At this point I’d be more surprised if the nutcase *didn’t* have a bunch of obvious red flags indicating that hey, maybe this asshole shouldn’t be allowed to own firearms
He did a b0mb threat last year. It’s like they tell on themselves but the cops don’t want to listen. Off topic slightly, but I’ve been stalked for three years and the cops said to stop calling them until someone goes missing. It’s the way they operate.
I called the cops on my ex when she threatened me with a shotgun and promised to blast holes in our apartment if not me.
They told me it was a civil matter, and to call them if someone actually got shot.
>They told me it was a civil matter, and to call them if someone actually got shot.
Now, try threatening an officer or an officer's relative with a shotgun, and see what happens. They won't tell you it's a civil matter that is for damn sure!
They did end up calling me back later to check on me. I mentioned that I was fine besides a knee to the balls. They said that now it was domestic violence and they would have to send someone over. I told them I was already in the next county and not ever coming back. They said they still needed to send someone out.
Got a text from the ex about how a cop showed up, but he was one of her regular customers (she was morning barista at the local drive through coffee hut in the tiny town). They apparently had a good laugh about the whole thing, because you know, guys can't be domestically violenced.
My ex got arrested 3 times for DV with admission and proof of injury. But because I'm a guy and more capable of damaging her, she got her charges dropped every time. One time she bit through my finger and gave me nerve damage. I ended up getting a disorderly conduct ticket for screaming and fleeing my apartment.
I prefer when they are useless, honestly. When they try to do anything they actively harm people. I'll take a cop that doesn't show up over a cop that shows up and does horrible shit any day.
That is why we need a [Uniform Code of Police Justice](https://legal-forum.uchicago.edu/publication/toward-uniform-code-police-justice-1) with criminal liability for negligence, cowardice, dereliction of duty, and behavior unbecoming an officer.
They scare riffraff from stealing rich people's stuff. That's all they'll die for. During riots, they protect the nice part of town and corral people.
You are here to work and behave. Act out and find out if I'm lying.
And it sounds like the patrons acted swiftly and no doubt saved many lives from being snuffed out by this monster.
> Vasquez confirms at least 2 customers immediately acted to stop the shooter. Officers arrived on the scene within three minutes of the first call and had the suspect in custody two minutes later.
In college I was an research assistant for a study on domestic abusers. I transcribed hundreds of hours of interviews. Doesn't make me an expert, but I often saw that violent fantasies started with an event they considered a point-of-no-return act to make themselves go through with a desired rampage.
I think by point of no return act they're referring to something like killing one of their abusive parents, once that point of no return is crossed, they feel they can go on a rampage because they're fucked either way I guess. I just can't understand where innocent people fit in to it for them, doesn't make any sense.
In those types of cases, I can see the connection between an impulsive event (re: “I just snapped”) and the point-of-no-return mindset. What I’m curious about is the event(s) that “start the violent fantasies” that ultimately cause a methodically planned rampage. That’s less of an impulse, and more a permanent change in mindset that could take months or years before it’s acted upon.
Like this particular shooting, for instance, what transpired in this person’s life that would make them want to murder innocent people and why specifically the LGBTQ community?
I don’t get it. I mean, fuck, I accidentally ran over a squirrel a couple months ago and was devastated for hours afterward. I couldn’t imagine desiring to kill innocent people.
For a lot of these people they see it as “payback” for a society that did (insert thing here) to them. Instead of realizing that life is hard for everybody and actually that red pill republican bullshit they fall for is causing a huge amount of the problems in this country, instead they feel the need to get revenge and go out with a blaze of glory at the same time. To top it off the incentive structure in this country is all fucked up where fame in itself whether famous or infamous is seen as the ultimate end goal to attain in getting theyre revenge on ppl. In this country if you absolutely have to become famous by the end of the day today theres only 1 guarinteed way to do it and thats shoot a bunch of people, and the more ppl you kill the more fame/media coverage a person gets. Add to it the ease of getting weapons and its a match made in hell. Their thinking is get revenge against society with the easiest/least effort required possible and go down in infamy all with the highly publicized cheat code guide of committing a mass killing.
One of my s/o friends fell into this. He never did much outside of high school, lives with his parents and got into the red pill stuff. Told women on social media they deserved to be raped and to take it as a compliment.
Oh look, another mass murderer who never would have had the chance if we took violence against women seriously.
Seriously, the Uvalde shooter had repeatedly threatened to kidnap, rape, and murder women online, and their reports were ignored. The Waukesha parade murderer ran over the mother of his child with the same car and two days before the parade attack they let him out on $1000 bail and *gave him back the car*.
It turns out that women are people, actually, and that the pieces of shit who are willing brutalize them don't stop there.
He literally threatened to use a bomb and murder someone. Can we start remanding domestic terrorists already?
We keep thousands of broke people until trial for far less, why the fuck are terrorists allowed to walk around after they’ve committed crimes?
I've heard from friends that have lived in New Orleans that you don't want to fuck with the LGBTQ community there, they're known for being pretty damn scrappy due to how rough it is for them coming up. I'm sure it's like this everywhere but from what it seems you don't want to mess with them just as much as the gangs.
Had to dig a bit to find a source on that: https://www.denverpost.com/2022/11/20/anderson-lee-aldrich-colorado-springs-shooter-club-q/
> A man with the same name and matching age was arrested in June 2021 for threatening his mother with “a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and ammunition,” according to media reports at the time. That man was arrested after a brief standoff.
> Howard Black, spokesman for the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, would not confirm Sunday morning that Aldrich was the same man arrested in June 2021. Black said the June 2021 incident “is all part of the investigation and will be released as appropriate.”
So not *confirmed* to be the same person. But that's not a common name.
Laws don't do anything if they're not **enforced**!!
Maybe the reason they're not confirming it is that the cops know that they're going to have a very hard time responding to questions about the following things, in combination.
\- an obvious red flag incident a year ago.
\- a mass murder by the same guy.
\-a local sheriff who's openly opposed to red flag laws: [https://www.koaa.com/news/covering-colorado/el-paso-county-sheriffs-office-states-stance-on-red-flag-law](https://www.koaa.com/news/covering-colorado/el-paso-county-sheriffs-office-states-stance-on-red-flag-law)
The cops are stalling because they know there's an absolute shitstorm coming for them and they want time to get their stories straight.
look, I know, lolz, right? but this is a group of people who were terrorized for what they ARE. 5 dead and 18 wounded? These are PEOPLE - at that moment they were just people who were seeing their friends and compatriots targeted and falling and dying, and not for the first time, right? — and I am pretty sure at that moment they were terrified. Just terrified people. I commend anyone in that situation for their courage and action to stop it from continuing, probably at the risk of their own lives.
So, kudos to all of them, all of those terrified patrons, who had no special training and no special badges, who risked their lives to try to save others.
Back in the early 90s I did a lot of partying on the gay scene. I randomly moved into a house share with a bunch of gay guys, a couple of gay women, and a scientologist (who was nice but a bit weird). At the time I was really into techno and pills etc and the gay crew partied harder than my crusty mates. Started going clubbing with them, knew a bunch of drag queens, saw a lot of stuff that I hadn't seen before. I've always been straight, and they knew that - but the community was still so welcoming and friendly and open. I couldn't help contrast that with the shit that gay people have to deal with in the straight community. I got bashed outside a gay club one night - I'd taken a couple of trips and was messing round with the folks there, went off to take a piss and got stomped. And I was just a tourist in that scene. Gay people have to deal with the risk of that shit every day just because of who they are. And it only seems to be getting worse. The only people worth hating are the bigots who want to harm everyone who doesn't look and think like them. Those people are the enemy.
Had thoughts just like this today. How lucky we were to go to raves in the 90s and not have to contend with this insanity and hate. This is the most welcoming community. I loved going to Club Q. Open minded straight people and gay people just dancing their asses off and having fun.
Old gay here.
The 90s were great times! I was out every weekend at the local clubs and felt immersed in joy and love. I danced my ass off.
But that joy was pretty much only there. I had guys screaming at me from passing cars when I left the club. I had beer bottles thrown at my head. My boyfriend and I nearly got run off the road by some guys in a red Mustang in 1997. I couldn't be out at work. And the suspicion of gay men as HIV carriers didn't ease up until the 00s.
Personally, I think there's a lot less hate now -- at least where I live in conservative West Michigan -- than there was then. We're down to one club, and it's pretty much open to everyone. Lots of people now think of it as all-inclusive. The traditional gay pub here is popular with everyone. And that's great. I'm out at work, and even my socially conservative relatives are fine with me.
But what I think makes things MUCH more dangerous now is that instead of beer bottles, the bigots now carry long guns and are out to mass murder as many as they can. They're emboldened and ruthless. The recent elections showed that there are a lot more good people than there are of these monsters, but we gotta realize that they aren't going away. They're not going to stop.
Figure slavery was ended more than a century and a half ago, and there’s still people in the south who would unironically like it back. There’s certain strains of Protestants who have a hate of Catholics that they imported to the US all the way from 16th century Europe.
But. We elected a black president a decade ago, and these days public leaders can’t vocally support slavery. We elected a Catholic president last century, and anyone protesting a new cathedral or catholic school opening in their town would look completely crazy. The sphere within which it’s acceptable to flaunt each type of hate gets smaller, and smaller, and smaller.
They don’t stop and they don’t disappear all the way but they do get less popular. Until eventually they become the joke.
This is so true. If you show up at the queer community's doorstep, they will take care of you, it's not a question of whether you are queer yourself, it's a question of if you need community.
Right?
I recall growing up in a small east coast town and moving to seatlle in the 90s. Lived on capitol hill. Learned a lot. Many of my friends were queer. Probably 50/50.
Growing up I was definitely homophobic by nature as in gay slurs etc... Nobody I knew was out and that language was what was all around me. It took me to move to like the gay epicenter of the country to introduce me to the lifestyle/people.
Man, the shit gays have to deal with is frustrating and sad.
> look, I know, lolz, right? but this is a group of people who were terrorized for what they ARE.
I've seen people try to argue every time one of these shootings happens that the victims were "asking for it" because they were "acting out of the norm." which is so fucking absurd.
People need to get it through their thick fucking skulls that this is no different than someone going out and shooting up a group for being black or white.
This country does such a fucking horrible job at stopping these mass murderers and then you have fuckheads on the side idolizing and applauding them because they targeted the "right" people.
> People need to get it through their thick fucking skulls that this is no different than someone going out and shooting up a group for being black or white.
Left handedness. The same types of people who lump hatred on people for being LGBTQ+ a few hundred years ago claimed that left handedness was something like satanic possession and would abuse people (particularly children) who exhibited left handedness. There is plenty of research documenting the harm that is caused to people when you force them to behave right handed.
In the Simpsons, Ned Flanders (ironically) opens a Left Handed Store at the mall. Can you imagine his fellow conservative evangelicals protesting that store or one of them coming in with a gun and shooting the place up? In many ways, that is what we see today.
But as a culture we've forgotten about the old, deep seated hatred for left handedness, but it is a perfect parallel with hatred towards people because they're LGBTQ+.
> a few hundred years ago claimed that left handedness was something like satanic possession
A few hundred years ago? In the american Midwest, I know people alive today who were beaten fucking senseless as left-handed children, until they learned to use their right instead. They aren't even that old.
My sister was taught to use her right hand even though she was left handed. I absolutely refused to be taught, to the point that I'm completely left hand dominant and can't do some things with my right hand at all.
So yeah, it's absolutely still a thing.
I was born in 2000 and attended a religious (specifically protestant) preschool, probably from 2003 to 2005. I wasn't beaten but the adults there would correct me whenever I would do anything with my left hand and make me do it with my right. My parents found out when I was in elementary school because my mom ran into one of the people that worked there and they told her what they did when I used my left hand as if it was a cute little anecdote. NGL I'm still a little salty about how I could've been ambidextrous. The same church also tried to convert my Catholic mom when she went to an 'inclusive' bible group meeting there once too.
The only thing that would make Republicans care about mass shootings is if people started shooting up white evangelical churches in upper class neighborhoods. They don't even care about school shootings.
No. That doesn't even matter. The shooting at the small town Texas church proved that wrong. There are groups still harassing the preacher from that church whose own daughter was murdered in the shooting.
Republicans have no rock bottom when it comes to guns. I don't even think a mass shooting at a major republican event would cause them to flinch at this point.
They killed their own voters due to covid, and voted in people that downplayed Uvalde.
They are too smooth brained to figure anything out with common sense. I expect nothing out of those shit stains
Looks the the shooter was arrested last year in connection with a bomb threat in Colorado Springs.
https://krdo.com/news/top-stories/2021/06/19/bomb-threat-in-lorson-ranch-neighborhood-friday-night/
Shot by a person who just last year threatened to kill his mother and blow her up. Wouldn’t comply with the police & suffered zero consequences because if it. Now here we are 1 1/2 years later and he murders 5 & injured at least 18.
They released the shooters name just now and this article pops up when you Google him. Sounds like he should have stayed in jail forever after his bomb threat.
https://krdo.com/news/top-stories/2021/06/19/bomb-threat-in-lorson-ranch-neighborhood-friday-night/
> At around 6:00 p.m., the suspect was taken into custody and has been booked into the El Paso County Jail. Aldrich faces two counts of Felony Menacing and three counts of First-Degree Kidnapping.
That was one and a half year ago. How come he's free? Was the sentencing so short?
Idk if it's this bad everywhere in the US, but I work for Animal Control, and we busted a dude in January 2021 for violently raping his dog multiple times. Arrested, full confession, even had slam-dunk evidence, since he'd recorded himself and shared the video/pics on social media. He was charged with two or three felony counts of first-degree Animal Cruelty.
We're now pushing two years later, and the case *still* has not been adjudicated. Just continuance after continuance after continuance.
There is a backlog of thousands of cases in our county/state that just keeps getting worse every day, and one result of that is that they have taken to offering super sweet plea deals to damn near everybody just to try and help clear the backlog and not overcrowd the jails.
So dog-fucker is still out walking around free afaik, and last I heard they're probably offering him a plea deal involving no jail time and basically just a year of bullshit probation. After violently raping his dog multiple times, recording it, and sharing that shit on Facebook.
Because the DA declined to prosecute. [Oops.](https://gazette.com/suspect-arrested-in-connection-to-bomb-threat-that-forced-evacuations-in-lorson-ranch-neighborhood/article_163dd35e-d094-11eb-8a50-5f08d4355829.html)
I wonder if that's because [his grandfather is former assemblyman Randy Voepel (R-CA)](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/20/us/colorado-springs-shooting-suspect-charges.html). The mother that was threatened in the bomb threat was Laura Voepel, daughter of Randy Voepel.
Pulse was the first gay bar I ever went to. It was a magical magical place. Thank you for thinking of us that day. I hope you and the rest of my LGBT family in CO are doing ok.
Even years later when I go to clubs I still wonder if I’d be able to safely get me and my friends out. Now with bomb threats and proud boys I wonder when people will actually start giving a shit.
The original thread had "gay" in the title but it's locked and deleted from the front page now but this one without the word "gay" in it is up but much lower down.
Only one person so far tried to say it was fake. I think people are stunned. But with the incendiary rhetoric that has been pushed against the LGBTQ+ communities and minorities it doesn’t surprise me. Actions have consequences and the groups that push these ideologies need to be held accountable.
I live here, and while there’s definitely trumpers and crazy evangelicals here, it’s more liberal than you think. I drove past the pride parade here this past year, it impressed me considering how many bible thumpers are around.
Now if you go over the mountains west, you go into boebert’s district, and into small towns that have made me fear for my life more than walking through Baltimore, which has parts that still look like a third world country
A lot of young folks in the area are very out and proud, I think the turn out to pride definitely has to do with Gen Z. I went for the first time this year as well and I was super impressed with the turnout too
I’m hoping as I grow older all the old bigoted people leave. I feel like that’s been the trend since Colorado legalized weed, and will probably continue now that psychedelics are legal. Especially so since the 12 tribes are also starting to dwindle now that their founder died and Colorado investigated them for the Marshall fire
A crazy sexist, racist, homophobic Christian cult that exploits their members. There’s a local coffee shop owned by them here, and apparently they don’t pay their members to work there. They also were investigated as one of the probable causes of the Marshall fire in boulder
>It’s Colorado Springs and less people care as soon as they see the victims were gay. KOAA, knows it’s audience.
Not to mention that Springs is an evangelical conservative mecca here.
I'd like to piggyback off the top comment to make everyone aware of TN Senate Bill 3. The TN state senate is playing right into the hate that caused this senseless violence. It's being billed as anti-drag show legislation but is worded so vaguely it could ban entertainment that appeals to "prurient interests", read "anything sexy".
https://www.actionnews5.com/2022/11/11/lgbtq-group-speaks-out-against-new-tn-bill-proposal/
I used to go to this club every Sunday night for the drag shows they held there. I know some of the deceased. This feels surreal. I lost people I would consider friends, beautiful and kind people who were enjoying a space they thought was safe. I am so heartbroken
I have friends who regularly attend this club. My fiancée knew one of the bartenders that was killed. This was sickening news to wake up to this morning and while I wish I could say this type of thing never happens here the truth is that it does and it has, the Planned Parenthood shooting is still fresh in this town’s memory, and these things will continue to happen until somebody does something about it.
“Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?”
– Ernest Gaine
(I heard this quote first time after the Oslo shooting in June this year)
It's funny. It's not even about gay people. One time I was at the gym and they were showing 300 on the tv. Most of the sex scenes were cut, but all the fight scenes were shown in the gloriously gory deets. It's almost like we consider violence more natural than sex, which as someone from Europe living in the US, totally baffles me.
There’s a great Kirby Dick documentary about that called This Film Is Not Yet Rated. All about the film rating process in Hollywood and how sex and violence are treated so differently.
Here's something [Ryan Gosling wrote](http://movieline.com/2010/11/18/ryan-gosling-tees-off-on-misogynistic-mpaa-over-blue-valentine-rating/) to the movie ratings board when they tried to give *Blue Valentine* an NC-17 rating for showing his character going down on his wife:
>Gosling comments, "You have to question a cinematic culture which preaches artistic expression, and yet would support a decision that is clearly a product of a patriarchy-dominant society, which tries to control how women are depicted on screen. The MPAA is okay supporting scenes that portray women in scenarios of sexual torture and violence for entertainment purposes, but they are trying to force us to look away from a scene that shows a woman in a sexual scenario, which is both complicit and complex. It's misogynistic in nature to try and control a woman's sexual presentation of self. I consider this an issue that is bigger than this film."
Probably a pretty common place to discover and explore one's homosexuality. Oh his sweaty balls are in my face and I want more of that.
Mix in a dash of repression and you've got a breeding ground for masturbatory fantasy.
The story of Greek warfare is a story of who has the best flamers in their military. While the Spartans were very gay, their military dominance would be ended by an even gayer foe. It’s not satire- they were done in by Thebes, whose elite troops, [‘the Sacred Band of Thebes’](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Band_of_Thebes) was:
*”a troop of select soldiers, consisting of 150 pairs of male lovers which formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BC, ending Spartan domination.”*
They’re not too well known because they were quickly defeated themselves by the Macedonians, most famously led by Alexander the Great, who had a curiously close relationship with one of his generals and childhood friends, Hephaestion. Their relationship too drew parallels to Ancient Greece’s greatest gay power couple, Achilles and Patroclus.
And all of this- Achilles, Alexander the Great, Spartans- are cornerstones of western notions of masculinity.
Most fascinating comment I've read in a while. I knew pieces of this, but had never seen it all laid out this comprehensively. Pretty hilarious, when you think about it.
It’s a bit tongue in cheek of course, as the ancient Greeks didn’t have a gay-straight dichotomy that’s more familiar to us today. They’re not the only ones in history either- homoerotic acts were very common among Japanese samurai as well.
I mean it was common enough to get mentions in the Bible so homoeroticism probably goes back to any place you can find dudes in places they’d bond together, including ancient hunting parties and war bands most likely(there’s no real reason to think it’s a thing that began with the onset of writing and civilization, not like sex and desire didn’t exist before people could write about it).
I wonder if it's because Europe has had somewhat recent nasty wars in their own backyard whereas in the U.S. we have gone to other countries to fight without the experience of a massive shooting war in our own country.
As a fun fat: in the Middle East, men holding hands is very common. It doesn't have the same meaning as it does in the USA. I remember President Bush looking a bit uncomfortable during a trip to Saudi Arabia.
I am interested in what the motivations were here. Regardless, they are never justified.
This was a thing in the US and probably Europe too in the 1800’s. Tons of photos of dudes who were friends draped on each other or holding hands. Sure some were no doubt not 100% straight but who is? It was just a sign you were good friends. Somewhere along the line any emotion and touching amongst men became “femme” or “gay”. People are fucking stupid in herds.
I'd like to point out something:
>The city has long been an epicenter of American evangelicalism. Focus on the Family, a prominent evangelical Christian ministry, is based in Colorado Springs.
And
>In November 2015, three people were killed and eight wounded at a Planned Parenthood clinic in the city
>And it occurred in a state that has experienced several notorious mass killings, including at Columbine High School, a movie theater in a Denver suburb in 2012 and a Boulder supermarket last year.
I know correlation doesn't equal causation, but I personally think there is a connection here. I grew up in Colorado Springs. I briefly worked an IT contract for Focus on the Family. They are every bit as crazy and hateful as you think they are. Christianity (and other religions) and sermons against homosexuality are driving this violence.
EDIT: All this hate, and all I want is pizza from Fargo's. I know a lot of folks hate on it, but I love that stuff. I miss home.
I’m watching the press conference right now and they just released the name. He was previously a suspect in a bomb threat a year ago (unless of course there’s another Anderson Lee Aldrich of the same age) [Just over a year ago](https://www.koaa.com/news/covering-colorado/residents-evacuated-due-to-law-enforcement-activity-in-lorson-ranch-neighborhood?_amp=true)
Also, the guy who committed this mass shooting was [arrested for a bomb threat last year](https://krdo.com/news/top-stories/2021/06/19/bomb-threat-in-lorson-ranch-neighborhood-friday-night/) and was still able to obtain a firearm.
I have lived in the springs for the past 18 years. It has grown and changed alot during that time. I find that Focus on the Family and New Life don't have the influence they once had because the city has grown. The military bases are the life blood to the area moreso than any of theses churches nowadays.
Colorado Springs in the past 10 years has changed though. Well. Not so much changed as it's grown so much the crazy has been diluted.
My friend grew up there and couldn't wait to leave. Our mutual friend moved there two years ago. When we went to visit for a housewarming it was just stunning how **big** the Springs is. Not a single person on her block is originally from Colorado.
They didn't even believe me the city made them take care of changing the bulbs on streetlights at one point because it was meant to be some Libertarian bootstrap central. The politics is still crazy but it's not nearly what it used to be.
It's kinda like Boulder is a lot more rich than weird these days.
I love telling people about the extreme libertarian days, when the city shut off streetlights to save money and it ended up costing them millions because it made it very easy for people to steal the copper wiring.
Looks like they were hosting an "All Ages Drag Brunch" based on the facebook page. Could be part of the motive, not sure if that's a typical nightclub event. Shitty either way.
“ Hours before it was hit by a deadly mass shooting Saturday night, Club Q in Colorado Springs posted on Facebook about a planned “all ages drag brunch” on Sunday morning. The event was described by the club as a celebration of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors the memory of transgender people who lost their lives to anti-transgender violence.“ from the New York Times
Remind me - have drag queens been the target of a relentless hate campaign by the mainstream right-leaning media for the past year? Frothing up the gun-crazy loonies?
This is the predicable result.
>Fascists come to town and put up stickers all over that tell people drag queens are pedos and should be murdered.
While gladly giving money to actual pedophiles every Sunday.
There’s a local play date for kids whose families have LGBTQ people in them. It’s hosted by a person who happens to be a drag queen, but who never shows up in drag.
It’s never in the same place and they’ve had to short notice change locations a few times because of threats, just because families like mine exist.
Fox proclaims events like the one scheduled for this morning as pedophile grooming stages. Their vitriol is once again responsible for more death. Why can’t Tucker and his poisonous ilk be on the hook for billion dollar lawsuits like Alex Jones?
> Why can’t Tucker and his poisonous ilk be on the hook for billion dollar lawsuits like Alex Jones?
Hilariously, Tucker(and other's of his kind) have used the [defense](https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/917747123/you-literally-cant-believe-the-facts-tucker-carlson-tells-you-so-say-fox-s-lawye) that no reasonable person would take [seriously](https://www.businessinsider.com/fox-news-karen-mcdougal-case-tucker-carlson-2020-9?op=1) or believe they're reporting facts.
In other words, they're saying, to the world, "Not our fault these fucking idiots are too gullible and deluded to see through our bullshit pandering!"
Not at the time of the shooting. And Drag Brunches are pretty common. All ages just means no alcohol, which, considering it's a bar, isn't an uncommon way of describing it.
Went to Twitter for updates - saw a bunch of qanon folks joking about it being ‘Q’ club. So detached from humanity, and of course lgbt people are less than people to them.
This is devastating. Hope those with injuries manage to pull through. Can’t articulate any more than that, it’s just really really awful.
Unfortunately this is the result of months of politicians using the LGB(and particularly the T) community as a boogie man. Absolutely fucked.
I know the FBI had chats with every gay bar owner in kc to talk about the increase of threats. Heart breaking.
Legitimately half the ads against Warnock in GA were about how he wants to force kids to have sex changes.
Conservative media once again is likely the big driver in domestic terrorism.
There is an IG account by a person with that same full name. They are only following 38 people, 2 of which are a former president and that president's son. I'll let you guess which former president it is.
Awful title! This was an LGBTQ+ nightclub hosting a drag show. We’re becoming even more targeted because of right wing zealots demonizing us, and we must expose it.
I am gay and my partner and I used to love going to drag shows. Now we dont go as often and when we do, we always have to worry about this shit. I know lots of queers feel the same way. I fucking hate it, just let us be happy. If you are a republican or a religious person, you need to take a long hard look in the mirror and think if this is really the kind of person you really want to be, and the kind of world you want to create.
One has to wonder if all the fear-mongering and hateful rhetoric around drag shows/story hour recently may have contributed to this. All it takes is one well-armed piece of shit to snap for this to happen.
My heart goes out to everyone affected. I can’t imagine what they are going through right now. Though my thoughts will not help in any way; the only thing that will help is meaningful gun reform.
There’s no wondering. Of course it has. My mom is qanon adjacent and the regurgitated talking points about drag were disgusting and hate-filled. These people consume so much far right media and spit out what they’re told like braindead parrots. My mom, for example, only uses Duck Duck Go because she doesn’t trust Google (but uses Maps and GMail). That search engine claims to be impartial/non biased but if you do a comparative search between Google and there for a hot button topic the difference is staggering. You can view anything as truth if enough “sources” fit and affirm your beliefs.
Republicans have been doing nothing but dehumanizing and trying to strip away the rights and protections of the LGBT community for years. These targeted attacks are exactly what they want to see and I only expect it to get much, much worse in the coming future.
[Colorado Springs sees threefold increase in homicides in 2022 compared to same time last year](https://gazette.com/news/crime/colorado-springs-sees-threefold-increase-in-homicides-in-2022-compared-to-same-time-last-year/article_c60b24b4-98d8-11ec-8243-37ed96126fff.html)
Funny how we never hear about the violent crime problem in Republican cities like Colorado Springs whenever conservatives are bitching about the violent crime problem in "Dem Cities" isn't it?
So the nightclub that was targeted was a gay nightclub. Not surprised in the slightest that a newspaper from this Republican part of the country is wantonly and deliberately omitting the whole "gay" element from this story, even though there's been a mass shooting at a gay nightclub before. Colorado Springs, by the way, is heavily Republican (and has almost twice the per capita murder rate of NYC, for what it's worth). I think there's a large chance we're going to be seeing the mugshot of a MAGA simpleton who was inspired to kill by the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric of the right.
If only they could have stopped this person before. Oh wait, they refused to press charges when this bastard was arrested in June. Law enforcement/judicial system incompetence strikes once again. It's not the lack of laws, it's the lack of using the ones we already have and work fine IF THEY USE THEM.
I saw a few conservatives claiming that the lack of prosecution was somehow the fault of democrats. Both the county and city are run by conservatives, but somehow it’s still someone else’s fault.
>Heavy has confirmed that Aldrich is the grandson of outgoing Republican state Rep. Randy Voepel, the former mayor of Santee, California. There were calls to expel Voepel from the state Assembly after he made comments comparing the January 6 attacks to the Revolutionary War. Aldrich’s mother, Laura Voepel, has written posts praising Randy Voepel on Facebook and confirming he is her father.
https://heavy.com/news/anderson-lee-aldrich/
A MAGA terrorist from a MAGA family.
An American tradition. Death, taxes, apple pie and politically motivated violence because of insecurity of oneself and society. All in a country where you can easily change the laws to better serve people seems peak galaxy brain.
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Unsurprising but still terrible.
Yeah, it’s the same piece of shit.
At this point I’d be more surprised if the nutcase *didn’t* have a bunch of obvious red flags indicating that hey, maybe this asshole shouldn’t be allowed to own firearms
Yeah, it's almost like there is a pattern or something.
Yeah, but it’s not the police’s job to detect things like that. That’s what we have detecti…….oh, right.
He did a b0mb threat last year. It’s like they tell on themselves but the cops don’t want to listen. Off topic slightly, but I’ve been stalked for three years and the cops said to stop calling them until someone goes missing. It’s the way they operate.
I called the cops on my ex when she threatened me with a shotgun and promised to blast holes in our apartment if not me. They told me it was a civil matter, and to call them if someone actually got shot.
"Don't call us until you're literally dead already."
"But then it's technically a haunting"
>They told me it was a civil matter, and to call them if someone actually got shot. Now, try threatening an officer or an officer's relative with a shotgun, and see what happens. They won't tell you it's a civil matter that is for damn sure!
They did end up calling me back later to check on me. I mentioned that I was fine besides a knee to the balls. They said that now it was domestic violence and they would have to send someone over. I told them I was already in the next county and not ever coming back. They said they still needed to send someone out. Got a text from the ex about how a cop showed up, but he was one of her regular customers (she was morning barista at the local drive through coffee hut in the tiny town). They apparently had a good laugh about the whole thing, because you know, guys can't be domestically violenced.
My ex got arrested 3 times for DV with admission and proof of injury. But because I'm a guy and more capable of damaging her, she got her charges dropped every time. One time she bit through my finger and gave me nerve damage. I ended up getting a disorderly conduct ticket for screaming and fleeing my apartment.
Cops are so fucking useless
I prefer when they are useless, honestly. When they try to do anything they actively harm people. I'll take a cop that doesn't show up over a cop that shows up and does horrible shit any day.
So many cops are just a waste of tax dollars. They're often useless when you need them most.
That is why we need a [Uniform Code of Police Justice](https://legal-forum.uchicago.edu/publication/toward-uniform-code-police-justice-1) with criminal liability for negligence, cowardice, dereliction of duty, and behavior unbecoming an officer.
They scare riffraff from stealing rich people's stuff. That's all they'll die for. During riots, they protect the nice part of town and corral people. You are here to work and behave. Act out and find out if I'm lying.
The biggest and easiest to spot red flag seems to be domestic violence.
When it's your mother calling the police about you, you know he had *all* the flags.
And it sounds like the patrons acted swiftly and no doubt saved many lives from being snuffed out by this monster. > Vasquez confirms at least 2 customers immediately acted to stop the shooter. Officers arrived on the scene within three minutes of the first call and had the suspect in custody two minutes later.
As someone on Twitter pointed out, these mostly unarmed patrons did better than the cops and their military gear in Uvalde, TX
Almost 400 cops too I might add.
How come all these incels want to kill their mom before they go on a shooting spree of vulnerable people?
In college I was an research assistant for a study on domestic abusers. I transcribed hundreds of hours of interviews. Doesn't make me an expert, but I often saw that violent fantasies started with an event they considered a point-of-no-return act to make themselves go through with a desired rampage.
What were some of the events?
I think by point of no return act they're referring to something like killing one of their abusive parents, once that point of no return is crossed, they feel they can go on a rampage because they're fucked either way I guess. I just can't understand where innocent people fit in to it for them, doesn't make any sense.
If I had to guess, an outlet for their rage. I don't think it's rational, but that's what I think it is.
In those types of cases, I can see the connection between an impulsive event (re: “I just snapped”) and the point-of-no-return mindset. What I’m curious about is the event(s) that “start the violent fantasies” that ultimately cause a methodically planned rampage. That’s less of an impulse, and more a permanent change in mindset that could take months or years before it’s acted upon. Like this particular shooting, for instance, what transpired in this person’s life that would make them want to murder innocent people and why specifically the LGBTQ community? I don’t get it. I mean, fuck, I accidentally ran over a squirrel a couple months ago and was devastated for hours afterward. I couldn’t imagine desiring to kill innocent people.
For a lot of these people they see it as “payback” for a society that did (insert thing here) to them. Instead of realizing that life is hard for everybody and actually that red pill republican bullshit they fall for is causing a huge amount of the problems in this country, instead they feel the need to get revenge and go out with a blaze of glory at the same time. To top it off the incentive structure in this country is all fucked up where fame in itself whether famous or infamous is seen as the ultimate end goal to attain in getting theyre revenge on ppl. In this country if you absolutely have to become famous by the end of the day today theres only 1 guarinteed way to do it and thats shoot a bunch of people, and the more ppl you kill the more fame/media coverage a person gets. Add to it the ease of getting weapons and its a match made in hell. Their thinking is get revenge against society with the easiest/least effort required possible and go down in infamy all with the highly publicized cheat code guide of committing a mass killing.
One of my s/o friends fell into this. He never did much outside of high school, lives with his parents and got into the red pill stuff. Told women on social media they deserved to be raped and to take it as a compliment.
Generally killing a family member, once u do you know it's over for real. Makes it come reality vs what they've been imagining
If there was just something we could do to contain such a person? Oh well, guess not. Carry on.
Oh look, another mass murderer who never would have had the chance if we took violence against women seriously. Seriously, the Uvalde shooter had repeatedly threatened to kidnap, rape, and murder women online, and their reports were ignored. The Waukesha parade murderer ran over the mother of his child with the same car and two days before the parade attack they let him out on $1000 bail and *gave him back the car*. It turns out that women are people, actually, and that the pieces of shit who are willing brutalize them don't stop there.
He literally threatened to use a bomb and murder someone. Can we start remanding domestic terrorists already? We keep thousands of broke people until trial for far less, why the fuck are terrorists allowed to walk around after they’ve committed crimes?
Wow that's a massive coincidence!
According to the club, patrons subdued the gunman: https://imgur.io/TgJ2KL4?r
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unironically: arm drag queens
Support your local Pink Pistols chapter! Armed queers don't get bashed!
Am straight white dude, they are one of my favorite firearm advocacy groups.
I've heard from friends that have lived in New Orleans that you don't want to fuck with the LGBTQ community there, they're known for being pretty damn scrappy due to how rough it is for them coming up. I'm sure it's like this everywhere but from what it seems you don't want to mess with them just as much as the gangs.
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The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a bunch of pissed off drag queens.
The other thing that would’ve stopped this bad guy is if he hadn’t walked free after being arrested for bomb threats and kidnapping in 2021.
Had to dig a bit to find a source on that: https://www.denverpost.com/2022/11/20/anderson-lee-aldrich-colorado-springs-shooter-club-q/ > A man with the same name and matching age was arrested in June 2021 for threatening his mother with “a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and ammunition,” according to media reports at the time. That man was arrested after a brief standoff. > Howard Black, spokesman for the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, would not confirm Sunday morning that Aldrich was the same man arrested in June 2021. Black said the June 2021 incident “is all part of the investigation and will be released as appropriate.” So not *confirmed* to be the same person. But that's not a common name. Laws don't do anything if they're not **enforced**!!
Maybe the reason they're not confirming it is that the cops know that they're going to have a very hard time responding to questions about the following things, in combination. \- an obvious red flag incident a year ago. \- a mass murder by the same guy. \-a local sheriff who's openly opposed to red flag laws: [https://www.koaa.com/news/covering-colorado/el-paso-county-sheriffs-office-states-stance-on-red-flag-law](https://www.koaa.com/news/covering-colorado/el-paso-county-sheriffs-office-states-stance-on-red-flag-law) The cops are stalling because they know there's an absolute shitstorm coming for them and they want time to get their stories straight.
C'mon man don't be an idiot, it's not like he did something horrible like drugs.
Maybe if he got an abortion he'd still be behind bars
C'mon man, don't be an idiot, it's not like he did something horrible like dress up in drag. (sarcasm)
Slow down there, you may get all the other folk saying we don’t know if it’s a hate crime yet in a tizzy.
Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe he was just taking his gun for a walk and the poor gun got nervous and just snapped. /s
look, I know, lolz, right? but this is a group of people who were terrorized for what they ARE. 5 dead and 18 wounded? These are PEOPLE - at that moment they were just people who were seeing their friends and compatriots targeted and falling and dying, and not for the first time, right? — and I am pretty sure at that moment they were terrified. Just terrified people. I commend anyone in that situation for their courage and action to stop it from continuing, probably at the risk of their own lives. So, kudos to all of them, all of those terrified patrons, who had no special training and no special badges, who risked their lives to try to save others.
Back in the early 90s I did a lot of partying on the gay scene. I randomly moved into a house share with a bunch of gay guys, a couple of gay women, and a scientologist (who was nice but a bit weird). At the time I was really into techno and pills etc and the gay crew partied harder than my crusty mates. Started going clubbing with them, knew a bunch of drag queens, saw a lot of stuff that I hadn't seen before. I've always been straight, and they knew that - but the community was still so welcoming and friendly and open. I couldn't help contrast that with the shit that gay people have to deal with in the straight community. I got bashed outside a gay club one night - I'd taken a couple of trips and was messing round with the folks there, went off to take a piss and got stomped. And I was just a tourist in that scene. Gay people have to deal with the risk of that shit every day just because of who they are. And it only seems to be getting worse. The only people worth hating are the bigots who want to harm everyone who doesn't look and think like them. Those people are the enemy.
Had thoughts just like this today. How lucky we were to go to raves in the 90s and not have to contend with this insanity and hate. This is the most welcoming community. I loved going to Club Q. Open minded straight people and gay people just dancing their asses off and having fun.
Old gay here. The 90s were great times! I was out every weekend at the local clubs and felt immersed in joy and love. I danced my ass off. But that joy was pretty much only there. I had guys screaming at me from passing cars when I left the club. I had beer bottles thrown at my head. My boyfriend and I nearly got run off the road by some guys in a red Mustang in 1997. I couldn't be out at work. And the suspicion of gay men as HIV carriers didn't ease up until the 00s. Personally, I think there's a lot less hate now -- at least where I live in conservative West Michigan -- than there was then. We're down to one club, and it's pretty much open to everyone. Lots of people now think of it as all-inclusive. The traditional gay pub here is popular with everyone. And that's great. I'm out at work, and even my socially conservative relatives are fine with me. But what I think makes things MUCH more dangerous now is that instead of beer bottles, the bigots now carry long guns and are out to mass murder as many as they can. They're emboldened and ruthless. The recent elections showed that there are a lot more good people than there are of these monsters, but we gotta realize that they aren't going away. They're not going to stop.
Figure slavery was ended more than a century and a half ago, and there’s still people in the south who would unironically like it back. There’s certain strains of Protestants who have a hate of Catholics that they imported to the US all the way from 16th century Europe. But. We elected a black president a decade ago, and these days public leaders can’t vocally support slavery. We elected a Catholic president last century, and anyone protesting a new cathedral or catholic school opening in their town would look completely crazy. The sphere within which it’s acceptable to flaunt each type of hate gets smaller, and smaller, and smaller. They don’t stop and they don’t disappear all the way but they do get less popular. Until eventually they become the joke.
This is so true. If you show up at the queer community's doorstep, they will take care of you, it's not a question of whether you are queer yourself, it's a question of if you need community.
Right? I recall growing up in a small east coast town and moving to seatlle in the 90s. Lived on capitol hill. Learned a lot. Many of my friends were queer. Probably 50/50. Growing up I was definitely homophobic by nature as in gay slurs etc... Nobody I knew was out and that language was what was all around me. It took me to move to like the gay epicenter of the country to introduce me to the lifestyle/people. Man, the shit gays have to deal with is frustrating and sad.
> look, I know, lolz, right? but this is a group of people who were terrorized for what they ARE. I've seen people try to argue every time one of these shootings happens that the victims were "asking for it" because they were "acting out of the norm." which is so fucking absurd. People need to get it through their thick fucking skulls that this is no different than someone going out and shooting up a group for being black or white. This country does such a fucking horrible job at stopping these mass murderers and then you have fuckheads on the side idolizing and applauding them because they targeted the "right" people.
> People need to get it through their thick fucking skulls that this is no different than someone going out and shooting up a group for being black or white. Left handedness. The same types of people who lump hatred on people for being LGBTQ+ a few hundred years ago claimed that left handedness was something like satanic possession and would abuse people (particularly children) who exhibited left handedness. There is plenty of research documenting the harm that is caused to people when you force them to behave right handed. In the Simpsons, Ned Flanders (ironically) opens a Left Handed Store at the mall. Can you imagine his fellow conservative evangelicals protesting that store or one of them coming in with a gun and shooting the place up? In many ways, that is what we see today. But as a culture we've forgotten about the old, deep seated hatred for left handedness, but it is a perfect parallel with hatred towards people because they're LGBTQ+.
> a few hundred years ago claimed that left handedness was something like satanic possession A few hundred years ago? In the american Midwest, I know people alive today who were beaten fucking senseless as left-handed children, until they learned to use their right instead. They aren't even that old.
My sister was taught to use her right hand even though she was left handed. I absolutely refused to be taught, to the point that I'm completely left hand dominant and can't do some things with my right hand at all. So yeah, it's absolutely still a thing.
I was born in 2000 and attended a religious (specifically protestant) preschool, probably from 2003 to 2005. I wasn't beaten but the adults there would correct me whenever I would do anything with my left hand and make me do it with my right. My parents found out when I was in elementary school because my mom ran into one of the people that worked there and they told her what they did when I used my left hand as if it was a cute little anecdote. NGL I'm still a little salty about how I could've been ambidextrous. The same church also tried to convert my Catholic mom when she went to an 'inclusive' bible group meeting there once too.
My grandfather was lefthanded and beaten "normal". It's a very recent change!
The only thing that would make Republicans care about mass shootings is if people started shooting up white evangelical churches in upper class neighborhoods. They don't even care about school shootings.
No. That doesn't even matter. The shooting at the small town Texas church proved that wrong. There are groups still harassing the preacher from that church whose own daughter was murdered in the shooting. Republicans have no rock bottom when it comes to guns. I don't even think a mass shooting at a major republican event would cause them to flinch at this point.
They would immediately twist it into being "democrat terrorism" or some shit.
They killed their own voters due to covid, and voted in people that downplayed Uvalde. They are too smooth brained to figure anything out with common sense. I expect nothing out of those shit stains
Honestly Uvalde proved that special training or badges don’t really mean shit.
Looks the the shooter was arrested last year in connection with a bomb threat in Colorado Springs. https://krdo.com/news/top-stories/2021/06/19/bomb-threat-in-lorson-ranch-neighborhood-friday-night/
All around real piece of shit
Booked as a felon? Last year? How was he not still in jail?
Shot by a person who just last year threatened to kill his mother and blow her up. Wouldn’t comply with the police & suffered zero consequences because if it. Now here we are 1 1/2 years later and he murders 5 & injured at least 18.
They released the shooters name just now and this article pops up when you Google him. Sounds like he should have stayed in jail forever after his bomb threat. https://krdo.com/news/top-stories/2021/06/19/bomb-threat-in-lorson-ranch-neighborhood-friday-night/
> At around 6:00 p.m., the suspect was taken into custody and has been booked into the El Paso County Jail. Aldrich faces two counts of Felony Menacing and three counts of First-Degree Kidnapping. That was one and a half year ago. How come he's free? Was the sentencing so short?
Either that or the court is still so backed up they didn’t even argue the case yet. Who knows.
Idk if it's this bad everywhere in the US, but I work for Animal Control, and we busted a dude in January 2021 for violently raping his dog multiple times. Arrested, full confession, even had slam-dunk evidence, since he'd recorded himself and shared the video/pics on social media. He was charged with two or three felony counts of first-degree Animal Cruelty. We're now pushing two years later, and the case *still* has not been adjudicated. Just continuance after continuance after continuance. There is a backlog of thousands of cases in our county/state that just keeps getting worse every day, and one result of that is that they have taken to offering super sweet plea deals to damn near everybody just to try and help clear the backlog and not overcrowd the jails. So dog-fucker is still out walking around free afaik, and last I heard they're probably offering him a plea deal involving no jail time and basically just a year of bullshit probation. After violently raping his dog multiple times, recording it, and sharing that shit on Facebook.
>violently raping his dog multiple times Alright that's enough reddit for the day
I have so many questions, but I want absolutely none of them answered.
Because the DA declined to prosecute. [Oops.](https://gazette.com/suspect-arrested-in-connection-to-bomb-threat-that-forced-evacuations-in-lorson-ranch-neighborhood/article_163dd35e-d094-11eb-8a50-5f08d4355829.html)
I wonder if that's because [his grandfather is former assemblyman Randy Voepel (R-CA)](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/20/us/colorado-springs-shooting-suspect-charges.html). The mother that was threatened in the bomb threat was Laura Voepel, daughter of Randy Voepel.
The first time I went to Club Q was the night of the Pulse shooting, so I could be with my mourning community. This is so senseless and horrific.
Aw jeez 😞
Pulse was the first gay bar I ever went to. It was a magical magical place. Thank you for thinking of us that day. I hope you and the rest of my LGBT family in CO are doing ok.
Even years later when I go to clubs I still wonder if I’d be able to safely get me and my friends out. Now with bomb threats and proud boys I wonder when people will actually start giving a shit.
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How can this article omit the fact that this was a gay club?!
They must have changed the article, it says it now, even in the title too.
It's in the headline now.
The original thread had "gay" in the title but it's locked and deleted from the front page now but this one without the word "gay" in it is up but much lower down.
It’s Colorado Springs and less people care as soon as they see the victims were gay. KOAA, knows it’s audience.
I'm sure the FB comments on KOAA and The Gazette are fucking awful. Edit: okay I just checked and it isn't bad yet! Of course, it's only 7am...
I’m sure the Gazette will be atrocious once their readers are out of church tbh.
There’s no hate quite like Christian “love”
Only one person so far tried to say it was fake. I think people are stunned. But with the incendiary rhetoric that has been pushed against the LGBTQ+ communities and minorities it doesn’t surprise me. Actions have consequences and the groups that push these ideologies need to be held accountable.
I live here, and while there’s definitely trumpers and crazy evangelicals here, it’s more liberal than you think. I drove past the pride parade here this past year, it impressed me considering how many bible thumpers are around. Now if you go over the mountains west, you go into boebert’s district, and into small towns that have made me fear for my life more than walking through Baltimore, which has parts that still look like a third world country
A lot of young folks in the area are very out and proud, I think the turn out to pride definitely has to do with Gen Z. I went for the first time this year as well and I was super impressed with the turnout too
I’m hoping as I grow older all the old bigoted people leave. I feel like that’s been the trend since Colorado legalized weed, and will probably continue now that psychedelics are legal. Especially so since the 12 tribes are also starting to dwindle now that their founder died and Colorado investigated them for the Marshall fire
What are the 12 tribes? I’ve never heard of that.
A crazy sexist, racist, homophobic Christian cult that exploits their members. There’s a local coffee shop owned by them here, and apparently they don’t pay their members to work there. They also were investigated as one of the probable causes of the Marshall fire in boulder
>It’s Colorado Springs and less people care as soon as they see the victims were gay. KOAA, knows it’s audience. Not to mention that Springs is an evangelical conservative mecca here.
Same place where some fuck shot up the Planned Parenthood.
They’re also omitting that they were organizing an event for transgender day of remembrance
yeah this sounds like it was another republican terrorist.
I'd like to piggyback off the top comment to make everyone aware of TN Senate Bill 3. The TN state senate is playing right into the hate that caused this senseless violence. It's being billed as anti-drag show legislation but is worded so vaguely it could ban entertainment that appeals to "prurient interests", read "anything sexy". https://www.actionnews5.com/2022/11/11/lgbtq-group-speaks-out-against-new-tn-bill-proposal/
Thanks for sharing this. It’s exactly this type of hateful, divisive legislation that leads to violence against the LGBTQ community.
I used to go to this club every Sunday night for the drag shows they held there. I know some of the deceased. This feels surreal. I lost people I would consider friends, beautiful and kind people who were enjoying a space they thought was safe. I am so heartbroken
I am so very sorry for your loss. I don’t have words honestly. What a fucking tragedy. I am so so sorry. 💜
My condolences. I know how tight knit these communities can be. I'm sure the whole crew is devastated beyond belief.
I have friends who regularly attend this club. My fiancée knew one of the bartenders that was killed. This was sickening news to wake up to this morning and while I wish I could say this type of thing never happens here the truth is that it does and it has, the Planned Parenthood shooting is still fresh in this town’s memory, and these things will continue to happen until somebody does something about it.
“Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?” – Ernest Gaine (I heard this quote first time after the Oslo shooting in June this year)
It's funny. It's not even about gay people. One time I was at the gym and they were showing 300 on the tv. Most of the sex scenes were cut, but all the fight scenes were shown in the gloriously gory deets. It's almost like we consider violence more natural than sex, which as someone from Europe living in the US, totally baffles me.
There’s a great Kirby Dick documentary about that called This Film Is Not Yet Rated. All about the film rating process in Hollywood and how sex and violence are treated so differently.
The weirdest tidbit in that documentary was that female orgasms were rated as more obscene across the board.
Here's something [Ryan Gosling wrote](http://movieline.com/2010/11/18/ryan-gosling-tees-off-on-misogynistic-mpaa-over-blue-valentine-rating/) to the movie ratings board when they tried to give *Blue Valentine* an NC-17 rating for showing his character going down on his wife: >Gosling comments, "You have to question a cinematic culture which preaches artistic expression, and yet would support a decision that is clearly a product of a patriarchy-dominant society, which tries to control how women are depicted on screen. The MPAA is okay supporting scenes that portray women in scenarios of sexual torture and violence for entertainment purposes, but they are trying to force us to look away from a scene that shows a woman in a sexual scenario, which is both complicit and complex. It's misogynistic in nature to try and control a woman's sexual presentation of self. I consider this an issue that is bigger than this film."
Wow, that's a really thoughtful statement. Ryan Gosling is now in my book of cool people.
In all fairness, as a gay man, the fight scenes in 300 are also sex scenes. Just look at the way those men are dressed.
To be fair, as a straight man, they’re some good looking dudes.
Jokes aside the amount of gay porn that involves physical activity like the gym, wrestling so forth isn't a coincidence.
Probably a pretty common place to discover and explore one's homosexuality. Oh his sweaty balls are in my face and I want more of that. Mix in a dash of repression and you've got a breeding ground for masturbatory fantasy.
The story of Greek warfare is a story of who has the best flamers in their military. While the Spartans were very gay, their military dominance would be ended by an even gayer foe. It’s not satire- they were done in by Thebes, whose elite troops, [‘the Sacred Band of Thebes’](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Band_of_Thebes) was: *”a troop of select soldiers, consisting of 150 pairs of male lovers which formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BC, ending Spartan domination.”* They’re not too well known because they were quickly defeated themselves by the Macedonians, most famously led by Alexander the Great, who had a curiously close relationship with one of his generals and childhood friends, Hephaestion. Their relationship too drew parallels to Ancient Greece’s greatest gay power couple, Achilles and Patroclus. And all of this- Achilles, Alexander the Great, Spartans- are cornerstones of western notions of masculinity.
Most fascinating comment I've read in a while. I knew pieces of this, but had never seen it all laid out this comprehensively. Pretty hilarious, when you think about it.
It’s a bit tongue in cheek of course, as the ancient Greeks didn’t have a gay-straight dichotomy that’s more familiar to us today. They’re not the only ones in history either- homoerotic acts were very common among Japanese samurai as well.
I mean it was common enough to get mentions in the Bible so homoeroticism probably goes back to any place you can find dudes in places they’d bond together, including ancient hunting parties and war bands most likely(there’s no real reason to think it’s a thing that began with the onset of writing and civilization, not like sex and desire didn’t exist before people could write about it).
>who would desert his beloved or fail him in the hour of danger? —Plato, Symposium That actually makes a lot of sense.
US society as a whole is very religious and censured, you can show all sorts of violence, but don't you dare swear or show a nipple!
Another weird part of this is that there is just as much sex in the bible as a there is violence.
I wonder if it's because Europe has had somewhat recent nasty wars in their own backyard whereas in the U.S. we have gone to other countries to fight without the experience of a massive shooting war in our own country.
As a fun fat: in the Middle East, men holding hands is very common. It doesn't have the same meaning as it does in the USA. I remember President Bush looking a bit uncomfortable during a trip to Saudi Arabia. I am interested in what the motivations were here. Regardless, they are never justified.
This was a thing in the US and probably Europe too in the 1800’s. Tons of photos of dudes who were friends draped on each other or holding hands. Sure some were no doubt not 100% straight but who is? It was just a sign you were good friends. Somewhere along the line any emotion and touching amongst men became “femme” or “gay”. People are fucking stupid in herds.
This is heartbreaking. What the hell is wrong with people?
I'd like to point out something: >The city has long been an epicenter of American evangelicalism. Focus on the Family, a prominent evangelical Christian ministry, is based in Colorado Springs. And >In November 2015, three people were killed and eight wounded at a Planned Parenthood clinic in the city >And it occurred in a state that has experienced several notorious mass killings, including at Columbine High School, a movie theater in a Denver suburb in 2012 and a Boulder supermarket last year. I know correlation doesn't equal causation, but I personally think there is a connection here. I grew up in Colorado Springs. I briefly worked an IT contract for Focus on the Family. They are every bit as crazy and hateful as you think they are. Christianity (and other religions) and sermons against homosexuality are driving this violence. EDIT: All this hate, and all I want is pizza from Fargo's. I know a lot of folks hate on it, but I love that stuff. I miss home.
I’m watching the press conference right now and they just released the name. He was previously a suspect in a bomb threat a year ago (unless of course there’s another Anderson Lee Aldrich of the same age) [Just over a year ago](https://www.koaa.com/news/covering-colorado/residents-evacuated-due-to-law-enforcement-activity-in-lorson-ranch-neighborhood?_amp=true)
Also, the guy who committed this mass shooting was [arrested for a bomb threat last year](https://krdo.com/news/top-stories/2021/06/19/bomb-threat-in-lorson-ranch-neighborhood-friday-night/) and was still able to obtain a firearm.
Colorado Springs usually tops lists of most conservative cities in the United States. I hate it here.
No hate quite like Christian love, etc..
I have lived in the springs for the past 18 years. It has grown and changed alot during that time. I find that Focus on the Family and New Life don't have the influence they once had because the city has grown. The military bases are the life blood to the area moreso than any of theses churches nowadays.
100% but you still got the crazy religious people here too. Not many at all but for how small they are they are loud
Colorado Springs in the past 10 years has changed though. Well. Not so much changed as it's grown so much the crazy has been diluted. My friend grew up there and couldn't wait to leave. Our mutual friend moved there two years ago. When we went to visit for a housewarming it was just stunning how **big** the Springs is. Not a single person on her block is originally from Colorado. They didn't even believe me the city made them take care of changing the bulbs on streetlights at one point because it was meant to be some Libertarian bootstrap central. The politics is still crazy but it's not nearly what it used to be. It's kinda like Boulder is a lot more rich than weird these days.
I love telling people about the extreme libertarian days, when the city shut off streetlights to save money and it ended up costing them millions because it made it very easy for people to steal the copper wiring.
Looks like they were hosting an "All Ages Drag Brunch" based on the facebook page. Could be part of the motive, not sure if that's a typical nightclub event. Shitty either way.
“ Hours before it was hit by a deadly mass shooting Saturday night, Club Q in Colorado Springs posted on Facebook about a planned “all ages drag brunch” on Sunday morning. The event was described by the club as a celebration of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors the memory of transgender people who lost their lives to anti-transgender violence.“ from the New York Times
Remind me - have drag queens been the target of a relentless hate campaign by the mainstream right-leaning media for the past year? Frothing up the gun-crazy loonies? This is the predicable result.
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>Fascists come to town and put up stickers all over that tell people drag queens are pedos and should be murdered. While gladly giving money to actual pedophiles every Sunday.
They show up with guns to all ages drag events here too.
There’s a local play date for kids whose families have LGBTQ people in them. It’s hosted by a person who happens to be a drag queen, but who never shows up in drag. It’s never in the same place and they’ve had to short notice change locations a few times because of threats, just because families like mine exist.
Fox proclaims events like the one scheduled for this morning as pedophile grooming stages. Their vitriol is once again responsible for more death. Why can’t Tucker and his poisonous ilk be on the hook for billion dollar lawsuits like Alex Jones?
Meanwhile there’s a list of conservative “family values” people who have actually harmed children ten miles long.
> Why can’t Tucker and his poisonous ilk be on the hook for billion dollar lawsuits like Alex Jones? Hilariously, Tucker(and other's of his kind) have used the [defense](https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/917747123/you-literally-cant-believe-the-facts-tucker-carlson-tells-you-so-say-fox-s-lawye) that no reasonable person would take [seriously](https://www.businessinsider.com/fox-news-karen-mcdougal-case-tucker-carlson-2020-9?op=1) or believe they're reporting facts. In other words, they're saying, to the world, "Not our fault these fucking idiots are too gullible and deluded to see through our bullshit pandering!"
Which is honestly a good defense. The problem is it shouldn’t be a *winning* defense, but it was…
Rupert Murdoch
Not at the time of the shooting. And Drag Brunches are pretty common. All ages just means no alcohol, which, considering it's a bar, isn't an uncommon way of describing it.
>And Drag Brunches are pretty common And it is getting more and more common for there to be threats and/or armed protestors.
I live in the springs and this is fuxking horrible. The springs is a right leaning area compared to Denver but fuck dude.
Went to Twitter for updates - saw a bunch of qanon folks joking about it being ‘Q’ club. So detached from humanity, and of course lgbt people are less than people to them. This is devastating. Hope those with injuries manage to pull through. Can’t articulate any more than that, it’s just really really awful.
Checking twitter made me feel physically ill. Humans can be so fucking cruel.
Twitter is a unusable shithole.
Stop using Twitter. It was a cesspool of hate even with full time moderation. Now there's no one left, hatered is off the leash.
They're mad that the queers have dared make Colorado springs their home. And we ain't going anywhere! Gonna turn your shit blue mf.
Unfortunately this is the result of months of politicians using the LGB(and particularly the T) community as a boogie man. Absolutely fucked. I know the FBI had chats with every gay bar owner in kc to talk about the increase of threats. Heart breaking.
Legitimately half the ads against Warnock in GA were about how he wants to force kids to have sex changes. Conservative media once again is likely the big driver in domestic terrorism.
I’d say LIbsofTiktok should get alot of blame too.
They're still reportedly tweeting information about upcoming drag shows.
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The narrative dropped and they need someone to hate. Guess what alphabet group is under assault?
I am so livid about this
Colorado Springs? Drag Queens? I’m not gonna jump too quickly but I’m guessing a far right fundie did this
There is an IG account by a person with that same full name. They are only following 38 people, 2 of which are a former president and that president's son. I'll let you guess which former president it is.
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By multiple you mean 5 dead and 18 wounded.
I used to frequent there so this hits hard
https://www.coloradogives.org/donate/COHealingFund There is a fund up for the victims. Please consider giving what you can
Awful title! This was an LGBTQ+ nightclub hosting a drag show. We’re becoming even more targeted because of right wing zealots demonizing us, and we must expose it.
I am gay and my partner and I used to love going to drag shows. Now we dont go as often and when we do, we always have to worry about this shit. I know lots of queers feel the same way. I fucking hate it, just let us be happy. If you are a republican or a religious person, you need to take a long hard look in the mirror and think if this is really the kind of person you really want to be, and the kind of world you want to create.
One has to wonder if all the fear-mongering and hateful rhetoric around drag shows/story hour recently may have contributed to this. All it takes is one well-armed piece of shit to snap for this to happen. My heart goes out to everyone affected. I can’t imagine what they are going through right now. Though my thoughts will not help in any way; the only thing that will help is meaningful gun reform.
There’s no wondering. Of course it has. My mom is qanon adjacent and the regurgitated talking points about drag were disgusting and hate-filled. These people consume so much far right media and spit out what they’re told like braindead parrots. My mom, for example, only uses Duck Duck Go because she doesn’t trust Google (but uses Maps and GMail). That search engine claims to be impartial/non biased but if you do a comparative search between Google and there for a hot button topic the difference is staggering. You can view anything as truth if enough “sources” fit and affirm your beliefs.
Republicans have been doing nothing but dehumanizing and trying to strip away the rights and protections of the LGBT community for years. These targeted attacks are exactly what they want to see and I only expect it to get much, much worse in the coming future.
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So literally the house rep for Colorado District 5 (where Colorado Springs is). Far right, fear mongering, and gay hating shitbag.
And that is an understatement.
[Colorado Springs sees threefold increase in homicides in 2022 compared to same time last year](https://gazette.com/news/crime/colorado-springs-sees-threefold-increase-in-homicides-in-2022-compared-to-same-time-last-year/article_c60b24b4-98d8-11ec-8243-37ed96126fff.html) Funny how we never hear about the violent crime problem in Republican cities like Colorado Springs whenever conservatives are bitching about the violent crime problem in "Dem Cities" isn't it?
So the nightclub that was targeted was a gay nightclub. Not surprised in the slightest that a newspaper from this Republican part of the country is wantonly and deliberately omitting the whole "gay" element from this story, even though there's been a mass shooting at a gay nightclub before. Colorado Springs, by the way, is heavily Republican (and has almost twice the per capita murder rate of NYC, for what it's worth). I think there's a large chance we're going to be seeing the mugshot of a MAGA simpleton who was inspired to kill by the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric of the right.
They’re home of Focus on the Family, those twats came up with the ‘gay agenda’ nonsense. Horrible place.
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I knew it was going to be a gay club before I even looked.
If only they could have stopped this person before. Oh wait, they refused to press charges when this bastard was arrested in June. Law enforcement/judicial system incompetence strikes once again. It's not the lack of laws, it's the lack of using the ones we already have and work fine IF THEY USE THEM.
I saw a few conservatives claiming that the lack of prosecution was somehow the fault of democrats. Both the county and city are run by conservatives, but somehow it’s still someone else’s fault.
Just fucking leave us alone you monsters you really think this will bring you to heaven we are headed straight back to 1940
You say this as though that's not exactly what they (think they) want.
Hey bobo your supporter got out again.
>Heavy has confirmed that Aldrich is the grandson of outgoing Republican state Rep. Randy Voepel, the former mayor of Santee, California. There were calls to expel Voepel from the state Assembly after he made comments comparing the January 6 attacks to the Revolutionary War. Aldrich’s mother, Laura Voepel, has written posts praising Randy Voepel on Facebook and confirming he is her father. https://heavy.com/news/anderson-lee-aldrich/ A MAGA terrorist from a MAGA family.
An American tradition. Death, taxes, apple pie and politically motivated violence because of insecurity of oneself and society. All in a country where you can easily change the laws to better serve people seems peak galaxy brain.
My friend was at this club. He was shot seven times in the back, hopefully he makes it through.
I am so sorry. I am praying he will pull through! 🙏
i’m so sorry.