Connected to Orlando: An Autoethnography in Three(ish) Acts

Abstract

The massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, impacted the lives of queer people across the world. As a gay White male living hundreds of miles from the horrific events, I was intimately connected with the aftermath through social media, blogs, and news reports. Through autoethnographic exploration of three distinct text-based digital conversations in the days following the massacre, I reflect on the ways that virtual and nonvirtual communication intra-acted to produce and mediate powerful emotional moments. As a performative work told in three(ish) acts, I contextualize these conversations in the fears, desires, and frustrations of my lived experience.