LBGTQ+ resources and how to help in the wake of the Club Q shooting
Just before midnight on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022, a shooting occurred at Club Qin Colorado Springs, Colo., leaving five people dead and 25 injured. This attack at an LGBTQ+ nightclub happened the night before Transgender Day of Remembrance, Nov. 20. While a suspect is in custody and investigators are determining a motive, the attack comes less than two years after a gunman killed 10 people in a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colo., and six years after another gunman killed 49 people at the Florida LGBTQ nightclub Pulse.
As our cities, state and country grieve yet another mass shooting, we hope to offer resources that may assist those who are processing these events.
Please don’t hesitate to take care of yourself and your loved ones during this difficult time.
The City of Colorado Springs will be offering services to residents at a Community Resource Expo. The expo will be held at the UCCS Kevin W. O’Neill Cybersecurity & Research Center, 3650 North Nevada Avenue, on the following dates and times:
- Monday, November 21, 2022, from 8:00AM to 7:00PM
- Tuesday, November 22, 2022, from 8:00AM to 7:00PM
- Wednesday, November 23, 2022, from 8:00AM to 7:00PM
The expo will provide mental health resources, spiritual support, emotional support animals, childcare, emergency financial resources, LGBTQ+ support, meals, and other services.
Community Resources
- Providers offering therapy (link is external) for those impacted. This list is being updated regularly by providers.
- Red Cross 1-800-RedCross for mental and spiritual guidance
Colorado Crisis Services 1-844-493-8255, or text “TALK” to 38255 This hotline will connect you to a crisis counselor or trained professional. The staffer will assess risk and determine if a mobile response is necessary.
- If a mobile response is necessary, the Mobile Response Team or Community Response Team will strive to make contact within one hour in Colorado Springs or two hours outside Colorado Springs.
- Diversus Health: Offers a 24/7 walk-in crisis center for crisis services and counseling for all ages, regardless of ability to pay. You can request an appointment here or visit 115 S. Parkside Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80910.
- UC Health has also assembled an excellent resource page that includes helpful tips and recommendations for taking care of yourself, and others, during times of crisis like this.
- The Trevor Project offers 24/7 help for LGBTQ youth. Learn more about how to get help.
- The#BoulderStrong Resource Center has therapists provided by Mental Health Partners. The center encourages victims, families, first responders and the Boulder community to seek support when coping with psychological and emotional effects associated with the Boulder Table Mesa tragedy.
- The center is located at 2935 Baseline Rd in Boulder.
- Hours:
- Monday - Wednesday from 10am - 6pm
- Thursday from 12pm (noon) - 8pm
- Friday from 10am - 6pm
- Saturdays from 11am - 4pm
- Closed on Sundays
- Inside Out Youth Services in Colorado Springs
- Fort Collins LGBTQ Social Alliance
- gaycolorado.org
How Can You Help?
- Club Q has selected the Colorado Healing Fund, which is part of Colorado Gives, as their preferred center for donations.
- Fundraiser for Tara (DJ T-Beatz) injured @Club Q
- Support for the Club Q Families and Survivors
Giving Blood
Blood donations are always needed. If you are able to donate blood, consider the following resources:
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More relatives of people shot to death at a Colorado supermarket in 2021 are suing gun-maker Sturm, Ruger & Co. over how it marketed the firearm used in the massacre.
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A judge has ruled there is enough evidence for a trial against the person accused of killing five people and wounding over a dozen others at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs last year. The Thursday ruling sends Anderson Lee Aldrich to trial on dozens of murder and hate crime charges.
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In El Paso County, where five people were killed in a mass shooting at a nightclub in November, officials have filed relatively few emergency petitions to temporarily remove a person’s guns, with scant approvals.
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A judge dismissed the 2021 kidnapping case against the Colorado gay nightclub shooter even though she had previously raised concerns about the defendant stockpiling weapons and explosives and planning a shootout, court transcripts obtained Friday by The Associated Press reveal.
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A year and a half before the Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooting that left five dead, the alleged shooter was accused of threatening to kill grandparents if they stood in the way of plans to become “the next mass killer.”
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The suspect accused of entering a Colorado Springs gay nightclub and killing five people and wounding 17 others was formally charged with 305 criminal counts including hate crimes and murder. The charges came as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich appeared in court on Tuesday. Investigators say Aldrich entered Club Q, a sanctuary for the LGBTQ community in largely conservative Colorado Springs, just before midnight on Nov. 19 and began shooting during a drag queen’s birthday celebration. The attack came on on the eve of an annual day of remembrance for transgender people lost to violence. According to defense lawyers, Aldrich is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.
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The suspect accused of entering Club Q, opening fire and killing five people and wounding 17 others was charged by prosecutors with 305 criminal counts including hate crimes and murder.
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Club Q owner Nic Grzecka told NPR he and his staff are working on a yet-to-be-determined temporary solution. The Nov. 20 shooting killed 5 people and wounded another 17. A suspect has been arrested.
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Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has visited the memorial outside a gay club where five people were killed in a shooting attack last week. He solemnly walked Tuesday past flowers, crosses and photos of the victims. Polis is the first openly gay man elected a governor in the U.S., back in 2018.
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U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Thomas James, who was injured while helping subdue a man who shot and killed five people at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, said he simply wanted to save the family that he had found.