LUBBOCK, Texas -
The weekend's attack in Orlando was the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Forty-nine victims were gunned down, targeted for being gay.
In the wake of the attack, the question arises: how equal are LGBT Americans?
"We do tend to help each other and protect each other," said Tony Thornton, president of Lubbock's chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).
The pride flag flies proudly outside his Lubbock home.
"Maybe we're just not as progressive as some of the larger cities in Texas to update our policies," Thornton said.
Those policies do protect against discrimination in the city. The city code states it's "unlawful for any person... to refuse, deny or withhold from any person for any reason directly of indirectly relating to the race, color, sex, age, physical handicap, religion, ethnic background or national origin of such person."
"But as you may note, there's a glaring absence there of protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity," said Kyle Velte, visiting assistant professor at Texas Tech's School of Law.
That means an LGBT person can be discriminated against simply for being gay.
"There's no rational reason to put LGBT people in one group and straight people in another group and say that we should treat those two groups differently," Velte said.
But many feel that's exactly what Lubbock does. The city received a score of zero in the Human Rights Campaign's Municipal Equality Index in December, for the second year in a row.
"I'm not going to focus on that score," said Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope. "I'm going to focus on doing what's right for Lubbock, and I think we're not going to discriminate in Lubbock. That's something I can tell you. And I don't think we discriminate today."
Many in the LGBT community say Mayor Pope is wrong.
"I have heard of some cases where there is some discrimination in employment practices or people being terminated after being discovered that they are gay," Thornton says.
That's why Thornton says it's time to have the discussion in Lubbock.
"I'm looking at presenting the policies that are being used in Dallas and San Antonio and Austin to see if we can adopt something similar to those more-inclusive range of protections, employment protection and housing protection and those types of things," Thornton said.
"Whether or not we've updated policies or not, it shouldn't have anything to do with the way we treat people," Pope said. "We should treat people fairly. We should treat people how we want to be treated."
LGBT Americans say that's not enough.
"If laws don't protect, and people are allowed to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, that sends a message to people," Velte said. "It sends a message to homophobic people that it's OK to commit hate crimes or even heinous massacres that happened in Orlando, but it also sends messages to LGBT people themselves that they should be living in fear, that they should stay in the closet, that they should not reveal their entire humanity to anyone outside their own home."
So for Thornton, the fight for equality continues.
"We have to try, and I'm not one to give up easy," Thornton said.
