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Anyone paying attention cannot feign shock at what happened late Saturday night at Club Q in Colorado Springs. It was a logical鈥攁nd deadly鈥攔esult of escalating violent rhetoric and legislation targeting trans people, queer people, drag queens, and any space deemed marginally safer for LGBTQ people.

Even as we continue to 鈥攖he shooter鈥檚 motive, the acts of heroism and sacrifice made by people who only wanted to gather in love, safety, and community鈥攊t鈥檚 important to be honest about what we know. Club Q was not simply 鈥渁 nightclub.鈥� It was for LGBTQ people to gather in Colorado Springs. The politically conservative city of less than 500,000 on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains is circled by five military bases (including the Air Force Academy) and several prominent, well-funded that have been drumming up anti-LGBTQ sentiment for decades. 

The gunman opened fire moments before the clock struck midnight, signaling the beginning of Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), an annual observance of the ever-growing list of transgender people killed by hate violence. At least one of the five people killed at Club Q was an out transgender man; his name was no doubt added to the ceremonial reading of names in somber gatherings around the country on Sunday. 

Club Q was hosting a weekend of events to commemorate TDOR, including a drag show on Saturday night, and an all-ages drag brunch scheduled for Sunday morning. Events like these by far-right, anti-LGBTQ groups, including the Proud Boys鈥攚ho have showed up to harass families at drag queen story hours in , , , and other states this year. 

On a local scale, the member of Congress representing Colorado Springs鈥擱epublican Rep. Lauren Boebert, who just secured re-election by a razor-thin margin鈥攈as spent much of her time in Washington , including introducing legislation that would criminalize gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. On Sunday, 鈥渢houghts and prayers鈥� to the victims and their families, adding, 鈥淭his lawless violence needs to end and end quickly.鈥� Out lawmakers, including Brianna Titone, the first out trans woman elected to Colorado鈥檚 state legislature, were , noting that Boebert not only opposes common-sense gun control, but also has promoted the anti-LGBTQ myth that gay, transgender, and queer people target children for sexual abuse. 

The death, devastation, and despair in Colorado today is the tragic but predictable outcome of relentless fearmongering, of hate speech allowed to go unchecked on major broadcast and social networks, and of legislation that attempts to control and punish people deemed 鈥渄ifferent鈥� simply by the nature of their existence. All of this, in a country that refuses to implement even basic gun control measures that might have kept weapons like the AR-15 used at Club Q (and in ) out of the hands of people who use them to commit mass murder.

Many of us have seen the writing on the wall. Queer people have been bracing for another attack like this, and many have been sounding the alarm for years. Sunnivie covered the Pulse massacre in Orlando in 2016, and it鈥檚 impossible to ignore the parallels with the attack on Club Q鈥攁nd what members of our community have learned about how to protect each other since then. In Orlando, police waited hours to enter Pulse, likely resulting in additional fatalities. In Colorado Springs, reports indicate that a transgender woman and an with his wife and daughter, actively fought, disarmed, and detained the gunman before police arrived. They undoubtedly saved countless lives. We have always been the ones to keep each other safe鈥攂ut this rises to a new level, where LGBTQ people and our loved ones now carry active combat training and knowledge of emergency medical care to a night out with our community. 

It doesn鈥檛 have to be like this.

There鈥檚 little doubt that the mass shooting at Club Q is the horrific result of rising anti-LGBTQ sentiment. There鈥檚 also little doubt that it will happen again unless we, as a collective community鈥攕traight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, nonbinary, and cisgender鈥攎ake a serious commitment to act. We must commit to stopping queerphobic and transphobic legislation, to publicly and privately challenging anti-LGBTQ rhetoric spewed by politicians and people we鈥檙e in community with, and to protecting LGBTQ people at all costs. 

That鈥檚 what YES! is about: bringing people together to explore solutions that transform our world for the better. The mass shooting at Club Q might not change gun laws, but it should be a rallying cry for all those committed to a world where LGBTQ people are free鈥攆ree to exist as we are, free to thrive, and free from hatred. We deserve that鈥攁nd so do each and every one of you.

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Sunnivie Brydum is the managing editor at YES! An award-winning investigative journalist with a background covering LGBTQ equality, Sunnivie previously led digital coverage at The Advocate, Free Speech TV, and Out Front Colorado. Their writing has appeared in Vox, Religion Dispatches, them., and elsewhere. She has a degree in magazine journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and is a co-founder of Historias No Contadas, an annual symposium in Medell铆n, Colombia, that amplifies the stories of LGBTQ people in Latin America. They are based in Seattle, speak English and Spanish, and are a member of NLGJA, SPJ, and ONA. Connect:

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Evette Dionne is the executive editor at YES! 无码视频, where she leads YES! Magazine. She is the former editor-in-chief at Bitch 无码视频, and an award-winning journalist, pop culture critic, and magazine editor who covers culture and politics through the lenses of race, gender, class, and size. Her newest book, Weightless: Making Space for My Resilient Body and Soul, was published in December 2022 by Ecco. She鈥檚 also the author of Lifting As We Climb, which was longlisted for a National Book Award and won a Coretta Scott King author honor. Evette is based in Denver, and speaks English. Connect:

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