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Colorado Springs shooting suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich faces at least five counts of murder along with five counts of committing a bias crime causing bodily harm. At least five people were killed and 18 others injured when the 22-year-old suspect burst into an LGBT+ nightclub shortly before midnight Saturday and opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle. The suspect was taken down by an Army veteran named Richard Fierro, with the help of a transgender woman who stepped on the suspect. “It’s the reflex,” Mr. Fierro told reporters Monday afternoon, describing how he ran across the room, grabbed the shooter’s gun, pulled the hm to the floor and began beating him with his own pistol. On Tuesday President Joe Biden called Mr. Fierro to personally thank him for his “bravery and his righteous instinct to act.” Police named the five people who died as Kelly Loving, Daniel Aston, Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh and Raymond Green Vance, listing their pronouns along with their names.
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Drag Artists Reject GOP ‘Child Sexualization’ Claims
It’s worth examining what exactly lies behind the claim that drag shows are inherently sexual, as many conservative politicians and pundits have argued (both before and after the Colorado Springs shooting). Republican lawmakers sought to ban child attraction shows, describing them as “perverted sex shows” and part of “a trend in which perverted adults are obsessed with the sexualization of young children.” But in an interview with the Independent in June, the executive director of Drag Queen Story Hour – an LGBT+ education charity which organizes readings of children’s books by drag performers in schools, libraries and bookshops – strongly rejected the idea that drag is inherently sexual. “I’m not going to lie and say that drag is never sexualized, because drag is an art form and it can be sexualized like anything else,” executive director (and drag artist) Jonathan Hamilt told me. “Drag with adults in an adult setting could definitely be sexual. Is it sexual in a Drag Queen Story Hour? No! Bringing your kids to an R-rated movie? I hope not. “There are actors in R-rated movies, and those same actors can be in a G-rated family comedy… an adult drag show in an adult bar, at night, with alcohol, is different than a Drag Queen Story Hour non-profit event at 11am at a public library.” Io Dodds23 November 2022 08:52 1669189597
A Colorado poet remembers Club Q
Many people share this poem by former Colorado Springs resident James Davis, a poet and publisher who spent most of his life in the Rocky Mountain town. “I’m queer / in a military town where cadets / score football scores on pushups / and the Blue Angels take to the sky.” Others shared British transgender poet Jay Hulme’s “Jesus at the Gay Bar,” which revisits the biblical parable of Jesus healing a bleeding woman to explore LGBT+ shame and conversion therapy. Io Dodds23 November 2022 07:46 1669185637
“It’s like we feel the tragedy coming”
A Colorado Springs resident says there is “a growing hatred” for the LGBT+ community in his city. Parker Gray, 25, told NBC News: “You can just feel it. As a community, experiencing so much grief and so much loss after so many years, it’s almost like you can feel the tragedy coming. “The numbers are down [Club Q] of course with Covid, but I think people are starting to fear for their safety again like in 2016 when Pulse happened.” This was a reference to the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016 where 49 people were killed. Colorado Springs has also seen recent controversy surrounding LGBT+ inclusion in schools. A local school board member apologized earlier this year for sharing a transphobic meme on social media, while a transgender teenager said she was banned from the homecoming dance because she wore a dress. Another resident, who was previously a member of an evangelical megachurch before coming out as gay, told The New York Times that the shooting was “definitely a wake-up call,” concluding, “It’s still not safe.” Io Dodds23 November 2022 06:40 1669181137
How Colorado fared on LGBT+ rights
Like many states, Colorado has a long history of discrimination against LGBT+ people. In 1992, 53 percent of voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that prevented any city from enacting legal protections for gays, lesbians, or bisexuals. Controversy over the amendment caused some film and television productions, as well as various conferences and conventions, to boycott Colorado, just as North Carolina and Georgia suffered in 2016 and 2017 over their anti-transgender “bathroom bills.” It was finally overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1996. Ten years later, voters passed another constitutional amendment that prohibited the state from recognizing same-sex marriages, declaring that “only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid in this state.” And that was overturned when the Supreme Court ruled that all Americans have the right to same-sex marriage in 2015. Today, however, the nonprofit Movement Advancement Project describes Colorado as one of the top US states for LGBT+ equality, citing its extensive nondiscrimination laws, lack of religious exemptions, ban on conversion therapy, and various other factors. Io Dodds23 November 2022 05:25 1669177177
Club Q patron says it was a ‘refuge’
A Club Q regular, who lost two friends in the shooting, described how it served as a “refuge” for him and his community. According to Buzzfeed News, a man named Anthony, who did not want to give reporters his last name, said he expects to be uncomfortable when he goes out in public for an extended period of time. “That’s always been one of my mom’s biggest concerns and worries — coming out and being gay and not having anywhere to go,” Anthony said. “But when I was welcomed to Q by a bunch of people, I knew I had a home. I had a safe space, and they made sure everyone knew it was a safe space.” Io Dodds23 November 2022 04:19 1669173157
Prosecutors could not explain why the 2021 case was dropped
Colorado prosecutors still refuse to say why the case against the suspect was dropped last June, citing state laws designed to protect acquitted defendants from discrimination. In an interview with CBS News earlier this afternoon, District Attorney Michael Allen said he could not disclose anything about suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich’s previous arrest because any dismissed case is “almost automatically” sealed. He rejected the news anchor’s suggestion that dropping the case allowed the suspect to evade firearms regulations, saying: “You’re jumping a little ahead to a conclusion that isn’t necessarily supported.” Mr. Allen also discussed the nature of the hate crime allegations against Mr. Aldrich, which are known in Colorado as “bias crimes.” “We would have to show that he had some kind of animus, that he specifically targeted certain groups,” he said. “Sexual orientation is one of the groups that fall into that matrix. There’s obviously some evidence here that he might have targeted the site for that reason.” Io Dodds23 November 2022 03:12 1669169077
Anti-trans conservatives are doubling down on “groomer” rhetoric.
Some hardline conservatives are already doubling down on “groomer” rhetoric against LGBT+ people after the shooting. “The left is using mass shootings to try to blackmail us into accepting castration and the sexualization of children,” said anti-transgender campaigner Matt Walsh, who referred to under-18 health care as “harassment and rape.” and “child abuse.” “. In this case, by “castrating children” he means providing puberty-blocking drugs or hormone replacement therapy to transgender children, and by “sexuality” he seems to mean educating children about LGBT+ people. Right-wing broadcaster Steven Crowder also said: “The Left is melting down over vile tweets, but celebrating the killing of babies and the mutilation of children.” By that he meant abortion and transgender health care for under-18s. Political pundit Ben Shapiro called it “cynical and ridiculous” to link anti-LGBT+ violence to anti-LGBT+ rhetoric, which he described as “watching what the Left is doing to children”, while lawyer and commentator Kurt Schlichter said he did not will “lock up child abuse”. YouTuber Tim Pool went further, appearing to justify violence against LGBT+ people as an understandable consequence of lawmakers’ failure to “stop grooming.” This kind of language is becoming routine on the hard right, conflating LGBT+ education, gender transition healthcare and non-sexual trag shows with sexual abuse. Io Dodds23 November 2022 02:04 1669165237
Full Story: Anderson Lee Aldrich is out of the hospital
A tweet from the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) confirmed that Mr. Aldirch had been taken to the jail under the custody of the local county sheriff. Although officials have not released details of Mr. Aldrich’s injuries, we do know from witnesses that the assailant was forcibly subdued by a group of patrons led by local Army veteran Richard Fierro, 44. Mr. Fierro said he grabbed the gunman’s gun and hit him repeatedly with it, while another patron stomped on the shooter with her high heels. Io Dodds23 November 2022 01:00 1669163978
The suspect has been released from the hospital
Suspected shooter Anderson Lee Aldrich has reportedly been released from the hospital and taken to jail. “CSPD released the custody of the Club Q suspect to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office at the jail. A photo will be released when available,” the Colorado Springs Police Department said. Mr Aldrich, 22, was arrested on suspicion of murder and hate crimes and is scheduled to face a judge tomorrow morning via video link. Yo…
