Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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The past two years have seen a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in state legislatures across the United States. This is coupled with an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ radio, television and print political ads targeting voters this past election cycle. Then, there was the shooting death of five people in Colorado Springs, Colo., just before Thanksgiving. The timing of the shooting during Transgender Awareness Month at an LGBTQ+ nightclub is an unthinkable act that has many LGBTQ+ people wondering: Where do we go to truly be safe?
It could be said that many people are thinking the same thing, regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, given the number of shootings happening across the United States in everyday places like grocery stores, malls, movie theaters and schools. The question of finding a safe place carries a lot of weight for LGBTQ+ people, especially since the vast majority of us have had strained relationships with our families — some with no relationship at all. So, seeking a place of safety and acceptance is often an urgent need.
Over the past couple of decades, there has been an increase in the level of acceptance of lesbian, gay and bisexual people, as evidenced by more than 70% of Americans stating that they believe same-gender marriages should be legally recognized, according to a Gallup Poll. On transgender issues, Pew Research shows that nearly half of U.S. adults say it’s important to use a person’s new name if they transition to a gender that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth.
A lot of the changes in public opinion have happened as a result of LGBTQ+ people being encouraged to come out to their family and friends, so people can see that they know and love someone who identifies as LGBTQ+, dispelling the myths people have been told about the community being unworthy of equal rights and protections under the law.
And to a large extent, the movement has been very successful — successful enough to have all sorts of diverse people attend the nightclub the night of the shooting.
The victims and survivors that night were attending a drag show at a local nightclub called Club Q, which is seen as a beacon of hope and a safe haven in an otherwise conservative community that has been grappling with its growing diversity. It took the brave actions of a military veteran, Richard Fierro, to stop the shooter. Fierro was attending the drag show with his wife, daughter and her boyfriend, Raymond Green Vance, who unfortunately lost his life that night.
When asked about taking action, Fierro was quoted saying, “I just know I got into mode and I needed to save my family, and at that time, my family was everybody in that room.”
That’s how far we’ve come.
But how far we’ve come doesn’t seem to matter when groups like America First Legal, funded by far-right political operative Stephen Miller, push out dangerous political ads demonizing transgender people and their loved ones. These ads meant to sway voters’ opinions also made their way to the eyes, ears and mailboxes of LGBTQ+ people, causing us collective trauma.
The amount of misinformation and disinformation flowing through social media is unprecedented. And the topic of discussion knows no limits. During the 2016 election cycle, there was Pizzagate. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a massive amount of misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19, even as the number of people dying from COVID-related complications rose. There’s even misinformation about the shape of planet Earth. And now, misinformation and disinformation about LGBTQ+ people are making the rounds at alarmingly high volumes.
The latest attacks on LGBTQ+ people seem like a relic of the past. Accusations of LGBTQ+ people being “groomers” and harming children were messages people wrongly received in the 1950s. What’s new this time is that the target of the attacks is young LGBTQ+ people, young transgender people in particular, and their parents who support them. Now the message is that parents are harming their children by allowing sex-change surgeries on minors that are being mandated by the Biden administration, all of which are false accusations that people are believing to be true.
The playwright Lorraine Hansberry once said, “What ought to be clear is that one is oppressed or discriminated against because one is different, not ‘wrong,’ or ‘bad’ somehow.”
So, when we learn that someone has entered an LGBTQ+ nightclub and shot and killed five people and injured 18, it’s hard not to see the connections between the anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, the misinformation about transgender people, and the shooting.
Regardless of the motives, five people lost their lives, dozens more have been traumatized, and a city 800 miles from Las Vegas is grappling with another senseless massacre.
A vigil in recognition of the incident at the Club Q was held at the LGBTQ+ Center of Southern Nevada last week, just days before Thanksgiving. Many speakers were given the opportunity to address the crowd gathered outside, holding candles and shivering in the cold night air. There were a couple of themes that connected all of the remarks: Where can we go when our safe spaces are no longer safe? The shooting is undoubtedly connected to the massive amount of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric being spewed by politicians through the media over the past two years. And, finally, and most important: We’re here and we will not be silenced.
André Wade is state director of Silver State Equality and a member of the Governor’s Advisory Task Force on HIV Exposure Modernization.
