Members of the LGBTQI+ community, local elected leaders and Philly organizations mourned Sunday following a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs that left five people dead and 25 people injured.
Elected officials from Philadelphia and Pennsylvania shared their feelings, raised concerns about anti-LGBTQI hate and voiced support for changes to the county’s gun laws.
“Gisele + I are devastated and angry after last night’s hateful attack at an LGBTQIA+ club,” U.S. Senator-elect John Fetterman tweeted. “Our hearts are with Colorado Springs. When will we *finally* take Common Sense actions to protect our communities from hate + violence??”
“Praying for the victims and loved ones of all those harmed in this tragic mass shooting,” Mayor Jim Kenney said on social media. “To the LGBTQ+ community, we stand with you during this devastating time.”
“Our country is awash in guns—it’s beyond time to take legislative action and help stop this,” he added.
The suspected shooter, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, was subdued by people at the establishment, Club Q, and the motive behind the attack remained unclear Sunday as Metro went to press.
“While the details of and specific motives behind this tragedy are still being investigated, what we do know is that, in environments where hate is enabled, senseless violence is often the result,” the Mazzoni Center, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit LGBTQ healthcare provider, said in a statement. “We must put an end to hate and discrimination wherever it exists.”
Many in the city’s LGBTQI+ community were already planning to mourn Sunday to commemorate Trans Day of Remembrance, which takes place Nov. 20 every year to remember victims of anti-transgender violence.
Officials on Sunday morning raised the light blue, pink and white trans flag to half-mast outside City Hall, and events were scheduled to to be held at the William Way LGBT Community Center and other locations.
“Another community shattered by the sickening scourge of gun violence,” North Philadelphia state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, who is gay, said on Twitter. “This attack, the night leading into Trans Day of Remembrance, is particularly painful.”
“Too many politicians parrot hatred and cower at the feet of the NRA,” he added. “Enough has been enough.”
