Common Grounds | Discussing Life After Orlando

This week’s episode of “Common Grounds” comes to you from our down-the-street neighbor, the Good Samaritan Project, where we visited with six members of Kansas City’s LGBT community.

Ash R. Allee, Gina Vidal, Greg Razer, Hugo Ximello-Salido, Matt Parker Green, and Stuart Hinds were the diverse coffee conversationalists who gathered at the project’s offices, 3030 Walnut St. in Kansas City.

[FLEX-CONTENT]

Top of mind was last month’s mass-killing at the gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which led to a discussion about the importance of bars and clubs to the LGBT community.

“Even our most ardent straight allies don’t fully appreciate the sanctuary that they are,” Razer said. “That that is the one place in the world that we can go and truly be ourselves. That we can hold hands, or dance, and not have to look at our surroundings.”

[FLEX-CONTENT]

Hinds lamented the repercussions from Orlando that have reverberated all the way to our community.

“It’s really heartbreaking to hear that your partner doesn’t want to go out at all. That you’re scared to go to a gay bar,” Hinds said. “I can’t tell you how much that (angers me), because this wasn’t supposed to happen to this generation. It’s just infuriating.”

“Common Grounds” is a regular video series produced by KCPT in association with Consensus, a nonprofit focused on community engagement. Its purpose is to capture the pulse of our community over coffee. The segments run as part of “Week in Review,” which airs on Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and again on Sundays at 11 a.m. Flatland is also publishing the segments.

If you’d like the Common Grounds team to head to your coffee shop or listen in to your group, contact us at commongrounds@kcpt.org.

— Brett Baker is the Scripps Howard Foundation Fellow at the Hale Center for Journalism. He is also the coordinator for “Common Grounds.” To reach Baker, email intern_hale1@kcpt.org.