‘Stand together’: Kansas Citians plan vigil for victims of CO LGBTQ nightclub shooting
Kansas Citians plan to honor those killed and wounded late Saturday in a mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs.
Five people are dead and at least 25 injured after a gunman opened fire at Club Q, a nightclub Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez called “a safe haven for our LGBTQ citizens.”
“No one should have to process this alone, especially on days like today,” the LGBTQ Commisison of Kansas City wrote in a post on Twitter announcing a vigil planned for 11 p.m. Sunday at Fountain Haus KC.
“We must stand together to fight and protect our safe LGBTQ+ spaces and end this senseless violence,” Fountain Haus, one of the largest queer and ally-friendly spaces in the Midwest, said on Facebook Sunday.
“Every politician that spews anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric bears responsibility for the Colorado Springs shooting. Every politician who says that guns aren’t the problem bears responsibility for the Colorado Springs shooting,” KC’s LGBTQ Commission wrote in a memorandum released Sunday.
“This hate-fueled violence is an outgrowth of the divisive anti-LGBTQ+ movement that’s happening in our country and right here in our community.”
The shooting came at the end of Transgender Awareness Week, and on the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance.
“There are more lives lost today and more people hurting, not just in Colorado but people the world over,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas wrote on Twitter. “Hate of people for who they are. Guns. We must call out hate and the people who spread and profit from it. We must keep working so mass shootings aren’t routine.”
Kansas City Councilwoman Andrea Bough, District 6 at-large, also posted condolences on Twitter Sunday.
“I stand with our LGBTQ Commission in their statement,” she wrote. “Frankly, I just don’t have the words as my heart continues to break as we see acts of violence and hate continue.”
This story was originally published November 20, 2022 at 5:18 PM.
