BELFAST — Cars lined Front Street Tuesday evening as members of the Belfast community gathered at the Boathouse gazebo to honor the 49 victims of Sunday’s Orlando shooting massacre.

The vigil was especially poignant given that just days before the very same gazebo was surrounded by celebrants of Belfast’s first LGBTQ Pride festival, with many wearing their Belfast Has Pride t-shirts.  

Hosted by Belfast Has Pride organizers Rachel Epperly and Makayla Reed, the crowd was asked to gather close as volunteers handed out rainbow candles to observers arriving at the event.

The two hosts held a plastic bag filled with slips of paper before telling the gathering that the name of each victim was written on a slip of paper, and requesting volunteers to read the names aloud.

Reed read a brief statement from Belfast City Counselor Neil Harkness, who was unable to join the vigil.

“We stood here on Saturday and proclaimed Belfast Has Pride, and today we stand with equal resolution that Belfast Has Love,” the statement read in part.

When it came time to read the names of the victims, community members came forward to each take on the name of an individual killed in the massacre, a process that took almost two full minutes to complete.

“That’s a lot of names,” one mourner said as the process of handing out each slip of paper continued. Afterward those carrying a name were asked to come to the gazebo to read out the names of the 49 lives lost.

The process of reading the names also took several minutes, with many fighting back tears as they moved to the microphone one by one, sharing the names and ages of those murdered in Orlando June 12.

The vigil included an invitation for members of the community to sing, or speak to the crowd.

The first speaker, Our Town Belfast’s Breanna Pinkham Bebb led the crowd in a group sing along to Elvis’ “Fools Rush In.”

Other mourners took to the mic to express their heartbreak, with one man noting, “it’s so easy to turn to rage.”

The man went on to speak about losing most of his family to Auschwitz, and how he had spent most of his life asking how such a thing could happen. He went on to point out the dangers involved in fearing those who are different, labeling those deemed to be different as the “Other,” before noting, “there is a movement afoot in our country to demonize the “Other.”

He ended his speech by telling the group that he hopes, “when people demonize the Other, they will think of the 50 lives lost.”

Belfast Has Pride Ambassador Lila Nation, who also spoke at Belfast Has Pride, pointed out the sad new irony of her speech on Saturday, which she recalled included the line, “some of us [members of the LGBTQ community] still fear for our lives - little did I know,” she said.

Throughout the vigil members of the crowd could be seen exchanging heartfelt hugs and words of encouragement.

The event, which although somber permeated an atmosphere of love and acceptance, concluded with the crowd joining together to sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

For those that missed the Belfast Has Pride vigil, there will be another vigil held tonight at Belfast’s Unitarian Church at 6 pm.

Erica Thoms can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com