Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub became the center of the news universe on June 12, 2016 when a shooter entered the club and murdered 49 members of our LGBTQ+ community.
Eddie Sotomayor, the director of The RuPaul’s Drag Race cruise was the first name announced to the world. He worked for our Hotspots Happening Out anchor Al Ferguson. Al has told many stories of that night and that day.
The mass shooting was the largest in American history as of that date. A year later the ONE PULSE FOUNDATION was formed to create scholarships, memorialize the nightclub site and build a museum community center that would ensure those lost and the effects on the entire community were never forgotten.
That was more than 7 years ago. This week, all of that came to an end when ONE PULSE abruptly announced, in social media as an offense, that it would close. The Pulse owner is gone, Foundation Executive Director Deborah Bowie resigns and phone calls go unanswered.
Hotspots Magazine Happening Out Television Network had been in conversation to help a struggling One Pulse Foundation as recently as October to have a series of interviews at the studio and host an community support event in Wilton Manors. Multiple excuses were provided and narrow parameters provided to be able to support the foundation.
In the official social media announcement the foundation said “good intentions are not enough” as an apparent attack from the foundation on Pulse club site owner Barbara Pomas. For years reports indicated that Pomas would donate the property to the foundation and in 2023 it was revealed she had asked the foundation to pay millions for the site. She resigned from the foundation in April.
The city of Orlando purchased the site from the ownership group last month. The foundation also said the closure was also “Unanticipated challenges.”
Queer News Tonight and Al Ferguson have spoken to a number of key Pulse survivor family and friends to discuss the closure. The top sentiment expressed by sources reflect that millions were raised for the foundation with little tangible results.
Pulse Families and Survivors For Justice is an organization that represents many of Pulse survivors and families who celebrated the news. The group has been longtime critics of the foundation, calling for transparency and accusing it of profiting off a mass shooting.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, that group posted a statement saying “For years, we have criticized the OnePULSE Foundation for exploiting and harming us. They never fulfilled any of their three changing mission statements. While we are grateful they are shutting their doors, we still demand a forensic audit so they are held accountable to their donors and to taxpayers for the millions wasted.”
This is a developing story that Queer News Tonight will follow closely.
7 Years And Nothing To Show For It As One Pulse Foundation Abruptly Closes Down As Millions Wasted
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