Dear Members and Advocates,

“Americans ‘brainwashed to fear everything’”

That was the title of an article that appeared in a New Zealand publication concerning Saturday’s mass shooting in Orlando. “People want to live in a safe environment but the politicians and most of all the media tells them the opposite and not just once in a while but 24/7. All they hear is: lock the doors, buy a gun, don’t trust anyone. This created an environment where common sense is replaced by paranoia. There is no other explanation why children shoot other children or why a six-year old child is a registered sex offender for the rest of his life because he accidentally or playfully touched another child inappropriately.”

Fear is the culture that drives so many households to have weapons and flood our communities with stockpiled arsenals. Fear is also the culture that takes an event, no matter how tragic and heinous, and tries to villainize a population, rather than the individual who committed the offense.

This week was marred by a tragedy in our State. The worst mass shooting in American history took place at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando. The FAC family extends its heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of those killed. While we condemn the shooter with every fiber of our being and don’t feel his death provided sufficient justice to the victims, we are also fearful that this attack will prompt another attack; on the mentally ill, on the LGBTQ community, and on the Islamic faith.

As members of a “population”; sex offenders, we all cringed when a sex offender killed Cherish Perrywinkle in 2014. He happened to be a sex offender, but by no means did his actions represent the belief or desires of our population, he acted as a lone, sick individual and not as a representation of our “population”. We hate him as much as everyone else in our State, if not more. Because of the independent actions of this one person, the Florida legislature passed a package of laws designed to further restrict and punish an entire population. We are paying the price and suffering the consequences, even though the act goes against everything we stand for.

The reaction, prompted by fear and political motive, has nothing to do with the act, nor will it have any impact on future tragedies from taking place. With regard to this week’s shooting; the assailant’s ex-wife told the media that he was mentally ill (though she hadn’t seen him in 9 years). The assailant’s father said he was homophobic (though reports later emerged that he was a regular at the gay nightclub). The police reported he was a radicalized Muslim (though the FBI had investigated him twice before and cleared him). Minutes after each disclosure came the follow ups… what are we going to do to control the mentally ill? What dangers lie in the gay community? Even a presidential candidate reiterated his planned policy to block immigration of Muslims into this country.

Families impacted by mental illness and members of the LGBTQ and Muslim communities undoubtedly had, in the back of their minds, the thought of how this tragedy will impact them personally, even though they had nothing to do with it.  They are likely afraid of the paranoid reaction and uncertainty of what’s to come for them. Fear also led to the writer of this week’s FAC Weekly Update to have to think twice about whether to address the tragedy at all, for fear of allowing the support of a “sex offender” advocacy group to tarnish the LGBTQ population.

The reality is that bad stuff will happen. Punishing an entire population for the acts of a few will not prevent tragedy from happening again. If the FBI couldn’t prevent it, twice, with this guy, it’s a testament to that. Passing reactive, politically motivated policies that are completely ineffective will not make a difference, except to destabilize that population and to misallocate resources. Making a six year old register for life because he “played doctor” is a tragic waste and will certainly not enable him to become a productive adult. In fact, it’ll produce just the opposite.

This week, FAC launched an outreach project to let people in our population know we are here. So far, since yesterday, we’ve brought over 15 new members to our organization and collected more than two dozen case considerations. Over 50 calls came into our FAC hotline and we are just getting started! For those who are receiving this weekly update for the first time, the tragedy in Orlando provides an opportunity to share with you what FAC is about. As an organization, FAC condemns sexual violence. However, we also condemn the reactive policies and fear mongering that the media and legislators perpetuate. Not every Muslim is the same, not every registered citizen is the same. Punish the individual and not the population, pass evidence-based policies and not knee-jerk ineffective punishments and respect the Constitution that we all, as Americans, are protected by.

Sincerely,

The Florida Action Committee