Club Q remembrance: More public events announced to mark 1 year since Colorado Springs mass shooting
Two Colorado Springs organizations that advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, and have worked closely with survivors of the Club Q shooting, are partnering to host a series of public and private memorial events on the one-year mark of the nightclub massacre that killed five people and injured 17 the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Bread and Roses Legal Center and Community Health Partnership will host a public “memorial cleanup and beautification” event at 2 p.m. Nov. 19 outside the club, at 3430 N. Academy Blvd. The building has been closed since the shootings. As of mid-October, the impromptu shrine of flowers, notes and other remembrances to victims Daniel Aston, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, Derrick Rump and Raymond Green Vance had weathered and scattered throughout the overgrown parking lot.
For survivors and victims’ families, returning to the scene — being “physically present in the place where their loved ones were taken from them” — will be painful, but hopefully can bring a chance for catharsis, communal grieving, and connection, according to a Wednesday announcement from the organizations.
“We know that healing looks different for everyone,” said John Arcediano, a Club Q survivor and CHP’s program and outreach manager for Prism Community Collective, the group behind a new LGBTQ+ resource center poised to open in the Springs. “But for those who want to come together, we hope to provide a comfortable, welcoming space to remember and to mourn.”
Both organizations said they will help coordinate transportation and lodging for families traveling in from out of the area. Both also are accepting donations to support such efforts, through Bread and Roses’ Queer 4 Q fund, and Colorado Gives Foundation’s Club Q Remembrance fund.
The groups also plan a second event, at noon Nov. 20 in Acacia Park. Speakers for the Transgender Day of Remembrance Gathering include Colorado State Poet Laureate Andrea Gibson, Bread and Roses co-founder and co-director Z Williams, Prism site director Stoney Roberts and Club Q survivor Wyatt Kent, who performs under the drag name Potted Plant. The first Transgender Day of Remembrance was held on Nov. 20, 1999, to honor the lives lost because of hatred and transphobia, and draw attention to their murders.
“Since the first days after the (Club Q) attack, we have seen survivors and victims’ families clearly express their needs. Our job has been to listen, honor those needs, and amplify voices,” said Williams. “We are humbled and honored to be part of implementing this vision for such a somber and important day for our queer and trans communities.”
A Nov. 19 remembrance ceremony announced last month by the organizational team set up by Club Q owner Matthew Haynes is planned for noon at the club off North Academy, prior to the community clean-up event.
Jeff and Sabrina Aston, the parents of bartender Daniel Aston, will be in attendance. Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade, as well as “other prominent leaders, survivors, and families of our fallen victims,” also are expected.
Original plans by Haynes to reopen his club in the same location have been scuttled, in favor of a new spot inside the Satellite Hotel, and with a new name (“The Q”) and more laid-back lounge-style model. Club Q has said it’s moving ahead with a $300,000 standing stone memorial to the victims and survivors on the southeast exterior of the original club location, and that all funding goals for that project have been met.
Flowers lie in the parking lot of Club Q in April in front of the memorials for the five victims in the mass shooting at the club the night of Nov. 19.
