As midnight approached on the corner of 10th Street and Piedmont Avenue in Atlanta, the crowds had thinned, but the candles still burned.
Earlier in the evening, when throngs spilled onto 10th Street and the road was closed to traffic, the candles in the parking lot had been placed over words chalked between the parking spaces. Atlanta hearts Orlando, the flames said, set off by a rainbow flag.
As the somber mood shifted to jubilant, then back to mournful, there were so many candles that the words were obscured. The message, though, was clear.
Love wins, the crowd chanted.
Vigils throughout Atlanta served a dual purpose Sunday night: as a place to mourn the 50 people who were killed in a mass shooting at an Orlando gay club early that morning, and as a way to stand up and be counted, even through fear.
Before he came to Midtown Sunday night, James Molden told his mom he loved her. Molden used to live in Orlando, and frequented Pulse, where the shooting occurred. He cut short a trip to Montgomery, Ala. to be at the vigil.
He didn’t want to find out later that friends had been among those who were killed, he said, and miss the chance to mourn with the city.
“Being in this community, it makes you scared just to walk around,” he said. “We don’t want to be killed for something we can’t control. It’s just who we are.”
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who came to Midtown wearing an LGBT pin on his gray suit, took selfies with some residents. He told residents the city had stepped up its own protections, but said he was there because it was important for him to show his support of the city's gay community.
“Sometimes when you hurt, you need somebody to sit with you,” Reed said. “…I just came to hug on people.”
Ben Nicoara, who organized the event at Ten, said support had “exploded.” Its success, he said, proved the power of love over hatred.
The Atlanta Police Department estimated 1,000 people gathered outside of Ten, at the same corner many celebrated a Supreme Court victory last summer that made same-sex marriage legal. On Sunday, after a moment of silence, they sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” holding candles aloft. The Atlanta Freedom Bands played the hymn “Salvation is Created.”
Afterward, strains of the Spice Girls, Whitney Houston, Cher and Taylor Swift filled the air. People filled the parking lot well into the night.
“We need to show them we are together,” said Alexander Lopez, who lives in Atlanta. “America is America. Nothing is going to bring us down.”
Though the shooting has been called an act of terrorism, people like Lithonia resident Wil Bryant said he wanted to make sure the fact that gay people were targeted wasn’t lost.
“It’s incredibly important that we don’t let the focus change,” he said. “The largest mass shooting in U.S. history was perpetrated against gay people.”
Others, like Decatur resident Leanne Rubenstein, said they thought the focus should stay on gun violence. Several signs from the group Everytown for Gun Safety dotted the crowd.
Though the gathering was primarily made up of members of the city’s LGBT community, there were plenty of people there who simply came to show support. Zahra Murtaza and her friend Sakinah Muhammed, who are Muslim, broke their Ramadan fast in the car and prayed in the parking lot because they thought it was important to be part of the gathering.
“I felt it was my moral responsibility as a human being to stand with my brothers and sisters in the LGBT community,” Murtaza said. “We all could be targets. It’s why we have to be here together.”
Again and again, metro Atlantans who came to Ten and who went to Burkharts Pub, where an earlier vigil took place, said they needed the community's help to process their sorrow. Clubs like Pulse are safe zones, they said.
“You can be yourself there,” said Zack Leedy, who came from Kennesaw to go to both gatherings.
“It could have been us so easily,” added Jordan Neiswender.
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