months about these sort of online hate percolation. every single article, people tell us that we are waiting for a mass shooting of our people. they got it. to act like those words do not matter, that these two things are separate, it s just crazy. this is what happens time and time again. you said something that i wanted to go into. you saw an uptick in the spring, i wonder if you have a sense of what was driving that uptick in the spring. absolutely. we held it quite well. there are certain topics that the conservative far-right likes to guam onto before the spring. it was all about crt, critical race theory. that was the bogeyman, and which we saw was school board meetings being overrun by angry protesters and proud boys. we saw the vilification, of the librarians and school teachers,
right now, i don t want to delay this right now. i have somebody that was inside at the time of the shooting. michael anderson, a bartender. tell me what you experienced right before the shooting happened. what was last night like before that shooting? last night was a very fun, energetic night, high energy, we had a great drag show from 9:00 to 11. everybody was having a good time. we come here to have community, to have a safe place to gather, to drink together, to tears together, to have a good night. last night was that until it wasn t. and that was close to midnight. that s right. where were you, and what did you see? as behind the bar, working, when i heard a couple of loud gunshots go off. i didn t know what it was at first, but i looked up and saw the silhouette or shadow of a guy holding what looked like a rifle, or some sort of long gun. at that, point the shots kept going off. i ducked behind the bar, and
as i listen to the stories that you have, and have just shown, my heart continues to break. i know what it is like to have the spaces, and then you have that type of safe space ripped from you, ripped from you, and always seeing it now as a place of tragedy and morning. it is heartbreaking. and representative, the mayor of colorado springs had this to say earlier. take a listen. colorado springs is once again in mourning after the tragic shooting at club q last night. our hearts go out to the victims, and their families. they are bearing the weight of this horrific tragedy. we know that one or more patrons heroically intervened to subdue the suspect. we praise those individuals that did so, because their actions clearly saved lives. i wonder if you have learned
three. when they got there, they re able to very quickly apprehend the suspect, and get those paramedics and firefighters in there to begin rendering aid to those victims, getting them into ambulances, and sometimes officials s were saying that there were 2 to 3 victims in the ambulance, really trying to get them to the hospital, and get them treatment as quickly as possible. we know that four or five of the people who were in the club last night, that was not enough. they died as a result of the injuries that they sustained in the shooting. there were 25 other people who were injured, some of them injured from the actual shooting that took place, and others injured from the chaos and fleeing that ensued as a result of the shooting. we know that at least three of those injured have been released from the hospital, but there are still several people who remain in critical condition. as you mentioned, people have been coming to lay flowers in honor and memorialize these victims.
ask your doctor about once-daily cibinqo. today s transgender day of remembrance, a day of grief now tragic after a shooting in lgbtq plus club in colorado springs. 32 trans and gender nonconforming people were killed in 2022 alone. that number does not include the lives from the club q shooting. it had planned to honor transit remembrance with a event today, but instead of hosting a drag branch, the bar is now a growing memorial. this is not an easy day. this is a lot to just wake up to as a transgender person living in colorado springs. this is a hard city to live in already, and waking up to something like this in your face was a reminder of the hate that we live within this city