Days after the mass shooting at Club Q, the LGBTQ community in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is not only grieving the loss of friends’ lives. They are also mourning the violent assault on what many call their home, their safe space.

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Club Q was more than a fun night out of music, dancing and drag shows, they said. The unassuming, low-slung building was one of the few spaces in the city where LGBTQ community members could feel safe being themselves.

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Until recently, Club Q was the only LGBTQ club in a city with a reputation of being a conservative stronghold and a history of being anti-gay.

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“In a world that can be so dark and so angry, it’s that one place that feels like home,” said Jewels Parks, a drag queen and a club regular. “We’re able to unwind, forget about our troubles with work, family, society. Because of Club Q, we’re able to make friends that turn into family and be accepted for our true selves.”

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But Saturday night, a gunman entered Club Q and began a deadly shooting before two patrons overwhelmed the shooter.

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“The LGBTQIA+ community has undergone so much bigotry and hatred already,” Parks said. “To have our safe place ripped from us and to lose members of our community, is a whole other type of hurt.”

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The city has a distinct anti-LGBTQ history. In the 1990s, the conservative Christian group Colorado for Family Values, based in Colorado Springs, pushed for Amendment 2, which prevented state and local governments from preventing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. That earned Colorado the moniker “the hate state” and Colorado Springs “was called the city of hate and bigotry,” according to the Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum. The US Supreme Court later struck down the amendment.

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Club Q opened up a whole new world for Antonio Taylor when they discovered the place in 2020, taking in their first drag show. Taylor grew up in Colorado Springs, but often feels like an outsider, they said, garnering hateful glares and comments from people as they pass by.

But in Club Q, Taylor felt not only safe, but truly loved. It was that community that helped them come out as bisexual, Taylor said.

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“The people there made me feel like I was a part of a family. Seeing so many people out and proud about themselves definitely influenced me to be my true self,” Taylor told CNN.

Lifelong Colorado Springs resident Tiana Nicole Dykes called Club Q “a second home full of chosen family.”

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“This space means the world to me. The energy, the people, the message. It’s an amazing place that didn’t deserve this tragedy,” said Dykes, who lost close friends in the shooting and said others are critically wounded.

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