Luis Javier Ruiz, a survivor of the June 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where 49 people were murdered by Omar Mateen in what was at the time the worst mass shooting in modern American history, will be participating in the May 5 march. “I should [have] been number 50,” Ruiz wrote on his Facebook page Friday.

Former transgender, bisexual, lesbian and gay men and women, including an Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting survivor, will be gathering in the nation’s capital for a worship event next weekend to proclaim how Jesus Christ liberated them.

Attendees from across the nation will assemble at the National Sylvan Theater from noon to 3 p.m. on May 5 for what is being called Freedom March.

Daren Mehl, president of the group Voice of the Voiceless, says he sees the event as “an opportunity for those of us who have a new life with Jesus to come together in fellowship and praise Him for the love and grace available to everyone who seeks it [and] to testify publicly of the life-changing grace available to leave the LGBT identity for something greater,” he told The Christian Post on Friday.

Mehl, 40, is a Minnesota native who identified as a gay man for approximately 10 years. Today he is married to a woman and has two children. He will also be at next Saturday’s march.

“Jesus instructs us to love others as we love ourselves,” he said when asked what he hopes this event communicates to the LBGT community, many of whom have been wounded by religion.

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