It’s incredible to see in the face of adversity and tragedy, the LGBT community and allies have banded together to support the victims of the Orlando shooting and their families.
Throughout the world, vigils and services have been held.
A GoFundMe account to raise money for the bereaved has shattered previous records and surpassed $4 million.
Now a cohort of Irish artists have joined the masses of people offering support.
Kyncollective say they wanted to produce a series of memorabilia-type cards for pride events this year.
“To us, Pride is a day to celebrate different identities and promote inclusiveness, equality and love,” they write.
Moved by the Orlando attack, the collective began designing and producing cards to raise money for the victims fund.
“We were mostly inspired to create these cards as a celebration of our identity as young queer people, in the wake of tragedy and the loss of members of our community. As Irish LGBTQI people, we’ve been privileged to have won the same sex marriage referendum last year and to have such a violent and tragic event happen in a country that also passed same-sex marriage was devastating to hear about when you assume that progress when it comes to human rights is moving forward.”
“We wanted to somehow help the grieving families who lost loved ones and contribute to the cause but do so in a way that allowed us to celebrate LGBTQI people. We’re visual artists and thought that best thing to do would be to contribute in a way that best suited our skill set, so we designed the postcards with media personalities such as celebrities who are associated with the LGBTQI movement and have immortalised them as icons,” they write.
“We wanted to get something out as soon as possible so we could help raise money as part of the Orlando GoFundMe.com campaign. We put together a quick series of cards featuring some of our favourite queer icons – the cards are in postcard format so they can be kept or sent to a loved one.”
“A celebration of identity and love is solely not restricted to this tragic event which has occurred but is something that is indefinite and we can all do something no matter how small to help and be apart of something bigger and better.”
Kyncollective are an art collective based in Dublin.
They love equality, pop culture and unicorns. They hope to continue creating series of cards in the future to continue to help raise money for LGBTQI charities. Check them out on Twitter HERE.
