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He said that Sidetrack will further and immediately examine all of its procedures, including for a potential emergency, to see if anything needs to be revised. Johnston confirmed that Sidetrack immediately added more security to its already-high number of security officials. "And I'm sure other gay places will do the same," he said.
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"This was something you don't know how to take in, except to know that we are, again, or still, a community under attack." Teary-eyed, Johnston admitted he struggled to "put it in any kind of perspective" the tally of dead and injured. He simply said, "My heart goes out to the loved ones, the family members injured and assassinated." Sidetrack celebrates its 34 th anniversary party on June 16, and the upcoming event will no doubt be a time for Chicagoans to further mourn the Orlando tragedy. After all, the Orlando attack "strikes at the heart of our community" – bars, which have long been a safe haven for all in the LGBT community. A rainbow-colored sign near the entrance to Sidetrack now has black draping around it. ET, which was 30 minutes after the attack started, they learned of the tragedy unfolding in Florida. They watched national TV coverage for the rest of the night, into the morning, and they "got more hurt and angrier as the night went on," he said. over the weekend and had returned to their hotel room after a wedding. At about 2:30 a.m. Johnston, the co-owner of Sidetrack in Chicago's Boystown neighborhood, said the attack which killed about 50 – including the shooter, Omar Mateen, 29, an American citizen who was living in Florida – and injured 53 was "a horrible act that we will remember, forever." Johnston added, "This (attack) strikes at the heart of our community." Johnston and his longtime partner, Jose "Pepe" Pena, were in Brooklyn, N.Y. Art Johnston doesn't hold back – his thoughts or emotions – when talking about the attack on Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Fla., on June 12, which was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S.