WASHINGTON D.C. (CelebrityAccess) — Five years after the second worst mass shooting in American history left 49 people dead and 53 wounded at a Florida nightclub, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a law designating the former site of Pulse in Orlando as a national memorial.
President Biden invited the survivors of the attack, which targeted LGBTQ people, to the signing ceremony at the White House and they stood around the President during the signing as pictures of the slain were displayed on video screens.
“A place of acceptance and joy became a place of unspeakable pain and loss. We’ll never fully recover, but we’ll remember,” Biden said during the event.
The new law is part of a broader campaign to create a memorial at the site of the former nightclub that includes a reflecting pool, gardens, an open-air museum and an education center. The memorial is expected to cost $45 million but the new law excludes federal funds from its financing.
Biden also marked Pride Month by announcing the appointment of Jessica Stern as a special envoy to advance the human rights of LGBTQ people around the world.
Stern is executive director of the New York-based OutRight Action International, a group that works to address human rights violations against LGTBQ people around the world.
Watch a video of the moment here:
