Causes.com
| 11.22.22

Gunman in Colorado LGBTQ+ Nightclub Shooting Charged with 305 Counts
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Updated December 6, 2022
- The gunman of the Club Q mass shooting, Anderson Lee Aldrich, has been formally charged with 305 counts, including charges of murder, attempted murder, assault, and bias-motivated crimes.
- In a hearing on November 23, a judge stated that Aldrich would be held without bond. Aldrich is next due in court for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 22, 2023.
What’s the story?
- On Saturday, Nov. 19th, five people were killed and 25 wounded in a mass shooting at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- The suspect, a 22-year-old man, is in custody and facing five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury, according to court records.
- The five victims who lost their lives at Club Q are Daniel Aston, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, Derrick Rump, and Raymond Green Vance. Richard M. Fierro, a combat veteran from Iraq and Afghanistan, tackled the gunman and seized his weapon. A drag performer stomped on the gunman with her high heels as other patrons helped hold down the gunman until police arrived.
- Colorado Springs is a conservative city long known for its anti-gay activism. Club Q, which opened in 2002, has been a safe space for LGBTQ+ members, with drag shows, karaoke, and dance parties for those 18 and older.
- LGBTQ+ community members, allies, and activists are urging lawmakers to start actively fighting against the uptick in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and legislation and to start protecting the community.
Rising hate-crimes
- Hate crimes in major U.S. cities have risen greatly in the last few years into double digits. In 2021, data from 52 cities showed that hate crimes had increased by nearly 30% — the highest hate crimes have been in over a decade.
- Black, Asian, Jewish, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ Americans have been the most frequent targets of hate crimes this year.
- 2022 will be the fourth consecutive year in which hate crimes have risen nationwide.
Recent anti-LGBTQ legislation
- This fall, House Republicans introduced the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act,” dubbed the Don’t Say Gay bill, which would restrict the use of federal funds for any program, event, or media that discusses LGBTQ+ topics.
- The bill bans language around sexual orientation, gender identity, or “related subjects” for kids under 10, saying these topics are inappropriate and “sexually oriented.” The legislation groups this subject matter with pornography and “lewd or lascivious” depictions and descriptions of human genitals.
- LGBTQ+ groups and allies argue that this bill continues to marginalize the community, obscures gay history, and popularizes anti-gay sentiment. Normalizing homophobia in the country will fuel bullying, magnify feelings of isolation, and intensify shame, increasing the chances of suicide in LGBTQ+ youth.
- Opponents have also expressed anger in grouping pornography and LGBTQ+ topics as it is a deeply inaccurate and offensive portrayal of the community. David Stacy, Human Rights Campaign Government Affairs Director, said:
“Extremist House Republicans…are continuing their assault on LGBTQ+ Americans’ ability to live their lives openly and honestly. A federal ‘Don’t Say Gay or Trans’ bill…is their latest cruel attempt to stigmatize and marginalize the community, not in an attempt to solve actual problems but only to rile up their extremist base.”
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
-Jamie Epstein
(Photo credit: Twitter/@MayorHancock)
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This is the beginning of the justice the victims of this horrific attack need. Charge him, keep him locked up, and prosecute him fully.
Hateful attacks like this on any group cannot be tolerated, and we need a strong message to say that to any others who are tempted to take up arms with their hate.
Ok notice how this writer worded this as a hit piece by mentioning the anti lgbtq legislation which doesn’t really apply in this context. I don’t know how this bill in Florida is related to this nightclub shooting
Occam's razor: unstable people, who live among us and we can't put in jail for something they haven't done yet, + guns, something we could do some thing about, but can't come to an agreement to do anything about so we do even less than before, = mass shootings.
Until we decide to do something about the one thing in the above we can do something about, things won't change. The end. And the group holding up that change is the gop in Congress and state legislation.
Favorite pic of the day. This is a perfect picture of what any 'shooter' should look like if they don't just shoot themselves in the head first and survive long enough to make it to jail. Me? Cruel? Probably, but fuck these dumbasses. No matter the them/they pronouns, listening to right-wing hate media must also be condemned as it produces this kind of POS and maybe some of them should inherit this punishment as well. Sorry reps, but there are a lot of days I'd like to picture you this way out here in the gun crazy state. Peace, fucks!
we saw with the ruling in the Jones case that if reteric and disinformation lead to real life consequences there can be accountability. we now need to hold public officials, politicians, and media personalities to this same standard.
people like MTG and Tucker Carlson are responsable for fueling the flames of hate in there followers.
Profile of mass murders since 2006
Northeastern University-AP Data base of Mass Murders (4+ dead)
https://data.world/associatedpress/mass-killings-public
Every election cycle the Republican Cartel comes up with some manufactured crises to scare the electorate, with the argument that they MUST be elected to prevent the Democrats from destroying our freedoms, letting (defenseless) immigrants outnumber white Christian Nationalists/supremacists, and encouraging those dangerous ‘others’ who have different religious beliefs, different sexual preferences or different sexual identities.
They foment hateful divisiveness as a political tool to win their never-ending war with Democrats with emotive slogans and buzz phrases because motivating hate at a deep emotional level is easier then actually coming up with any legislation or ideas to resolve governmental issues; ‘Don’t say gay’, ‘socialism’, ‘protect life’, ‘medical death panels’, ‘voter fraud’, ‘book banning’, ‘poll watchers’, ‘radical liberal’ and others.
Using divisive language, amplified and hammered home by the FOX entertainment news network and others with ‘alternate’ facts and gross distortions, is a dangerous tactic that foments a kind of divisiveness that is smothered in hate.
Next, the Cartel has long protected gun activists and the NRA by authoring exceptions to liability laws for gun manufacturers, pushing for an arguably bogus interpretation of a comma in the second amendment and refusing to deal in any meaningful way with the proliferation of large magazine, high rate of fire, high speed bullet enabled weapons. These weapons are more suitable for facing-off an invading army than for any reasonable personal self defense use. They collectively push these weapons because it suits their financial benefactors and ‘plays well’ to those who have swallowed the second amendment interpretation that puts no limits on what ‘keep and bear arms’ means in modern society. People cannot generally own fully automatic machine guns, flame throwers, or rocket launchers because there are other laws that prevent them from doing so - even though they are ‘arms’ which are not constitutionally limited. Why wouldn’t any weapons designed to kill large numbers of people quickly be similarly regulated? Because the Republican Cartel argues that it limits the freedoms of their chosen base.
So, we have a political faction that uses ‘alternate’ facts and innuendo to sow unfounded hateful divisiveness and refuses to limit weapons capable of quickly inflicting mass casualties. We have a right wing media that uses ‘alternate’ facts’, cherry picked facts and gross hyperbole to amplify the hateful rhetoric against ‘others’ for a profitable market share. We have Cartel county sheriffs who have simply refused to act on red flag laws, allowing those irresponsible few to keep or get weapons that should have been prevented.
Of course, some people will be swayed into taking definitive hostile action against the ‘others’ being used as targets of Cartel’s hateful rhetoric. Having access to weapons capable of mass killing allows them to carry out their fantasies to ‘save us’ from the ‘others’. There have been multiple attacks on LBGTQ+ gathering sites, Asian related facilities, Jewish related facilities, Black communities, on immigrants generally, and even on FBI offices. I think the most exemplary was the person who drove cross country to save the children by killing patrons at the pizza place where ‘the Democratic elite were routinely gathering to kill children and harvest their blood’.
Divisive hate-filled rhetoric, a for profit right wing media amplifying the hateful rhetoric, easy access to weapons capable of rapidly, and efficiently killing many people in minutes, people like the MAGA-nuts who just believe whatever they are told by their idols and a populace with an outrageous number of guns and we will continue to see mass killings in this country.
Northeastern University-AP Data base of Mass Murders (4+ dead)
https://data.world/associatedpress/mass-killings-public
This is totally not happening!
https://twitter.com/tomfitton/status/1595456120033771520?s=46&t=hNOKE5_6m9HaJlP0-RgFCA
This is becoming more apparent that this person was in serious need of mental help from a series of lifetime family failures from low income and lack of access to mental health in our country. And then add a county police department that REFUSED to enforce the states Existing 'Red Flag' laws, and this individual (After Multiple Interactions With Law Enforcement) was allowed to continue to have 'Umlimited Free Access' to 'Weapons of Mass Destruction'! None of this excuses his actions, as (oh yeah, my state again) at least Texas and Colorado definitely failed to provide ANY help at ANY level. We will learn over time what media/social chatter he listened/participated in that resulted in this specific attack, but the fault still falls on the far right, Taliban leaning/styled 'media' that blasts out Authoritarianism, Bigotry and Hate, against all they fear may 'replace' them.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/22/us/colorado-suspect-background-aldrich-invs/index.html
Fuck your excuses Reps.
They aren't sexualizing our kids?!
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/balenciaga-outrage-depraved-ad-campaign-toddlers-teddy-bears-bondage
Hate + Too Many Guns = The Most Mass Murders in the World!
And every single year the USA breaks its previous record!
We're Number One!!!
Damn--I wish we weren't.
At the same time we're mourning this horror, failed former Secretary of State Pompeo is spouting hate for American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, an openly lesbian woman.
Don't think for a second this is about education when he calls her the most dangerous woman in America.
He is inciting hate and violence against both education professionals and LGBTQ people, and we must see it for what it is and reject it.
Pompeo is an agent of hate and violence.
Violent acts like this are a direct result of hate and discrimination by the Republican Party and those who continue to put their religion ahead of equal rights for all
Senator Toomey is directly responsible for this in his continual refusal to support equal rights for LGBTQ people. He has refused to sign the Equality Act and the Respect for Marriage Act and has never once supported legislation that would protect minorities in this country
His constant false equivalence of religious rights with the human need for life makes him an agent of intolerance and hate.
I can't wait for the bigoted Senator Toomey to take his hate into retirement and away from his failed tenure in the US Senate. His legacy of failure is what history will remember.
Yes, hate crimes continue to rise because hate-filled people are allowed to continue to spread lies, hate, and disinformation about LGBTQ, Jewish, Asian, Muslim, and Latin people every day with very few consequences.
@Causes you're part of the problem. As is Twitter and a bunch of other social media sites
Every time a person says something hateful, untrue, or discriminatory about the LGBTQ community or any other minority population, that makes it ok to treat those people badly.
Every time a platform like Causes does nothing about that hateful comment, it makes that comment seem ok.
I will not be silent until Causes either steps up or shuts down, and I still hold sites like this complicit.
No matter the murderer or motive, hate is never ok.
Non-binary and goes by they/them pronouns!!
https://www.courts.state.co.us/userfiles/file/Court_Probation/04th_Judicial_District/El_Paso/22CR6008/NOTICE%20OF%20INVOCATION.pdf
And maybe, Causes, you could address the red flag laws in Colorado that DID NOT WORK to stop this guy!
There is zero evidence of this being a Right Leaning anti-LGBTQ hate crime. They don't even have a motive yet!
Remember The Pulse Nightclub shooting? You all blamed gay hating Republicans and it was a gay man that did it!
This is YOU causing division and hate BEFORE the entire story has been put out.