Club Q Colorado Sprgs was LGBTQ bean amid anti-gay perceptns

Contents:

• COLORADO SPRGS WORKED TO CHANGE S ANTI-GAY IMAGE — THEN S SOLE LGBTQ NIGHTCLUB WAS TARGETED
• GAY MILAN
• MILAN GAY DISTRICT

COLORADO SPRGS WORKED TO CHANGE S ANTI-GAY IMAGE — THEN S SOLE LGBTQ NIGHTCLUB WAS TARGETED

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Until recently, Club Q was the only LGBTQ club a cy wh a reputatn of beg a nservative stronghold and a history of beg anti-gay.

Saturday’s attack fell on the eve of Transgenr Day of Remembrance – observed honor of the liv of trans people lost to anti-trans vlence and hatred – and is remiscent of the Pulse massacre Orlando, which a shooter killed 49 people at the gay nightclub six years ago. Jared Polis, the natn’s first openly gay ernor, orred flags lowered to half-staff at all public buildgs statewi for five days to honor the five victims at Club Q. I was equally surprised by the size of the gay muny and the lack of queer spac, pecially downtown, ” Frankl wrote an email to USA TODAY.

GAY MILAN

Frankl and Wolfe ultimately land on their send act: a swanky gay piano bar lled ICONS, which they opened the muny 2020. Club Q is known as the cy's sole LGBTQ+ Q SHOOTING VICTIMS: What we know about the Colorado Sprgs victims: An entertaer, a 'supportive' iend, an 'amazg mother'When Frankl and Wolfe first announced their plans for ICONS, they said many people exprsed ncerns given the cy’s history of anti-gay notably, 1992, relig fundamentalists om Colorado Sprgs wrote Amendment 2, a measure seekg to amend Colorado's nstutn by makg illegal to ban discrimatn based on sexual orientatn. Supreme Court cy is also the headquarters of Foc on the Fay, a fundamentalist Prottant anizatn whose founr Jam Dobson is known for his stanc agast gay and trans while was able to operate for 37 years the cy, the Colorado Sprgs Pri Center was no stranger to sults and even ath threats, former board print Jack Danielsen the years before s 2015 closure, Danielsen remembers walkg to the center wh his hband only to fd all of s ont wdows had been shattered.

"For a LGTBQ anizatn a heavily nservative area, was a pretty uphill battle, " Danielsen openg ICONS, Wolfe and Frankl said people told them, “'You n’t ll a gay bar. The buildg, he said, still ho several anizatns that spng up durg the fight agast Colorado’s Amendment the measure had passed at all me as a surprise, but as a rult, Skorman said, Colorado Sprgs beme a hotbed of nservative and anti-gay activy, wh threats ma to his employe and bricks thrown through store wdows. I thought that I was dreamg or that was a nightmare bee was so siar to how I found out I had lost iends at Pulse, ” she June 12, 2016, when a gunman attacked the gay nightclub Orlando and killed 49 people, Kelley said she was livg jt two blocks away om the club.

COLORADO SPRINGS — Club Q was Diamond Kobylski’s first gay bar.

MILAN GAY DISTRICT

(Vio: Julie Yoon/The Washgton Post)The rampage at one of the only gay bars Colorado’s send-largt cy has vastated s tightkn LGBTQ muny, whose members scribe Club Q as a welg haven for ee exprsn one of the pals of Amerin nservatism. As Colorado Sprgs stggled to move past s label as ground zero for the evangelil ph to lim gay rights, the bar served as the rare gatherg space where those rights were never up for bate, and safety was say they are still vtigatg a motive for the attack, which killed five people and jured another 18. But spect Anrson Lee Aldrich is facg charg of murr and mtg a bias-motivated crime, a spurt of vlence that began near midnight Saturday that has punctuated a wave of risg anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and a cy whose recent history has been sullied by three s of polil attacks on transgenr and gay people — over spoal benefs, nondiscrimatn l and even the abily to start high school clubs — has felt like a punch the gut.

”Gay and transgenr rints scribed Colorado Sprgs as a difficult place to be out, wh some cg recent episos of discrimatn and hate crim.

Jared Polis, a Democrat and the untry’s first openly gay man to hold that posn, was jt reelected by a nearly 20-pot while even Colorado Sprgs has drifted left recent years, Saturday’s killgs brought a swift regnn of the cy’s paful history. ”One of the largt and most fluential groups to arrive was Foc on the Fay, an anizatn that oppos same-sex marriage and promot nversn therapy — a wily discreded practice that purports to “cure” gay and transgenr people.

”“It has been unrneath always: The ary, relig anizatns — there’s a way which they are cultivatg thgs that may spire a place like Colorado Sprgs to be the next target, ” said Tre Wentlg, an assistant profsor and queer studi scholar at the Universy of Colorado Colorado important polil moment me 1992, when nservative activists Colorado Sprgs rallied support across the state for a ballot measure known as Amendment 2, which add a clse to the state nstutn preventg municipali om passg gay rights mpaign was succsful, and more than half of Colorado voters approved the amendment, even as they voted for Democrat Bill Clton for print. It was a signifint setback for those seekg equal treatment unr the law, but the measure also backfired on s backers: It wound up sparkg a full-blown gay rights movement the state and Colorado Sprgs. Supreme Court clared Amendment 2 fluence of evangelils has waned the cy sce then, and a work of small lol anizatns to support LGBTQ people has thrived — but gay bars, which have long operated as muny centers, have stggled to stay 2005, the long-nng Hi and Seek, which was thought to be one of the largt gay clubs the wtern Uned Stat, shut down for good when s owner said he uldn’t afford repairs required after beg asssed for several fire shortly before Hi and Seek closed s doors, a newer opened, offerg $2 margara specials, ’80s night on Tudays and a bean of hope a muny sperate for a reliable haven: Club Q.

The night before one of those early performanc, June 2016, a gunman killed 49 people at Pulse, a gay nightclub Orlando, and Club Q’s show morphed to a fundraiser. “I was jt this nervo, shy, ltle gay kid walkg there. “We want somethg to change — for this bs to e back, and bigger, and for more queer spac to jt gay up this town.

”‘We’ll be here’By Monday night, ICONS — a piano bar and the cy’s other gay night spot — had unlocked s doors after shuttg down for a day, welg a stream of iends and regulars who crowd onto plh chairs and stools, leang on each other.