But to make positive changes for LGBTQ Latinos permanent, those community leaders must continually justify their work to the state and federal government to receive funding, or else they risk a decline in progress. Orlando fundamentally changed after that night at Pulse, LGBTQ Latino leaders told CNN. “We didn’t have a voice here, and in the last five years, our voices have been uplifted through this,” said Morales, director of operations at the LGBT+ Center. He and other queer Latino residents of Orlando, once left to find community in clubs, are now the faces of LGBTQ advocacy groups, serve as elected officials, and call attention to the needs of LGBTQ Latinos with platforms they were not afforded before the mass shooting at Pulse - and the city is listening. He helps lead the LGBT+ Center, a nonprofit that operates a support center specifically for people affected by the Pulse massacre. Morales dedicates his career, now, to Pulse survivors and families of those who died, many of whom were Latino. His best friend was there on the night of the shooting and is still tending to his trauma five years later. When the tragedy at Pulse - on Latin Night, Jshuttered the bar for good, Morales lost at least one friend in the shooting and his home away from home. “I never imagined it would be my last time there.” “Just seeing my people having so much fun … Pulse was the place,” he said.
