Why isn't London lighting up for Orlando?

[Cleo1303]

All over the world prominent landmarks were lit up in rainbow colours to show respect and solidarity for the victims of the Orlando massacre and their loved ones.

After the Paris and Brussels massacres London lit up the London Eye, the National Gallery, the London Eye and other landmarks. Why aren't we doing the same for Orlando? Is it because they were Americans, or is it because they were gay?

I'm sure there are 101 reasons why they didn't, not just the inflammatory two options you offer.

ODFOD.

Why isn't London lit up in the colours of the Central African Republic, where today, thousands of children died from drinking filthy water, malaria and other preventable diseases?

Yes, Orlando is a tragedy. But why are some always worth a bit more the tilt than others?

attention

Did you miss the Compton Street vigil? It's all over the news.

I think 'London' has probably got enough on its plate at the moment.

Whose decision is it?

you've missed countless tributes from all over the UK, and unless it's recently moved, the rainbow lit national theatre is smack in the middle of london.
showing a bit of support by turning lights on is really not as powerful as trying to educate those dumb mofos in the NRA, which frankly is the kind of support we should be giving to the majority of Americans whether gay, straight, muslim, amish, black, brown or white

What a ridiculous comment to make. Other monuments in the UK (in Liverpool and Blackpool for eg) were lit up and there was a huge vigil held. Some people really do look for things to moan about?!

London has done quite a lot. Vigils, giving blood (which won't directly benefit Orlando, but was a nice gesture), flying Pride flags at half-mast.

It's disingenuous to suggest that London is turning a blind eye just because lights on landmarks aren't on. And it's even worse to suggest that's somehow a value judgement on Americans or gays.

Let's not forget that it's Pride this weekend, too. I imagine London is carefully reviewing security prior to that.

It's disingenuous to suggest that London is turning a blind eye just because lights on landmarks aren't on. And it's even worse to suggest that's somehow a value judgement on Americans or gays.

Agreed.

The Scottish Parliament had the Pride flag flying at half mast. Why does something have to be "lit up"?

Oh this is all so silly.

The minute you go in for all this daft public posturing you leave yourself open to what about this, and this, and this other thing that has happened.

Fuck that. Can't we just say its all sad, everything shit that is happening all across the world? We feel bad for all of it and bad for everyone who is suffering in whatever country for whatever reason. Is it not just human nature that we would feel this? Why the fuck does something public have to be done to show that we feel this way? Is it because we're scared that others might assume we don't care? Why would we think that?

Its all shit and bad and I feel bad for everyone.

There you go. No lights, vigils or fucking facebook statuses needed.

Yes, its totally because they were gay.Obviously.

The Old Vic theatre near Waterloo was lit up in rainbow colours last night. It's probably something simple, like rainbow colours being more difficult to conjure up at little notice (you'd need 7 different-coloured lights in a row) than simply red, white and blue.

I think it's unfair to say London hasn't got behind Orlando - just look at the scenes from the Soho vigil yesterday.

The National Theatre on the Southbank lit up too

yes of course, because they were gay,
Anyway I did see some big wheel lit up in rainbow colours last night - was that not in London?

Probably because there were afraid of offending a certain ideology. Not being gay and not being American. Another one.

I think it was. I think I saw a picture of it on C4. There was also a large vigil in Old Compton Street. As a previous poster said, likewise the NPG.

I suspect you may have missed it because a. news coverage (I watch C4 News, which seems to be a lot better than BBC and ITV and Sky at the moment) and ... b. I don't know. Perhaps you weren't looking in the right places and didn't 'see' the response because you're not tuned into the right places that would report on it?

Dacc I'm sorry - I don't understand your post.

Yes. Reading through this thread, it's quite clear that some people - because of their own political positioning - have managed to not see the very clear response from many, many people in the UK (including London).

To then infer from their own blindness/not seeing of that response that there has been a mass non-response is quite weird.

Cat is that what's called confirmation bias?

I think you're right, Donkey.

(Thank goodness for pithy phrases that save the world from long, mangled paragraphs. )

I ADORE your long mangled paragraphs [heart]

I don't need to be insulted. Some of you must be really sad people in that you need to be so rude.

I don't know who makes the decision about lights being turned on for these occasions, but I think we should have commemorated these terrorist deaths in the same way as we did for the victims of the other terrorist attacks.

I'm glad to hear the Old Vic was lit up and other parts of the UK. There were various reports in the press about many other countries lighting up for Orlando and lots of pictures and I felt sorry we weren't doing the same.