{"id":3641,"date":"2026-06-11T15:36:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T15:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=3641"},"modified":"2026-06-11T15:36:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T15:36:03","slug":"pulse-anniversary-brandon-wolf-survivor-learned-what-heartbreak-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=3641","title":{"rendered":"Pulse anniversary: Brandon Wolf, survivor, learned \u2018what heartbreak is\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brandon Wolf crouched in the corner of the nightclub bathroom for what felt like forever as gunshots rang out. Finally, he and several others decided to run, arms linked, toward the glowing light coming from the crack of an emergency exit door. They escaped.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ll never forget the looks on people\u2019s faces, and the fog machine smoke still billowing and the music still radiating on the floor while gunshots were going off,\u201d Wolf said.<\/p>\n

Wolf survived but two friends he\u2019d gone to the club with, Juan Ramon Guerrero and Christopher Andrew Leinonen, perished in the gunfire.<\/p>\n

Hours later Wolf was able to reach Juan\u2019s sister.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe kept saying, \u2018Please tell me he wasn\u2019t there\u2019,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cI remember trying so hard not to break down, there was a lump in my throat, and finally the only thing I could say to her was, \u2018I\u2019m so sorry\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that was the first moment I learned what heartbreak is,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cTime feels like it stood still. I remember sitting on the couch for hours and hours just staring at the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pulse was a special place, Wolf said, where as a gay man he felt he could fully be himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cPulse was probably the first place I ever held hands with someone that I had a crush on without looking over my shoulder,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cI think a lot of people come to Orlando to find better for themselves and I was one of those. Pulse really felt like the physical embodiment of that community that I was looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Devastated by the loss of Leinonen, his best friend, and so many others, Wolf has said he decided to channel his anger and anguish into advocacy, fighting for LGBTQ rights and gun control.<\/p>\n

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This month, he returns to Florida to work again for Equality Florida, the LGBTQ rights group where he began that work soon after the shooting.<\/p>\n

One of the many calls he made after the shooting was to his father, who lived thousands of miles away in Oregon. His father, Wolf\u2019s remaining parent after his mother passed away when he was young, had struggled with Wolf\u2019s sexuality. It drove them apart, he said.<\/p>\n

But over the last 10 years, Pulse has helped that relationship heal.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cMy dad has taken a long time to come to understand me,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cWhat he realized, in the wake of Pulse, is that bad things were still going to happen, he had just ensured that he would not be my first phone call and that really broke his heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his first visit to Orlando after the shooting, Wolf\u2019s father asked to go to Pulse and pay his respects, he said. The experience opened up new avenues to talk, Wolf said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the things that\u2019s come out of the last 10 years that\u2019s been meaningful to me,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cHealing from that tragedy together has allowed my dad and I to get closer.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the massacre weighs on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that day, life has never been the same,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cThere is no moment where there\u2019s a bow on it, and it\u2019s tidy, and you write the end and close the book. It\u2019s just not that easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Brandon Wolf, a Pulse survivor, became an activist for LGBTQ rights and gun safety measures after the nightclub shootings a decade ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\nPulse anniversary: Brandon Wolf, survivor, learned \u2018what heartbreak is\u2019 - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=3641\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pulse anniversary: Brandon Wolf, survivor, learned \u2018what heartbreak is\u2019 - 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