Club Q Announces Plans to Reopen, Honor the 5 People Killed

Author: Alex Cooper

The LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo., where a gunman shot and killed five people, injuring scores more, announced on Monday its plans to rebuild and eventually reopen.

Club Q said that it also has a plan to financially help those affected as well as the club’s former staff and contractors.

“Our goal and intention has always been to return Club Q as a safe space for the Colorado Springs LGBTQIA+ community and will continue to tirelessly work toward that effort,” the establishment said in a news release.

Club Q is expected to reopen next fall.

The club said that it was working with Colorado Springs and a local women-owned architecture firm to create a tribute to the victims of the shooting as well as rebuilding the club with new security protections. The designs for the rebuild are expected in the next four to six weeks. The planned tribute will be a permanent memorial to Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, and Derrick Rump.

Related: Who Were the 5 Victims of the Club Q Shooting?

The new security features will be planned in coordination with local, state, and federal agencies, according to the release, in order to have Club Q stand as a model for LGBTQ+ safe spaces in the U.S.

Suspected gunman Anderson Lee Aldrich allegedly opened fire inside the club minutes before midnight on November 20, 2022. Aldrich was taken down by some of the patrons at the club at the time. Aldrich, who is nonbinary, has been charged with more than 300 counts including murder, attempted murder, and hate crimes.

“It was 20 years ago that I fought through a very different time in our country to ensure our community would have a safe space to gather and commune,” Matthew Haynes, founding owner of Club Q, said in the release. “It has been two decades now that we have kept the doors open as a place where everyone, regardless of gender identity or who they love, had somewhere to belong. To everyone who has asked me to reopen the club, I assure you we are working very hard to bring our home back. We look forward to being able to gather as one community again.”

The club has also brought on two victims of the shooting as new staff as a full staff plan is worked out for the venue to reopen. It also said that it continues to fundraise for those affected by the shooting, supporting both the Colorado Healing Fund and the Compassion Fund. It said it’s been able to raise money to help cover the lost income of its staff since the shooting.

Original Article on The Advocate
Author: Alex Cooper