Remembering Country Music's Response to Pulse Nightclub Mass Shooting

The loss of 49 human beings, along with at least 53 more injured, in a mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub’s Latin Night on June 12, 2016 is still too big a loss for me to comprehend. It definitely hit close to home.

I remember hearing the news the next morning and suddenly remembering I had been to Pulse during a trip to Orlando three years prior. I worked for ABC News (owned by Disney) at the time, so I took my parents down to Orlando to spend a few days hopping around all the parks at Disneyworld. Now, I love hanging with my parents, but they’re my parents who still go to the same Southern Baptist church I grew up in. They know and accept me as gay even while going to that church, but after a few days, I really needed to be around some gay people.

So, I welcomed the opportunity to leave my parents back at the hotel and meet up with a college friend of mine who’d also come out and was now living in Orlando. We went out to a gay bar just so I could just let my hair down. That bar was Pulse. And there was nothing notable about the night. It was a safe space. A place for me to go and be able to just breathe and freely express myself as a queer person.

And then that space became the scene of the largest mass shooting in United States history.

So, I was able to picture the crime scene inside in my head because I knew the layout. I think the part that really got me most was the investigators talking about all of the cell phones that were ringing in the pockets of the lifeless victims… loved ones hoping against hope their person had survived. It makes me want to vomit.

At the time, I was still reporting on country music, and I was proud to report on the good work of allies who stepped up to honor those who lost their lives at Pulse. On June 21, a group of country artists partnered with local country station K92.3 for the OneOrlando Benefit Concert to raise money for the victims’ families and survivors. The lineup included Billy Currington, Cole Swindell, Easton Corbin, Jerrod Niemann, Parmalee, Tyler Farr, Michael Ray, Maddie & Tae, and Canaan Smith. I had interviewed every one of those artists, and appreciated them standing with the LGBTQ+ community in this time of grief.

Orlando native Michael Ray said in a statement, “In wake of this heartbreaking and senseless tragedy, I’m proud to represent my home state. To see my hometown, central Florida and the whole world come together is proof there is way more good in this world than evil. These families will be in need for years and I’m committed to help as long as necessary. Me and these artists stand in unity for love and healing and I’m honored to take part in this event.”

I remember Trisha Yearwood dedicating a performance of “Over the Rainbow” to the memory of the Pulse nightclub victims. Years later in 2022, Trisha posted a photo of her bedazzled, Rainbow flag microphone she calls her “Orlando Mic” in memory of those we lost at Pulse.

I choose to focus on the positive, but I also remember being highly disappointed in one country artist’s response to the shooting. Mainly because I thought I knew this person pretty well.