For many this morning waking to the news they did was something they say not even a nightmare can compare to.
But tonight more than two thousand miles away from Orlando, LGBTQ supporters and activists made sure there love and support was felt.
As the night grew old and the morning grew young, a large crowd of people were having a night to remember just dancing the night away under the bright lights.
It was then that everything would change.
“I was going through my computer, I was putting in some grades and I was like 'what?',” said Anne Pinckney a local LGBTQ activist.
“We were out Saturday night having fun with some friends of mine, doing karaoke. And then we saw something that came across my phone and I was shocked,” said Alex Hart another activist in attendance tonight.
Reports flew across the screen confirming 50 dead and 53 others injured at the pulse night club in Orlando, but today the country came together trying to wake from yet another terrible nightmare.
“These events like today all across the country are for us to process and heal as a nation, not just us in the LGBTQ community,” said Pinckney.
While here in kern county the news hit home for many of the LGBTQ community, sparking the idea of holding a vigil at Casa Blanca.
A night club in town known for drawing the same type of crowd as the one in Orlando.
“Even though you may not be of the same political strife or the same political persuasion or even background. The fact that we can all get together to say this is something that we're not going to put up with anymore is empowering,” said Hart.
“These events happen because of fear. These people, they're afraid of change of difference of whatever. And if you allow that to happen, if you allow them to take away your space, then they have won,” said Pinckney.
The bar quickly filled with dozens of activists, candles in hand eager for a message of hope.
Ready to again fill the room with love.
“We recognize that it could have been our gay bar, our gay pride festival, gay and lesbian center. Or our welcoming congregation that might have been targeted,” said Whitney Weddell who helped organize tonight’s vigil.
Making sure everyone knew that tonight was a way to pay tribute to and celebrate the lives that were lost and that survival through love is possible.
