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‘Many hate us and wish we didn’t exist’ – Frank Ocean’s heartfelt words about Orlando

By Fabio Crispim

Frank Ocean has released a statement on Tumblr responding to last week’s tragic events in Orlando, which saw 49 people killed at a gya nightclub at the hands of gunman Omar Mateen.

In the Tumblr post, the US singer-songwriter wrote: “I read in the paper that my brothers are being thrown from rooftops blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs for violating sharia law. I heard the crowds stone these fallen men if they move after hitting the ground. I heard it’s in the name of God.”

He continued: “I heard on the news that the aftermath of a hate crime left piles of bodies on a dance floor this month. I heard the gunman feigned dead among all the people he killed. I heard the news say he was one of us.

Recounting the time he overheard his father calling a transgender waitress a “faggot” as a child, the 28-year-old explained: “Many hate us and wish we didn’t exist. Many are annoyed by our wanting to be married like everyone else or use the correct restroom like everyone else.

“Many don’t see anything wrong with passing down the same old values that send thousands of kids into suicidal depression each year.”

He adds: “I daydream on the idea that maybe all this barbarism and all these transgressions against ourselves is an equal and opposite reaction to something better happening in this world, some great swelling wave of openness and wakefulness out here.”

Ocean ends the post by saying: “I wanna know what others hear, I’m scared to know but I wanna know what everyone else hears when they talk to God. do the insane hear the voice distorted? Do the indoctrinated hear another voice entirely?”

Frank Ocean

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