CHRIS CUOMO (CO-HOST): We have been, I thought, because of common sense, we've been very focused on, this is the first time we've seen gays targeted like this by anyone under the guise, the countenance of terror. I don't know that this man makes this definition yet, that's for the investigators to figure out. But it seems like that word isn't getting the traction that we kind of felt it would. Just by dent of the facts. We've never seen gays be attacked like this, and I know a lot of people in there were not gay, they just loved hanging out with these gay people who are in the club and they got killed. Are you seeing that, that the word “gay” is not getting said as much?
CHARLES BLOW: It is very curious. From some of the same quarters where you're saying, “the president is not saying 'Islamic terror.'” There are some people who are not saying, “LGBT people were attacked.”
CUOMO: Why?
BLOW: That's the question.
ALISYN CAMEROTA (CO-HOST): My theory is that it's identity politics. That conservatives don't like playing identity politics. They see them as Americans. They seem them as Americans, 49 Americans -- innocent Americans were killed. Why distinguish? Gay, straight, whatever.
BLOW: Then you have to see the rest of the Muslim population as Americans, right? You cannot have it both ways. This man targeted a specific group of people, LGBT people. He targeted it on a specific night even, right, the Latino community in that night. But, The LA Times even has a story that suggests that he had been to LGBT clubs before, that they had profiles on apps where men to go meet other men. This is a part -- a facet of the story. We cannot downplay the idea that of homophobia being linked to other phobias, and other hatreds, and other isms, that all of these things are connected. That, once you allow yourself to hate one person, once you allow that into your spirit, once you allow that to become part of you and be normalized in you, it allows you to hate anyone, to hate everyone, to be able to hurt anyone.
