Pulse nightclub shooting survivor Brandon Wolf shared his story as the speaker at this year’s Ida B. Wells lecture, Violence: An American Tradition? The event is the highlight of a semester-long curriculum examining violence as part of American culture.

From tragedy to advocacy

Article by Hilary Douwes Photos by Evan Krape and Hilary Douwes March 19, 2025

Pulse nightclub shooting survivor Brandon Wolf shares powerful story of becoming an activist

Brandon Wolf never intended to be an activist. But the tragic mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, changed his life and career.

Wolf was in the restroom at the club in the early morning hours of June 12, 2016, when a man walked into a nearby room with an automatic rifle and started shooting. When it was over, 49 people had died, including his best friend, Drew Leinonen, and Drew’s partner, Juan Guerrero. The event is called an act of terrorism against the LGBTQ+ community.

Wolf visited the University of Delaware on Tuesday, March 11, to share his journey from growing up feeling like an outsider in his own hometown, to surviving the country’s second deadliest mass shooting, to becoming an LGBTQ+ rights advocate and gun control activist. He works with national leaders to create new policies and to defend existing rights from threats.

Wolf prefers to call himself a storyteller, and the audience in UD’s Mitchell Hall listened intently as he walked across the stage, talking about hiding his true self as a Black, gay teen in rural Oregon. They smiled when Wolf shared that, after moving to Florida to work at Walt Disney World, he had finally found “his chosen family,” a community of people who “lived like me and loved like me.”

The auditorium was silent as he replayed the events of the day that led the three friends, nicknamed the Three Musketeers, to Pulse. Several audience members wiped away tears as he spoke of hearing the gunshots that “ended normal life in Orlando.”

“I wish I could tell you that that’s the moment that I got off the couch and into the fight,” Wolf said. “But the truth is I couldn’t imagine a future worth fighting for in that moment.”

It was after watching the mainstream news coverage and seeing the outpouring of support for his community both in person and on social media that he realized he needed to get involved. He tells Drew and Juan’s story so they won’t “be faceless victims on America’s long list” of deaths from gun violence.

Wolf outlined three challenges that need to be overcome in working as an activist during the question and answer session moderated by Andrea Glass-Heffner, assistant professor of women and gender studies.

Challenge to others

Wolf gave the audience three challenges to becoming an activist for any cause. The first was to recognize and own the power of individual stories and viewpoints.

“The most important and hardest advocacy we do is around kitchen dinner tables. It’s in group chats. It’s with people who love and trust us and might never have considered our perspective before. That is real community organizing,” he said.

The second challenge was to intentionally build community and never lose sight of its power.

“It is your job to go out, grab somebody by the hand and say, ‘I know a place where your voice is not just nice to have, but the conversation is incomplete without you,‘ and bring them to that table,” Wolf said.

The last challenge was to find a topic “you will still be passionate about in 20 years,” and don’t worry about not being involved in more than one cause.

“Fighting for a better future has not been an individual competition. It’s always been a group project,” he said. “I consider everyone sitting in this room the heroes of the story we’re writing right now because you’re the ones who do the most courageous work. You live fully and authentically. You’re proud of who you are. You fight tirelessly for a world that you can’t see yet, but you know it’s worth fighting for. I truly feel grateful to be in the fight for a better world alongside all of you.”

Conversations and curriculum

The event was the third annual Ida B. Wells lecture, an initiative launched by the Department of Women and Gender Studies to bring the campus community together in dialogue about violence and hatred, and what can be done to stop or resist it.

It was the highlight of a semester-long conversation about violence as an American tradition. Four classes in the department are currently examining the violence in America's history, in literature and media, gun violence and gender-based violence.

Before the lecture, Wolf participated in Professor Angela Hattery’s capstone course. The students had read his book A Place For Us about his experience and curated a conversation about it through four different topics: the importance of sharing stories of survival, analysis of both mainstream and social media’s coverage of the Pulse shooting, and a discussion of gun policy.

Wolf with students and faculty mentors in Professor Angie Hattery’s women and gender studies capstone class. Students prepared presentations and questions for Wolf from his book about the shooting.

“Yesterday was one of the greatest honors of my career,” Wolf said the following day. “It was a truly magical day full of insight and thoughtfulness from students and staff. When I wrote my book, I could not have imagined that I would be sitting in on capstone presentations about it. I'm going to be carrying the glow of yesterday for a very long time.”

Wolf isn’t the only national figure students have encountered in their courses. In a film series class, students engaged in talkback sessions with people who lost loved ones to gun violence and with key activists, including David Hogg, survivor of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018 and current vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Senior Alenoush Davis, whose high school had a shooting threat not long after the one in Parkland, left the talkback hopeful for the future.

“I’ve been following David on social media since Parkland,” said Davis, a history and Japanese double major. “It was really rough back then and I had really bad anxiety. Knowing that he’s been able to take that and use it for something productive is really heartening and inspiring to me personally.”

Madison Ramirez is a senior communication and women and gender studies double major minoring in domestic violence prevention and services. She also played an integral role in planning the day, acting as a bridge between students and staff, and creating a display case in Morris Library dedicated to the lecture. Her work on the event and engaging with Wolf inspired her.

“Talking with him and listening to his answers truly grounded me and gave me hope,” she said. “I’m confident no matter where I land the work will be worth it and someone will benefit from it.”