As Central Florida marks the 10-year remembrance of Pulse, Contigo Fund offers this guide as a resource for media partners, funders, public officials, storytellers, community partners, and national and local communications partners.
This framework brings together remembrance language, community-rooted storytelling guidance, media do and avoid recommendations, responsible verification practices, support and giving pathways, and current Central Florida remembrance opportunities.
It is intended to help partners carry the story of Pulse with compassion, accuracy, and care while centering those most directly and disproportionately impacted.
What This Guide Helps You Do
Remember with Care
Use language that honors the 49 lives taken, survivors, families, chosen families, loved ones, and impacted communities without flattening, exploiting, or simplifying their experiences.
Share Responsibly
Support accurate reporting and public messaging that avoids extractive narratives, verifies representation, and centers trusted local leadership.
Move Remembrance Into Action
Help remembrance lead to care, visibility, support, and long-term investment in the communities most impacted by Pulse and still navigating threats today.
At-a-Glance Call to Action
For the 10-year remembrance of Pulse, Contigo Fund invites partners and community members to help carry three clear actions:
Donate
Support continued Pulse-impacted care through The LGBT+ Center Orlando and Orlando United Resiliency Services.
Offer your support at: contigofund.org/supportours
Signal Support
Make remembrance visible. Light the way by projecting rainbow colors or displaying rainbow flags on homes, storefronts, campuses, houses of worship, community spaces, windows, bridges, landmarks, monuments, and gathering places.
Act Before Future Crises
Build robust, resilient networks of support now. Volunteer or take action with trusted local organizations, leaders, artists, cultural workers, and care networks already working to support LGBTQ, Latinx, Black, trans, immigrant, people of faith, HIV-impacted, youth, survivor, rural, farmworker, and adjacent communities.
What You’ll Find Inside
This guide is organized to help readers understand the full arc of Pulse: grief, survival, frontline community response, cultural memory, healing, organizing, philanthropy, long-term infrastructure, and the present-day realities LGBTQ, immigrant, Black, Latinx, and other communities of color are navigating across Florida.
For Media, Storytellers, and Public Messengers
Audience Guidance, Use, and Citation Notes
How journalists, communications partners, funders, public officials, storytellers, artists, and community messengers can use and cite the framework responsibly.
Recommended Language
Guidance on how to reference Pulse, the 49 lives taken, survivors, families, impacted communities, Latinx communities, immigrant communities, LGBTQ communities, and other directly affected groups with care and specificity.
Do and Avoid Guidance
Clear recommendations for national and local partners and media on what to center, what to avoid, and how to prevent harmful or extractive coverage.
Responsible Storytelling, Verification, and Community Accountability
Best practices for verifying representation, avoiding misinformation, preventing identity exploitation, and approaching Pulse as a living community memory.
For Partners, Funders, and Community Members
Guiding Narrative
Background on Pulse, the communities most impacted, and the community response that followed.
Core Message Themes
Expanded talking points that center the systemic conditions Pulse revealed, the leadership of impacted communities, the relationship between healing and organizing, and the need to name Florida’s present moment.
Editorial and Safety Checklist
A practical checklist for reviewing public statements, media pieces, event materials, and partner communications before they are shared.
Additional Guidance on Support, Giving, and Resource Sharing
Principles for responsible giving, survivor-centered care, long-term community infrastructure, and support pathways rooted in accountability.
Community Remembrance and Engagement Opportunities
Verified public remembrance and engagement opportunities in Central Florida connected to the 10-year remembrance of Pulse.
Why This Framework Matters
Pulse was not only an LGBTQ tragedy that happened to include Latinx people. It was a massacre at Latin Night that devastated queer Latinx people, Puerto Rican families, immigrant communities, Black and Brown LGBTQ communities, chosen families, workers, artists, nightlife communities, and families across borders.
Ten years later, remembrance must be more than a memorial moment. It must include compassion, accuracy, support, visibility, and investment in the communities most impacted.
This guide is offered as a locally grounded starting point for remembering responsibly and helping partners move remembrance into care, action, and long-term community support.
Questions or Media Inquiries
For further support, questions, or media inquiries, contact Contigo Fund at:
Follow Contigo Fund on social media:
@ContigoFund