Opinion | How do we move forward with the hate confronting us?
I intentionally chose to frame this as a collective rather than focus exclusively on the actions of the Club Q killer. This type of hate-motivated violence doesn’t occur in a vacuum, and people aren’t radicalized through spontaneous combustion.
Although the targets are ostensibly different, the attacks on LGTBQ nightclubs, synagogues and Black churches are attempts to dehumanize and terrorize the LGTBQ, Jewish, and Black communities in our traditional safe spaces. Once a safe place is desecrated, it is never the same again. That special thing, which makes the space sacred, loses some if not all of its life-giving power. This gets to the core of my grief and despair.
In 2022 alone, 240 anti-LGTBQ bills were introduced in state legislatures. Far-right politicians have derided drag queens and promoted debunked stories that transgendered persons were grooming children. In Colorado, at one point, the gubernatorial race became dominated by the Republican nominee’s insistence the LGBTQ agenda was being promoted in schools by “furries.” The Douglas County commission even considered new regulations to ban drag queen events on county-owned property.
At first, I simply thought they were roommates. I didn’t know any different until one day I asked my mother why they seemed to act like a married couple. Without hesitation, my mother said their love was stronger than any other married couple she had ever seen. She didn’t make any distinctions based on sexuality or gender. They were like any other married couple.
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