It is a sad day for everyone today, especially those in the LGBTQ community around the world. Late Saturday night,5 people were murdered and 25 people were injured in what’s thought to be a hate motivated attack on a nightclub in Colardo US, where a gunman just walked in and started firing, some brave people at the bar managed to pin him down till the police arrived. The events in Colorado just seek to remind us how unsafe the world is for queer people. There has been national mourning as well as a vigil held at All Souls Unitarian Church in Colorado which opened its door to over 700 people.

This day has chilling similarities to the mass shooting in 2016, were 49 people were murdered at a gay club in Orlando. Joe Biden commented on the events at Colardo as well as Orlando condemning these acts of gun violence and violent attacks towards LGBTQ people saying “places that are supposed to be safe spaces of acceptance and celebration should never be turned into places of terror and violence. Yet it happens far too often”.

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The attack came on the eve of transgender remembrance day, a day created by Gwendolyn Ann Smith who created the day in a remembrance of Rita Hester who was murdered in 1998. Ann Smiths says that the days purpose is to “highlight the losses we face due to anti-transgender bigotry and violence”, she explains how important the day is as “its Vitaly important, that those we lose are remembered and that we continue to fight for justice”. Especially in a world were trans people are murdered for there gender identity and expression. According to trans respect, 327 trans people and gender diverse people were murdered from the 1 October 2021 to 30 September 2022. There report shows a harsh reality of how serious transphobia is, in this year alone  2 black women were stabbed to death in there own houses in Switzerland and Estonia and the trans respect murder report findings also showed that 95% of trans people murdered, were trans women. Many are coming to the conclusion that it might be no accident  to the attack happening on the eve of transgender remembrance day.

The nightclub which was targeted was called Club Q, and residents both young and old described it as an important heart of the queer community in Colorado springs, a safe space for queer people to meet and live. In an otherwise hostile environment Colorado springs is home to one of the US’s well  funded anti-lgbtq organisation. Called Focus of the family. There aim as stated on their website is to “affirm the god-ordained institution of the family”. When you look at their articles, they are very clear about their homophobic and transphobic beliefs such as there use of language when discussing sexuality such as “homosexual promiscuity” and “brush with transgenderism”. Most of all worrying there is firm belief in conversion therapy. Conversion therapy is the belief that people who have sexual identities outside of the heteronormative identity are preventable and treatable. On there site you will find harmful articles such as an article called “is my teen struggling with homosexuality”. Where they refer to being queer as a sexual sin. Unfortunately focus on the family is one of the most well funded anti- LGBTQ organisation in the US they have power to influence peoples views and beliefs as well as laws, one of the way they influence laws is with there particular focus on stopping same- sex couples from adopting and preventing trans people from getting gender recognition. Focus on family, adds to the hostility and violence that queer people in America face. But especially in Colardo springs, an already hostile environment towards queer people, it was reported that the pride centre in Colorado was shot at and attempted to burn it, during the times it was open.

 

These events also bring into sharp reality to the unsafety of LGBTQ people in the UK as well. In recent years the UK government has been critised for not doing enough to secure the safety of LGBTQ people. Failing to ban conversion therapy, provide LGBTQ education in schools, failing trans people. Violent attacks in the UK to LGBTQ people are unfortunately not uncommon, some of the most well known ones are listed below:

·       In April 2006, Rev DR Barry Rathborne, who was openly gay priest, was assaulted on a park bench, by a couple who hit him with a baseball bat while shouting abuse at him

·       In 2019, Matthew and his partner were stood at a bus stop holding hands, when a group of 4 men assaulted them by pepper spraying them in the face, while shouting “ we don’t want your kind here”

·       In 2019, a queer women couple, were assaulted on the 30th May, on a London Bus. What started off as verbal absue by a group of 4 teens, ended up in the couple being beaten so hard, that they had to go to hospital for there facial injuries

·       In 2021, a man was arrested for the murder of a 69 year old, the man admitted to the police that he would never stop murdering gay men.

 

The murder and violence towards LGBTQ plus people is entirely preventable, and yet governments still fail to see the urgency to put laws in place to educate people and prevent these sort of attacks happening. Stonewall report that in the UK in the last 12 month 1 in 5 people in the LGBTQ community have experienced a hate crime or incident.

 

There is ways you can help and make a difference:

 

1.       Call on your government for change, this will be dependent on what country you are in, but if you live in the UK, call on the government to ban conversion therapy and provide more education in schools to prevent hate crimes from happening in the first place

2.       Listen to what LGBTQ people are saying, read articles and follow social media sites, and listen to what they are saying

3.       Consume content made by LGBTQ people, it can be harder for queer people, to enter into certain industrys

4.       Educate yourself, on certain terms, keep educating yourself, don’t think that just because you don’t identify that way its nothing to do with you. WRONG its up to you to be an active voice to support and fight for others rights

5.  Be visable in your support

6. Confront bias or assumptions you have

7.  Don’t out people

8.Speak up and challenge don’t be a bystander

9. Make sure you are uplifting LGBTQ voices

10.Respect peoples names and pro nouns (come on its not hard)

11. Offer to accompany trans people to the bathroom, as well as advocating for gender neutral bathrooms

12. Get in the habit of using gender inclusive and gender neutral language

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