The memorial outside Club Q in Colorado Springs has become a space for LGBTQ young adults to grieve their loss, honor their community and ask, “What now?”
toward adults being supportive of their LGBTQ children. A few have stopped by multiple times on multiple days, saying they cannot explain why they keep coming back.“I am trans and queer myself,” one 15-year-old, who asked to be identified by their first name, Eliot, said while viewing the memorial with their 61-year-old grandmother. “As a high school kid, it terrifies me that this could happen based on someone’s identify. … But being here helps.
It also allowed him to dig deeper for information about himself. “I wanted to come here, find other people who are grieving, and also maybe have a better understanding of myself,” he said. “I would say for anyone who is questioning, or identifies as anything other than straight, this definitely hits home in their soul.”
Even in tragedy, Cantorna said, the Club Q memorial will become a place that helps members of the LGBTQ community feel less alone. “When this happened, especially this close the holiday, it just broke my heart,” said Aronow, 42. “It was important to me, especially with a trans child, to bring him here and show him that for every monster that might come, there are hundreds or thousands of others who are trying to do good.”that now line North Academy Boulevard, they got a firsthand lesson in how a community can help battle cruelty.
Ayden Derby, who is heterosexual and a senior at a local high school, said it still common for some LGBTQ students to be bullied or harassed. But as Derby, 18, gazed at the memorial, he vowed to be a lifelong ally the LGBTQ community.
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