艾玛·冈萨雷斯：率真青年用沉默惊醒国人

Emma Gonzalez, 18, has become one of the most prominent advocates in the United States for gun control since a shooter opened fire in her high school in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine’s Day, killing 17 people.

For the second time in a little over a month, she gave a speech that immediately went viral. The first was for what she said in her tearful eulogy for the victims of the Valentine’s Day mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where she is a senior; the second for what she didn’t say in her speech at the March for Our Lives gun control rally in Washington D.C. on Saturday.

Gonzalez strode on stage at the March for Our Lives rally, and listed the names of the 17 students and staff gunned down at her high school in Parkland, Florida. And then she went silent.

Minutes ticked by. Tears streaming down her face. When she resumed, she told the audience that she was demonstrating the length of time it took for the gunman to kill 17 people.

In just one day, the speech ran up nearly half a million views on YouTube, was excerpted on all the news broadcasts, and made the front pages of all the major publications, all of them lauding her dramatic silence.

Here’s what you need to know about high school senior Emma Gonzalez:

She’s 18, Cuban and bisexual.

That’s how Gonzalez began a powerful essay she wrote for Harper’s Bazaar. She went on to say:

“I’m so indecisive that I can’t pick a favorite color, and I’m allergic to 12 things. I draw, paint, crochet, sew, embroider — anything productive I can do with my hands while watching Netflix. But none of this matters anymore.”

She hid in the auditorium while Nikolas Cruz was firing on her classmates. Gonzalez says that as she waited in the dark room at Marjory Stoneman Douglas on February 14, she searched Google News for updates. When it was clear what was unfolding, she comforted some of the students around her before first responders opened the doors and told them to run.

Her father fled Cuba and is a lawyer. Gonzalez was born in the United States. Her dad sought refuge from Fidel Castro’s regime by moving to New York in 1968. Her mother is a math tutor and worries about her.

She says being open about her sexuality has helped propel her activism. Gonzalez has been president of her school’s Gay-Straight Alliance for three years. “If I wasn’t so open about who I was I never would’ve been able to do this,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle.

She became a household name when she called out lawmakers’ “BS.” Just four days after the shooting, the 1.58-meter Gonzalez stood on boxes to reach the microphones and delivered a fiery speech at a gun control rally in Florida.

“Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA (National Rifle Association), telling us nothing could have ever been done to prevent this — we call B.S.! They say that tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence — we call B.S.! ”

And then she tussled with the NRA. At a CNN Town Hall about the future of gun control, she pointedly told NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, who wouldn’t directly answer her question, “I want you to know we will support your two children in a way that you will not.”

She has more Twitter followers than the NRA. She created the @Emma4Change account four days after the shooting to amplify calls for stricter gun control. She has built a legion of more than 1 million followers. The NRA, which joined Twitter in 2009, has 636,000 followers.

She’s been on the cover of Time. The April 2 issue of the magazine features Marjory Stoneman Douglas students who are leading the national conversation about gun control.

(SD-Agencies)