November 20, 2022

“This Is Our Only Safe Space Here in The Springs…Where Are We Gonna Go?”

A horrific shooting at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub leaves 5 dead.

Thomas Peipert/AP

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A gunman opened fire at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub late Saturday night, killing five people and injuring at least 18 others.

The suspect began firing with a long rifle as soon as he entered Club Q close to midnight, according to early reports. Officials said that two people inside the club, including a possible combat veteran, subdued the attacker before police arrived. “Their actions clearly saved lives,” said Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers at a Sunday press conference.

Officials said they are investigating whether the shooting was a hate crime. Club Q hosted a “Drag Divas” event on Saturday night, and was planning to host a musical drag brunch and evening drag show on Sunday to honor the Transgender Day of Remembrance, though it’s unclear whether the attacker was aware of these events. Regardless, the horrific tragedy is likely to send shockwaves throughout the gay community.

“This is our only safe space here in The Springs,” one man who was inside the club when the shooting took place told a local reporter. “What are we gonna do now? Where are we gonna go?”

In a statement, Jared Polis, Colorado’s first openly gay governor, said, “Colorado stands with our LGTBQ community and everyone impacted by this tragedy as we mourn together.”

“This unspeakable attack has robbed countless people of their friends and family and an entire community’s sense of safety,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement Sunday.

The attack calls to mind the 2016 shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, which killed 49 people, most of them Latino. Advocates have pointed out that a rise in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric corresponds with a rise in violence against members of the LGBTQ community. Demonstrations against trans people, specifically, are also on the rise, according to data gathered by political scientist and blogger Jay Ulfelder, including protests of drag shows. As Them writes: “Legislators in several states including Texas, Florida, and Tennessee also proposed legislation this year that banned bringing children to see drag, even going so far as to propose making the act a felony.”

Reflecting on the Club Q shooting, GLAAD CEO Ellis said: “You can draw a straight line from the false and vile rhetoric about LGBTQ people spread by extremists and amplified across social media, to the nearly 300 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced this year, to the dozens of attacks on our community like this one.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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