His name was David Kelley. He was my friend and mentor. When I entered social work, I’d had very little practical experience. My first job with the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa had me working with hardcore juveniles who were a step away from reformatory. David taught me how to look at each child as an individual with a soul and a heart. He guided me in being non-judgmental and learning to understand that, within all of us, there is a potential for good. This mentorship has stood me well in every facet of my life.

David died of AIDS on April 25, 1996. He was well-known in the LGBTQ community, became the first executive director of the organization People with AIDS, and was committed to working with young people struggling with their sexuality.

Following his death, David ensured that his work would be continued by leaving the Toronto Counselling Centre for Lesbians and Gays (today merged with the Toronto Family Services Association) a significant bequest to help serve the gay, lesbian and HIV communities. Known as the “David Kelley Program,” it is a fitting and beautiful tribute to David’s life’s work.

It was David’s memory, his partner Tom Stewart and all my other close friends and relatives in the LGBTQ community that I embraced following the tragic, hate-motivated, terrorist mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub last month.

And make no mistake, this was first and foremost a hate-motivated attack. Yes, the relationship to DAESH (ISIS) must be factored into this tragedy. After all, like any extremist cause that uses faith as a backdrop, it views LGBTQs as anathema. Like the attack in Paris on the Hypercacher supermarket in January 2015, also motivated by DAESH but targeting Jews specifically, last month’s shooting had the LGBTQ in its sights.

And sadly, like the Hypercacher attack, where the initial reports tried to play down and even ignore the fact that it was targeted as a Jewish site, so too did many try to universalize the Orlando attack as one of terrorism targeting “humanity.”

This attempt to generalize the mass shooting both denies and dehumanizes the LGBTQ community, and as Jews, we must stand strongly with our LGBTQ brothers and sisters against such unconsidered language.

And what of the response from our own Jewish community? With the attack occurring during Shavuot, it was difficult to get statements out in a timely manner. Nonetheless, at the first opportunity, Canadian Jewish federations issued strong condemnations. In the United States, groups including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Simon Wiesenthal Center (whose associate dean, Abe Cooper, is an Orthodox rabbi) issued statements on Shavuot, the day of the attack, June 12. While the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) posted a tweet on June 12, it surprisingly took three more days to release letters of solidarity with the LGBTQ community. While the message was welcome and sincere, the delay gives the impression of an afterthought.

There is, however, a way to demonstrate our community’s solidarity with the LGBTQ community. While this column will be published after the Pride Parade scheduled for July 3 in Toronto this year, I am hoping that Canadian Jewish leadership will have been there in full force, standing tall with LGBTQ’s Kulanu.

Indeed, this would not be the first time that a show of Jewish leadership at the Pride Parade would be evident. Prior to the formation of CIJA, the Canadian Jewish Congress leadership, including former presidents Ed Morgan and Mark Freiman, and many of its officers, executive committee members and professional staff showed up regularly to demonstrate its support. Sadly, ultra-Orthodox elements within our community berated us for doing so, but our leadership stood tall and proud.

Our community has come a long way in embracing LGBTQ in good times and bad. This is the way it should be. I know David Kelley would approve.