Shooting at LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs

[Velar Fricative]

Horrific: amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/11/20/us/colorado-springs-shooting-gay-nightclub/index.html

[underwaterrhymes]

We are such a fucked up society. This is terrible.

[seeyalater52]

My heart is broken.

[sonrisa]

Just before midnight when Transgender Day of Remembrance was starting.

[estrellita]

I feel like I should have words but I don't know that I do. I'm so so tired of this 😭

[Jalapeñomel]

I have no words.

I hate this place.

[penguingrrl]

That’s so awful, I don’t even know what to say.

[isabel]

The cruelty is what really gets me.

[isabel]

All that carnage in six minutes. Fuck this country and our reverence for guns.

“The incident lasted just minutes. Police received numerous 911 calls starting at 11:56 p.m., officers were dispatched at 11:57 p.m., an officer arrived at midnight and the suspect was detained at 12:02 a.m., police said.”

[konapoppy]

It’s so awful 😭

[underwaterrhymes]

Evidently the suspect was arrested in 2021 for threatening to kill his mom with a bomb. That this fucker managed to still be walking around and owning a gun is not shocking but it is heartbreaking.

And I hate that so many are reluctant to say that this is a hate crime. It’s not just a hate crime. It’s also terrorism. Hatred against LGBTQ people has been politicized, making people who commit these crimes terrorists. The media needs to start calling it that.

[gretchenindisguise]

My heart hurts.

[Velar Fricative]

Nov 20, 2022 11:02:40 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

Evidently the suspect was arrested in 2021 for threatening to kill his mom with a bomb. That this fucker managed to still be walking around and owning a gun is not shocking but it is heartbreaking.

And I hate that so many are reluctant to say that this is a hate crime. It’s not just a hate crime. It’s also terrorism. Hatred against LGBTQ people has been politicized, making people who commit these crimes terrorists. The media needs to start calling it that.

I was just going to come post an article about the 2021 threat against his mother. Yet another terrorist with a history of domestic abuse and threats.

www.koaa.com/news/covering-colorado/residents-evacuated-due-to-law-enforcement-activity-in-lorson-ranch-neighborhood

[seeyalater52]

Nov 20, 2022 11:02:40 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

Evidently the suspect was arrested in 2021 for threatening to kill his mom with a bomb. That this fucker managed to still be walking around and owning a gun is not shocking but it is heartbreaking.

And I hate that so many are reluctant to say that this is a hate crime. It’s not just a hate crime. It’s also terrorism. Hatred against LGBTQ people has been politicized, making people who commit these crimes terrorists. The media needs to start calling it that.

This. And too many people on the “left” are willing to (rightfully) call out gun violence without acknowledging that it is also targeted terrorism. That hurts too.

[Velar Fricative]

When there are threats against libraries because of drag queen story hours, and hospitals that offer gender-affirming care, of course our minds need to go straight to that crowd when attendees at a club hosting a drag event are massacred. Not to mention as said above, the club was also preparing for Transgender Day of Remembrance today.

[mrsukyankee]

My heart hurts.

[seeyalater52]

Nov 20, 2022 11:50:46 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

When there are threats against libraries because of drag queen story hours, and hospitals that offer gender-affirming care, of course our minds need to go straight to that crowd when attendees at a club hosting a drag event are massacred. Not to mention as said above, the club was also preparing for Transgender Day of Remembrance today.

Libs of Tik Tok is already posting about another drag event in CO and inciting the mob to go again. It’s sickening.

[Deleted]

One of my friends lives in C-Springs and her daughter, DIL, and their friends often frequent Club Q, but they weren’t there last night.

This is so horrifying.

[Jalapeñomel]

I just read on CNN that they don't know the motivation or if it's a hate crime. IF? IF???

[winecat]

Nov 21, 2022 7:42:16 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

I just read on CNN that they don't know the motivation or if it's a hate crime. IF? IF???

The local PD department isn't calling it a hate crime yet.  I've heard them say that they're "looking at it through that lens."  They haven't said what the fuck they need to find to classify it as a hate crime.

[picksthemusic]

I just can't anymore.

[Velar Fricative]

I understand the legalities and how hate crime laws work, but I really think we need to start at the assumption that if there's an attack on a location that is known for its service to marginalized groups, it's likely a hate crime. Black churches, synagogues, LGBTQ clubs...these are all obviously known to serve communities that are on the receiving end of so much hate, and we should consider these hate crimes until/unless evidence shows otherwise.

[pugz]

Here's something that I keep thinking about that is making me angrier and angrier.

Colorado Springs is like the center of evangelical Christianity. Focus on the Family is headquartered there and tons of other evangelical missions and organizations not to mention lots of mega churches. I lived there for a summer in college and knew quite a few people from there that went to the evangelical college I went to.

These churches and organizations are *toxic*. The fruit of their teaching is literally hatred and death. Especially the ones that say shit like "all are welcome here." No. That is a bald faced lie.

and if any of these churches or organizations sends out "thoughts and prayers" it is just adding insult to injury. They are complicit. They are complicit AF.

[katfco]

I go back and forth between not knowing what to say and just wanting to scream unintelligibly.

Having grown up in an evangelical home, feel such anger at their past and continued part in this ongoing hate-disguised-as-love. And I’m so afraid for my friends and family.

[seeyalater52]

Nov 21, 2022 10:36:47 GMT -5 pugz said:

Here's something that I keep thinking about that is making me angrier and angrier.

Colorado Springs is like the center of evangelical Christianity. Focus on the Family is headquartered there and tons of other evangelical missions and organizations not to mention lots of mega churches. I lived there for a summer in college and knew quite a few people from there that went to the evangelical college I went to.

These churches and organizations are *toxic*. The fruit of their teaching is literally hatred and death. Especially the ones that say shit like "all are welcome here." No. That is a bald faced lie.

and if any of these churches or organizations sends out "thoughts and prayers" it is just adding insult to injury. They are complicit. They are complicit AF.

Ditto toxic politicians who have been leading the crusade against LGBTQ+ and especially trans folks. You don’t get to stoke this type of hatred and eliminationist rhetoric and then act all wide eyed when your followers become radicalized and violent.

[seeyalater52]

Nov 21, 2022 10:31:08 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I understand the legalities and how hate crime laws work, but I really think we need to start at the assumption that if there's an attack on a location that is known for its service to marginalized groups, it's likely a hate crime. Black churches, synagogues, LGBTQ clubs...these are all obviously known to serve communities that are on the receiving end of so much hate, and we should consider these hate crimes until/unless evidence shows otherwise.

There is also a big difference just generally between the technicalities of whether something is considered legally a hate crime and “we don’t know what motivated the shooter.” I’m fucking sick of the legal wait and see game being used to gaslight people in my community and others with this “no evidence of a hate crime we need to investigate more” crap. Some fucking acknowledgement that obviously hate plays a role as it ALWAYS does in these bias motivated violent crimes against marginalized communities would be the bare minimum. Maybe you don’t have enough to prosecute it as a hate crime (although CO’s newer hate crime law would make that more straightforward than in most places) but let’s not beat around the bush against a targeted attack on a date of significant to the targeted community.

[ellipses84]

The murderer’s grandfather is a MAGA politician in Southern California.

www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/story/2022-11-20/accused-colorado-nightclub-gunman-grandson-of-longtime-east-county-politician?_amp=true

[Jalapeñomel]

Nov 21, 2022 14:28:33 GMT -5 seeyalater52 said:

Nov 21, 2022 10:31:08 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I understand the legalities and how hate crime laws work, but I really think we need to start at the assumption that if there's an attack on a location that is known for its service to marginalized groups, it's likely a hate crime. Black churches, synagogues, LGBTQ clubs...these are all obviously known to serve communities that are on the receiving end of so much hate, and we should consider these hate crimes until/unless evidence shows otherwise.

There is also a big difference just generally between the technicalities of whether something is considered legally a hate crime and “we don’t know what motivated the shooter.” I’m fucking sick of the legal wait and see game being used to gaslight people in my community and others with this “no evidence of a hate crime we need to investigate more” crap. Some fucking acknowledgement that obviously hate plays a role as it ALWAYS does in these bias motivated violent crimes against marginalized communities would be the bare minimum. Maybe you don’t have enough to prosecute it as a hate crime (although CO’s newer hate crime law would make that more straightforward than in most places) but let’s not beat around the bush against a targeted attack on a date of significant to the targeted community.

You put this in an earlier thread, but we need the language of extinction. Because these beings who are targeting and hunting LBGTQ+, Black communities, Jewish people, etc are hunting to eliminate, and the longer we allow the politicians to fake anger and concern and continue to take money from the NRA and gun lobbies and evangelical churches (yes I know but platform = money), the more these people win and can continue with this extinction agenda.

[litebright]

An ex-Army major who owns a local bar was at Club Q with his family to see his daughter's BFF perform in the drag show. He tackled and disarmed the shooter and beat him with his own gun, and it sounds like other patrons were involved as well in bringing the shooter down and keeping him down.

His family made it out mostly okay, but his daughter's boyfriend was killed.

www.nytimes.com/2022/11/21/us/colorado-springs-shooting-club-q-hero.html

[winecat]

The murderer will be charged with hate crimes once his condition improves.