Pulse Nightclub Survivor Drops Passionate Plea On GOP Leaders: ‘I Am Begging You To Treat Us With a Basic Level of Decency’

Pulse Nightclub massacre survivor, Brandon Wolf, shared his thoughts with MSNBC’s Joy Reid on Monday, reacting to the mass shooting in Colorado Springs over the weekend that targeted an LGBTQ nightclub – leaving five dead and dozens injured.

Wolf, the press secretary of Equality Florida, began by pointing to the recent rhetoric on the right, saying “we warned them that inevitably this would result in violence.”

“Happening for the last few years, right-wing grifters, including politicians like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott, they’ve been spewing this vile, hateful rhetoric about LGBTQ people. They’ve been trafficking in some of the oldest, darkest tropes against our community,” Wolf said, referencing the governs of Florida and Texas – respectively.

“They’ve been accusing us of posing a threat to children simply because we exist on planet Earth. And we warned them that inevitably this would result in violence, but they just couldn’t help themselves. They couldn’t help themselves from crafting one more fundraising email or hitting send on one more grotesque tweet. They couldn’t help themselves,” Wolf continued, adding:

As the temperature around the country continued to rise, as young people told us that life was getting less and less safe for them, they couldn’t help themselves.

As armed protesters started showing up at drag shows across the country, or when white supremacists were being arrested outside a pride festival, they couldn’t help themselves. When children’s hospitals in Boston and other cities were getting bomb threats, having to install airport security terminals to keep people safe, they couldn’t help themselves when a donut shop was firebombed for daring to advertise a drag show.

“And now five people went to a space that was supposed to be safe for them, a space like the one I knew well at Pulse nightclub,” Wolf continued, referencing the scene of the 2016 mass shooting in Orlando, Florida that left 49 people dead and over 50 injured.

“And they came out in body bags. Dozens of people were injured, scars they’re going to carry for ever. An entire community was terrorized. They paid the price for this short-sighted, cynical and sinister hate that these people have been pumping into the ecosystem,” Wolf added, concluding:

I am angry because I am tired of asking, of begging, of screaming and scratching and clawing for people to just see us as human, see us as your family members, your neighbors, your friends. Please, I am begging you to treat us with a basic level of decency and respect. I’m angry because we deserve to live. Those people deserve to live, Joy.

The clip of Wolf’s comments quickly began going viral online as Twitter users shared it and commented.

Watch the full clip above via MSNBC