CINCINNATI — Tri-State LGBTQ+ organizations are shaken by the deadly shooting in Colorado Springs, but they said they aren’t surprised.
“For me at least anyway, unfortunately, it’s not a surprise,” said Elliot Kesse with Transgender Advocacy Council.
Five people were killed and 25 others were injured in an LGBTQ+ nightclub late Saturday night. Of those injured, authorities said at least seven were in critical condition.
“I wish I could say that I was shocked, but I think unfortunately in the world currently and within the last couple of years I wasn’t as shocked, and I think that should show this is a problem,” said Jake Hitch with Cincinnati Pride. “This isn’t a one-off situation anymore.”
In a statement released after the shooting, Club Q said it was devastated by the "senseless attack." The club was featuring a drag show the night of the shooting.
“For any other community, a bar is a bar. A bar can be to go and get a cocktail, but I think for the LGBTQ community, a bar is so much more than that,” Hitch said. “It really is where we find our families and our community in that safe space truly. I think for years it was the only place we could go to authentically be ourselves.”
Colorado Springs Police Lt. Pamela Castro made clear the club is "not a problem," saying it has been a "safe haven" for the community.
“To have those safe spaces violated in a violent way and deadly way, it does make it extra heavy and extra hard to deal with and stuff, you know, where do you go, and where are you really safe, and what is a safe place,” Kesse said.
The shooting happened a day before Transgender Day of Remembrance.
“It brings a certain heaviness to it with it being Transgender Day of Remembrance. That day is there for us to remember and honor, you know, trans people who have died or been killed because of Transphobia or hate and everything,” Kesse said.
What happened in Colorado Springs reminded Hitch of the Pulse Massacre in Orlando in 2016.
“It’s exhausting to have to continue to fight for basic human rights or just to feel like we have a space to exist,” he said.
And now the number of safe spaces feels even smaller.
“It’s scary. I think it has changed the dynamic of people going out and feeling safe because there are very few places you can feel safe in and that’s really scary,” Hitch said.
The Colorado Springs shooting also took Christine Leinonen back to 2016. Her son Christopher was killed in the mass shooting at Pulse. She remembers frantically trying to find her son when she learned there was a shooting at a bar he went to.
“When they’re missing and you can’t get ahold of them and there’s a feeling of dread and desperation to find them and hear from them and until you are in the state of, I was in a state of, a mother desperately trying to find her child who might be in danger,” she said.
Kesse and Hitch both say they’ll continue to fight for equality, and ask their allies to do the same.
