformed grief into an enduring force for justice.

— Marco Quiroga, Founder and Executive Director, Contigo Fund | GSP Steering Committee Member

In 2023, GSP hosted a Florida Learning Tour that brought together community members, advocates, and funders to bear witness to the ongoing work of healing and organizing in Orlando. Watch remembrances and reflections from people who were there.