Less than a year ago I moved to Florida but I spent the previous 42 years in Colorado. I am heartbroken and destroyed over the shooting at Club Q. Five innocent people were gunned down and 19 more injured in yet another senseless act of gun violence. In all my years in Colorado, Colorado Springs has never been a safe and welcoming place for the LGBTQ+ community. I understand why the Mayor wants to describe his city that way, given the tragic circumstances at Club Q, but I doubt the veracity of his words.
5 people killed, 19 injured
How many times have we read statistics like that referring to a mass shooting? Our country seems to thrive on someone to hate…someone to blame for all the problems. A scapegoat. An “other” to vilify. Someone to fear. Currently that seems to be the LGBTQ+ community, and perhaps especially, the trans community. Hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community are on the rise.
There’s a rise in anti-gay rhetoric. You cannot scapegoat and dehumanize an entire group of people and not expect this to happen. You cannot fan the flames of fear regarding the LGBTQ+ community and then act surprised when people are massacred. How long have people on the far right tried to stoke fears of gay people “grooming” children to make them gay or trying to convince people that gay people are pedophiles even though those claims have zero basis in reality? The vast majority of pedophiles, approximately 90%, are white, heterosexual, and male. Those false claims have been repeatedly made since the 1980’s, maybe longer.
The result of those types of dangerous and false claims are that the LGBTQ+ community becomes a target for hatred. And a sanctuary where LGBTQ+ people go to feel safe and connected is turned into into a target for a murderous rampage. I imagine many straight people don’t understand this need to find a safe place, where you can be yourself, because you have many choices. But when so many other places are unsafe, a place like Club Q is a refuge from the world.
Club Q was originally opened in this location so that people would not be seen going in and out of the club…because just going to the club was scary…and risky. In Denver, we use to go to Ms. C’s to dance. There was nothing to identify Ms. C’s but the name. It was a windowless brown building and we used to walk quickly in and out so that no one would see us, or hurt us. That’s a horrible reality for much of the LGBTQ+ community. It’s terrifying to live in fear of your own existence. The first Pride parade I ever marched in, with members of an LGBTQ+ alliance where I worked, I was like, “Holy shit! These people are protesting me! They hate me!” And as I walked past people with signs, yelling, spitting, and spewing hate filled rhetoric I was afraid. I had not realized how scary it would be just to march in this parade. Look how far we’ve come….and not so much.
We cannot continue to allow people to be marginalized and targeted because they are not straight, white, and Christian. We need to fight for equality…for all people. There should be no argument or debate about that. Our country was founded on the idea of equality. All people created equal. Although it wasn’t equal…not for women, not for slaves, not for indigenous people, not for the poor. It was “equal” for white, wealthy, slave and land owning men. Equality is the goal, the ideal we strive for. The ideal that we need desperately to become reality. Another ideal of the founding fathers was religious freedom. The first settlers left England to get away from the Church of England. To be allowed the religion of their choosing or none at all. You can believe whatever you want but you do not get to legislate your beliefs, and you certainly do not get to impose them on anyone else. We are equal. We are free. Free to believe or not believe as we determine for ourselves.
We act appalled when people are executed for being gay in other countries, but isn’t that what happens here? Someone doesn’t like a group of people so they take a gun and execute them. We just don’t call it an execution, we call it a mass murder. What are we doing? What is happening? Why aren’t we all outraged at the gun violence that continues and why can’t we as a nation do something about it? Our children and teachers are gunned down. Our black and brown communities are gunned down. Our queer and trans communities are gunned down…Jewish communities, Muslim communities…the disabled…the “different,” the “other,” the ones we don’t understand or feel threatened by…so much hatred…so much violence. This “otherness” is what breeds the hateful actions like the murders in Colorado…like Pulse Nightclub in 2016. 49 killed and 53 wounded. The largest mass shooting in US history and the largest mass causality event targeting LGBTQ+ people. What is happening? What are we doing?
19 states and the District of Columbia have “red flag” laws. These laws permit state courts to order temporary removal of firearms from a person they believe is a danger to themselves or others. They are also called Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO). Colorado is one of these states. In 2019, El Paso county, the home of Colorado Springs, declared itself a 2nd Amendment Sanctuary County. The County stated that red flag laws “infringed on the inalienable rights of law abiding citizens” by ordering police officers to seize property without evidence of a crime. Protection orders can be sought by law enforcement or family or household members. Once El Paso declared itself a 2ndAmendment Sanctuary County, the Sheriff indicated that law enforcement would not seek EROP orders. Instead they would wait for families to petition the court for surrender orders. In a county of 730,000 people, there were 13 temporary removal orders through the end of 2021. Seriously? The gun used in this mass murder may have been in the home of the alleged killer last year when the police interviewed him regarding a bomb threat made toward his mother. Maybe this shooting could have been prevented…maybe not, but it would be comforting to know someone tried.
In Florida, and right wing media, the term “woke” is thrown around in a disparaging manner, as if it’s a joke. Woke means, “alert to injustice in society, especially racism.” That doesn’t sound funny to me. Here in Florida, our Governor is trying to pass the “Stop WOKE Act.” Fortunately, a federal judge blocked a key piece of that legislation which would have restricted how lessons on race and gender can be taught in colleges and universities. This act would “expand Florida’s anti-discrimination laws to prohibit schools and companies from leveling guilt or blame to students and employees based on race or sex, [and] takes aim at lessons over issues like ‘white privilege’ by creating new protections for students and workers, including that a person should not be instructed to ‘feel guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress’ due to their race, color, sex, or national origin.” (Politico article by Andrew Atterbury). The judge determined that those policies violate 1st Amendment free speech and due process rights in the 14th Amendment on college campuses. We’re in a whole new level of trouble when we want to legislate our responsibilities away. When we want a law to clear our conscience and rewrite history in a more palatable form because they truth makes us feel bad.
Let’s Be Real…I clearly did not move to Florida because of the open mindedness and welcoming policies here. I plan to do my part to educate people and change policies like this one. But here’s my question…why is “woke” a negative thing? Why is it referred to jokingly and as a put down? Why is it mocked, like in the name of this bill? What is wrong with being “alert to and aware of injustice” in our society and in the world? Seems to me that we could use a whole lot more of that.
Buddha said that enlightenment meant to wake up…to stop sleeping. Being awake means to be “fully conscious, alert, and aware.” I think Buddha was the original “woke” Being. Don’t we all need to wake up? Wake up and be aware of the bigotry, hatred, and violence in our country. We have to be awake to see what’s happening and to change what’s happening. We can’t change what we refuse to see. Awake to recognize that the LGBTQ+ community is part of our families. We are your mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, grandmothers, grandfathers, cousins, sisters, brothers, friends, employees, doctors, nurses…we are part of the fabric of your lives and part of the fabric of this country.
And let’s be real, we all need to wake up and walk through this world with our eyes, minds, and hearts open. Wake up to the people around us. Just wake up. And, please, when in doubt, be kind, especially now. Do whatever you can to help the healing. Love always wins, maybe not today, but ultimately it wins.
Kai Raines 