ORLANDO, Fla. — At the site where the Pulse nightclub in Orlando once stood, the heartbreak is palpable.
“You do feel a heaviness,” says Pastor Terri Steed Pierce. “You feel the presence of 49 souls, you feel the presence of the 53 that were injured and all those others who were here and got away somehow."
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In May, demolition of the Pulse nightclub began, nearly 10 years after a mass shooting killed 49 people.
For Pastor Pierce — of Joy Metropolitan Community Church in Orlando — the location isn’t just a crime scene or a former club building.
“We’re here to offer a prayerful presence because people come to remember,” she says.
“They come to reflect, they come to grieve. You know it has to end but it's hard to let it end because it will always be sacred space."
Saying goodbye
As demolition crews tore down the club, Pierce and others looked on.
“And we want to be here just to be a presence, sit and cry with them,” she says.
Her church has been a cornerstone for Orlando’s LGBTQ+ community.
“We’re a gay church. We exist because other churches didn’t want us,” she explains.
Joy MCC has held a vigil every year since the night of the shooting in 2016.
“We have a window in our church that has the 49 names on it,” Pierce says, a permanent tribute to those who were lost.
She remembers the night itself as being almost too heavy to hold.
“And the whole community came because we’re one of the few places that were doing something that night just because it was hard to do anything,” she says.
“In fact, they asked us not to because we weren’t necessarily sure we’d be safe.”
A hope for healing
While the building may be gone, the pain remains.
“You’ll never get over something like this, something so tragic,” Pierce says.
But she believes the memorial that will take its place can be a new space for healing.
“I know that love will ultimately win and it wins through us. You’ll never get over something like this, something so tragic. We never want to forget, and we never will.”
A city’s promise
The memorial is part of a project led by the City of Orlando, which purchased the site in late 2023 to ensure a thoughtful, collaborative approach to honoring the lives lost.
Through a Memorial Engagement Process, the city has worked closely with survivors, victims’ families, and community members to design a place for solemn reflection — one that remembers the 49 victims and offers space for families, survivors, first responders, and the community to gather, unite, and heal.
Plans include landscaped gardens, interactive exhibits, and quiet areas for people to sit with their thoughts.
A permanent memorial is expected to open by the end of 2027.
For Pastor Pierce, the message is simple: “We never want to forget, and we never will.”
