Orlando to launch scheme that provides ‘safe places’ for LGBT community
(Getty)
A scheme is being put in place in Orlando to allow businesses to identify as safe places for the LGBT community.
Local businesses in the Florida city will receive window decals which will identify them as allies to the LGBT community, as well as a safe place if an LGBT person feels threatened.
The decals say ‘safe place’ and are in the shape of a police badge.
The initiative has been launched for residents and visitors in the city with the intention of providing a safety net to those in the LGBT community.
Over 500 decals have been prepared for the launch on Monday, and most businesses and organisations are expected to take part in the scheme.
The programme comes six months after the massacre which took place in the gay nightclub Pulse.
Gunman Omar Mateen killed 49 people and injured 53 in the terrorist hate crime attack, which saw Mateen open fire inside the Pulse gay bar in Orlando, Florida.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, which was perpetrated by US citizen Omar Mateen. The majority of the victims were Latino.
President Obama mourned the victims of the homophobic hate crime attack and called for greater restrictions on arms sales.
Millions of people around the world have showed solidarity with the victims of the shooting and the community in Orlando.
Omar Mateen’s first wife, Sitora Yusufiy, said that Mateen was “gay” and carried out the attack to “impress his father.”
The city of Orlando announced plans to purchase the Pulse nightclub and turn it into a permanent memorial to the victims of the mass shooting earlier this year, but the plans have since fallen through after the club’s owner backed out.
