26/07/2026
I feel sick reading the news from Berlin.
One person has been killed and at least 16 others injured after a vehicle was driven into people gathered for Pride.
People went there to feel free. To hold hands without looking over their shoulders. To celebrate who they are, surrounded by their community. Someone went there expecting music, colour and joy, and they will never come home.
It is impossible not to think of Pulse Nightclub. Once again, a space of LGBTQ+ joy has become a place of bloodshed, terror and grief. Once again, people have been attacked simply while gathering openly as themselves.
Pride is not just a party. It has never been just a party. It is an act of defiance in a world where our visibility can still make us targets.
This morning, my heart is with the person who was killed, with everyone fighting to recover, with those waiting beside hospital beds, and with an LGBTQ+ community waking up frightened and heartbroken.
We should not have to be brave simply to exist.
We should not have to wonder whether the next Pride, nightclub, community event or kiss in public will end in violence.
But we will not disappear. We will not become quieter. We will not allow hatred to drive us back into the shadows.
We mourn together, as we did after Pulse.
And we stand together.
- Thomas
