2 years later, Pulse memorial gathering held in St. Pete
ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - Dozens of Bay Area residents gathered Monday evening in St. Pete for a tribute in memory of the victims of the Pulse attack in Orlando in 2016.
Keinon Carter lives with the wounds, but he'd rather not talk about it.
"That picture, that moment (of the shooting)."
He was shot while trying to escape the Pulse nightclub.
His friend, Antonio Brown, died.
But a month later, Carter came to.
He left the hospital two months after the shooting.
He was the final victim to be released.
"It has been a battle for me to find a place where I can navigate," said Carter, "in order to advocate."
He was in St. Pete Monday night at Thirsty First, for the two-year anniversary of Pulse, as an honored speaker at their memorial.
He is opening a center for black LGBT youth in West Orlando, a group he says is underserved by other community resources.
"What I did was pick myself up, lift my own spirits, to do what I needed to do."
The shooting survivors and the LGBT community, which was hit particularly hard by the attack on the gay nightclub, have lived through many emotions.
Of course, sadness, but now hope, that positives are beginning to show themselves.
"Remember how great the unity of our community was," said one of the speakers at the event. "Remember how great the unity of our broad non-gay community was."
Greg Mikurak owns Thirsty First, and says he hosted the event to make sure that the LGBT community knows it's not alone, and that the unity it experienced IS making a difference.
"Spin this around so that this way: You will still remember the peopl -- but remember them for the good and what happened afterwards," said Mikurak, "rather than the event, and what happened, and how tragic it was."