In the five years since one of the worst mass shootings in US history, some Pulse survivors and others in Florida’s LGBTQ community have converted their agony into fuel to disrupt the status quo — because at stake is nothing less than their survival.

Alchemizing agony

Wolf wasn’t an activist before the killings.

He was just a regular guy. He had built a career at Starbucks, where he worked for about 12 years and eventually rose to the rank of store manager.

Wolf had gone to Pulse with his friend Christopher Andrew Leinonen and Leinonen’s partner Juan Ramon Guerrero. Both were among the clubgoers who were fatally shot.

The days immediately after the shooting were a fog for Wolf and filled with grief and memorial services. Eventually, though, “I found purpose rising out of pain,” he said.

“At the time of the shooting, my focus was very narrow. It was: If we can just get this person elected or if we can just get this piece of legislation over the finish line, then we’ll have done the 49 victims proud,” Wolf said. “But as I get further and further into the work, I realize that we have so much more to do. And if we’re really going to honor the victims, we have to fundamentally change the way we treat one another.”

“It’ll take many people a lifetime to recover from the trauma of the shooting,” said Cuevas, who’s nonbinary and uses the pronoun “they.” “But one way for people affected by the violence to process the trauma and confront oppressive systems is through building their political identity.”

In other words, QLatinx isn’t only about healing. It’s also about channeling into advocacy the anguish felt over having been robbed of one’s people and place.

“Memorialization wouldn’t only honor the 49 people who were taken from us,” they said. “It’d also recognize the political work that’s grown out of that tragedy — a tragedy that’s influenced the LGBTQ equality movement in Central Florida and the nation.”

Ongoing political battles

Florida state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, who’s the first out LGBTQ Latino person elected to the Florida Legislature, panicked when he first heard about the Pulse massacre.

“I thought, ‘How do I assess who was there? It’s a gay club on a Latin night, and I’m gay and Latino and live in the city. Everyone I know could’ve been there,’ ” he told CNN.

Unsurprisingly, gun control became a key issue for him.

“The first bill I filed after I entered office in November 2016 was a bill to ban assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines,” said Smith, who’s also the special projects manager for Equality Florida. “It was the first bill I filed for obvious reasons: It’s important to make sure that we honor them (the 49 victims) with action, that we elevate grassroots campaigns with legislation to restrict the kinds of weapons that have killed people in our community.”

But he underscored the profound difficulty of passing gun control legislation because of Republican obstruction.

“The Florida Legislature’s gonna Florida Legislature,” Smith said, archly. “Republicans hold the majority in both chambers. Every year for the past five years, I’ve been the lead sponsor of the bill to ban assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines, and it’s never gotten a single legitimate hearing.”

He has his eye on other issues, too.

“The foundation is centered on what we call our four pillars: the Pulse memorial, the Pulse museum, our educational programs and our legacy scholarships,” she said. “But the pillars aren’t just about what happened at Pulse. They’re also about the history of LGBTQ people in this country, and the struggles they face today.”

Or as Wolf put it, “The ingredients for anti-LGBTQ violence are still here.”