In response to the epidemic of shootings in Chicago, and the massacre of mostly LGBTQ, mostly Latino individuals at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Chicago-area LGBTQ, Latinx, community and gun violence prevention organizations are coming together for "Disarm Gun Violence: An LGBTQ Town Hall For Action" Thursday, Oct. 20. The event will focus on education, coalition building and action.
The free program will feature various speakers who are doing the work on anti-gun violence, including through activism, advocacy and electoral politics. LGBTQ activists will address the need to amplify the existing organizational work, and bring new resources to the table for more effective coalitions. Joy McCormack, founder of Chicago Survivors, an organization that provides crime victims services to families who experience violent loss, is working with Pride Action Tank, Windy City Times, and the Illinois Gun Violence Prevention Coalition to develop the event. McCormack will discuss the story of her own family's loss as a result of gun violence in Chicago, and she will be joined by others who have felt personal loss, including John Ziegler, whose friend Mbiganyi Lashani was gunned down this summer. Other speakers include: Cleopatra Pendleton, whose daughter Hadiya's murder in 2013 garnered national media attention;Channyn Lynn Parker, a trans advocate from Chicago House, discussing the dramatic rise in murders of trans women of color; anti-violence advocate Lisa Gilmore; anti-gun activist Maria Pike; Mark Walsh of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence; Kim L. Hunt, executive director of Pride Action Tank; LGBTQ and Latinx advocate Emmanuel Garcia; Muslim LGBTQ advocate and attorney Nabeela Rasheed; Dawn Valenti from Chicago Survivors; John Gruber from The Brady Campaign; Kathleen Sances from G-PAC; and Commissioner Mona Noriega of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations.Videos