Club Q owner vows to reopen and give queer people ‘a space to go again’ after mass shooting
Club Q co-owner Nic Grzecka embraces mourners outside Colorado Springs City Hall. (Credit: Getty Images)
Nic Grzecka, the co-owner of Club Q where five people were killed and many were injured in a mass shooting, has promised the queer space will reopen.
Just two weeks after the devastating attack, which took place on 19 November, Grzecka, who owns Club Q alongside Matthew Haynes, has told NRP: “We will be rebuilding in some sense or form.”
He added: “This community has expressed wholeheartedly their need for the space that we’ve provided for 20 years.”
In a bid to ensure people feel safe returning to the haven they had created, Grzecka, said he and his staff are working on a temporary solution.
“We’re currently working on another space we have, another venue.
“We’re hoping we can get some funds and people to help get this other space open so we can get our employees back to work and give people a space to go to again.”
Following the mass shooting, Grzecka said Club Q and its community have received huge amounts of support, especially from city officials.
“The city officials in Colorado Springs have been just wonderful, providing support, therapy, and victim advocates.
“They’ve been transparent and respectful of our community, which doesn’t always happen, and that’s been wonderful.”
However, in a separate interview with Associated Press, Grzecka opened up about how homophobic slurs have “created a new type of hate”.
He blamed politicians “relating a drag queen to a groomer” for an ever-growing level of misinformed vitriol against the LGBTQ+ community, adding: “I would rather be spit on in the street than get the hate as bad as where we are today.
“Lying about our community and making them into something they are not, creates a different type of hate.”
In the wake of the attack, far-right Christian group Focus on the Family had its sign vandalised with graffiti reading “blood is on your hands” and “five lives taken”.
An individual has also been arrested for making a threat against a pro-LGBTQ+ club just days after the Club Q shooting.
Chase Staub was arrested on 24 November after making multiple threats against the LGBTQ-inclusive venue Heretic Atlanta over social media and in person.
Anderson Lee Aldrich – whose lawyers have said uses they/them pronouns – faces multiple counts of murder and hate crime charges after the fatal shooting which killed five people and injured many more.
The suspect allegedly opened fire in the LGBTQ+ club in the late hours of 19 November before being subdued by two bystanders.
They were reportedly beaten into submission by club patrons, including a trans woman and a former military officer, before being arrested by armed police at the scene.
Aldrich appeared in court on 23 November and is now being held without bail. They are next scheduled to attend court on 6 December.
