The Denver Democrats are disgusted by the violent shooting attack that killed five people and injured 18 at Club Q in Colorado Springs. Although it’s horrifying to see the brutality that unfolded, it’s sadly not surprising. There’s a clear link between these kinds of attacks and extremists’ blatantly false and hateful rhetoric about the LGBTQ community. We’ve seen an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ bills - nearly 300 just this year - which are rooted in archaic and ugly ideologies that only seek to sow more division and traumatize a group of people who simply want the same rights as everyone else.
Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors trans people who were murdered over the last year. This shooting punctuates the need to not only acknowledge this epidemic of hate, but also take meaningful action. 2022 isn’t even over, and we’ve seen more than 650 mass shootings in the U.S. We cannot accept this as a normal part of American life. Which is why we will continue to fight against these ideologies; they don’t belong anywhere near our communities and governing bodies.