Ithaca Is Love Photo - Trolley Circle, center of The Commons near 171 E State Street

Site of the Ithaca Is Love photo, in support of Orlando Florida residents and those affected by the Pulse Nightclub shooting during the summer of 2016. Ithaca Is Love was led by City of Ithaca alderperson Deb Mohlenhoff and members of the local LGBTQ community. They came together in the wake of the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting and had no official affiliation with one another. But they shared the common goal of wanting to focus on LGBTQ people in Ithaca, those who might feel unsupported during this time of mourning, and to build a greater sense of LGBTQ community.

Over the course of several weeks, Ithaca Is Love coordinated a community photo with over 600 participants, all wearing shirts in different colors of the rainbow - purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red - to form a human rainbow. Gilbert Baker created the original Pride Flag in 1978 as a symbol of the LGBTQ community, with each color having specific significance: life (red), healing (orange), sunlight (yellow), nature (green), harmony/peace (blue), and spirit (purple/violet).

An aerial photo from atop the Center Ithaca building on the Commons was taken by photographer Sheryl Sinkow.

The photograph, along with a letter were sent from the following people and organizations:

• City of Ithaca mayor Svante Myrick to City of Orlando mayor.
• Tompkins Chamber of Commerce to the Orlando chamber of commerce
• Downtown Ithaca to the Pulse nightclub owner
• Tompkins Visitor's Center to the Orlando CVB
• Ithaca Police and Ithaca Fire departments to Orlando Emergency Services.
• President of Tompkins Cortland Community College to president of Valencia College.

Brian Patchcoski, director of Cornell’s LGBT Resource Center at the time, said of this initiative “I don’t think we always have the opportunity to be visible. Yes, Ithaca has a great history of LGBT inclusion, but I think in terms of visibility and support and recognizing those who have laid a foundation for the growth that we’ve done around equality, we don’t get the time and space to celebrate that.”