Bisexual Parkland survivor Emma Gonzalez now has more fans than the NRA
Parkland survivor Emma Gonzalez, the bisexual head of Stoneman Douglas High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance, has proof that her activism is working.
Together with fellow students like David Hogg and Cameron Kasky, the 18-year-old has prompted a tidal wave of public sentiment in favour of better gun regulation following the shooting in Florida.
She has been at the forefront of the #NeverAgain movement since her impassioned speech at a rally last week in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The high school senior powerfully repeated the phrase “We call BS” about NRA-funded politicians, gun advocates and those who don’t believe the Parkland teenagers know enough to speak up.
On Ellen DeGeneres’ TV show, Gonzalez explained that she chose the phrase because she wanted the message to be memorable and universal.
The teenager also bravely took on the NRA’s Dana Loesch at the CNN town hall on gun control last week, telling Loesch, who has two kids, that “we will support your two children in the way that you will not.”
And now, as measured by the sheer weight of numbers, Gonzalez has more fans than the NRA, who on Sunday directly appealed to Trump not to raise the age limit for buying certain firearms from 18 to 21.
Gonzalez has attracted more than 1.14 million followers, compared to the NRA’s paltry 602,000.
This means that the teen phenom is closing in on having double the number of fans that the anti-gun regulation group has.
There were 346 mass shootings last year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
In total, 15,594 people died from being shot in gun attacks.
Last week, fellow survivor Kasky, 17, tore into Republican politicians for responding to shootings with “thoughts and prayers” but marching over anti-LGBT positions.
He told CNN host Anderson Cooper that the time for meaningless words was over.
“There’s a section of this society that will just shrug this off and send their thoughts and prayers, but will march for hours when they have to bake a rainbow wedding cake,” the student said.
Kasky was referring to the case currently in the US Supreme Court of Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado, who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple.
Oprah Winfrey has donated $500,000 to March For Our Lives, a group set up by the Parkland survivors, which will rally in Washington and other states on March 24 to protest for better gun regulations.