Discovery Company. Focus on the Family's Colorado Springs, Colorado, headquarters was vandalized on Thanksgiving with a message blaming the group for a recent mass shooting that killed five people and injured 18 others. Referring to a trans person by a name they no longer use is often known as deadnaming. A man was sentenced in 2020 for the murder of one woman, but the other two deaths have not been solved. Some conservative lawmakers and leaders have supported anti-LGBTQ legislation rooted in the same harmful anti-LGBTQ rhetoric espoused by extremist groups. This is a time for prayer, grieving and healing, not vandalism and the spreading of hate., Focus on the Family defines itself as a global Christian ministry dedicated to helping families thrive. The organization supports the anti-abortion movement in the abortion debate, and features anti-LGBT+ broadcasts, including Leaving Homosexuality and Finding Forgiveness and Transformed by Grace: Leaving Homosexuality to Follow Christ., The families of the five individuals killed in Saturday nights senseless attack are in our prayers, Daly said. The group has condemned the Club Q attack and urged prayer for peace as well as for whomever was responsible for the mischievous and unwarranted defacing of the property. CLICK HERE for the GoFundMe Central Hub for donation information. Focus on the Family is a global Christian ministry dedicated to helping families thrive. A police officer lifts barricade tape as authorities respond to the scene of the mass shooting. "[Gay is] a word that means what other people say it meansnothing more, nothing less," the webpage said. Metz reported from Salt Lake City. Five lives taken.". Immediately following the shooting, Focus on the Family President Jim Daly told 11 News sister station CBS Denver that he mourned the tragedy and that the organization wanted to make it clear it stands against hate. Tyler O'Neil The vandals added, Five lives taken.. Although it is not clear if the suspect had a connection with the organization, the conservative Christian ministry group is known for its anti-LGBTQ messaging. More than one-third of residents are nonwhite twice as many as in 1980. The families of the five individuals killed in Saturday nights senseless attack are in our prayers. Opponents of these events often use language that conflates drag performers with trans people and dehumanizes LGBTQ people. Copyright 2022 KKTV. The Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family is a proponent of family and moral values. Wilson singles out Colorado Springs and Focus on the Family: Colorado Springs, where the shooting took place, has itself long been a hub for the Christian Right, which for decades has pumped out anti-LGBTQ propaganda in the name of a narrow and exclusionary definition of family. "I mean, there's a hell of a lot more than 5 deaths caused by focus on the family," one user tweeted. Priester-Collins watched the preliminary hearing remotely because she was unsure she would be able to stay calm inside the courtroom with the person accused in the attack sitting feet away. Woman shot near CU Boulder overnight, suspect is at large, This is unprecedented": Avian flu has killed 12,000 birds in Colorado, Skygazers will have a great view Wednesday of two planets that look like they are almost touching, Letters: Proposed age limit for gun ownership in Colorado doesn't make sense, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot concedes defeat, Southern California home sales fall to all-time low, NYC Mayor Adams dismisses need to separate church and state, declares himself a servant of God, Zero-calorie sweetener linked to heart attack and stroke, study finds, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. But I will also acknowledge that I chose to leave the Springs because I felt like when it came to the elected leadership, the vocal leadership in this community, it wasnt supportive of all people, wasnt supportive of Black people, wasnt supportive of immigrants, not supportive of LGBTQ people, Herod said at a memorial event downtown. On the night of the shooting, the suspect arrived at Club Q around 10:14 p.m. and stayed for just a few minutes before leaving and coming back inside with guns, including an assault-style rifle, she said. Law enforcement says a gunman The US Supreme Court later struck down the amendment. The hearing is scheduled to continue through Friday, when a judge will rule if there is enough evidence to take the case which includes more than 300 charges to trial. Politics here lean more conservative than in comparable-size cities. Wilsons article doesnt mark the first time the Southern Poverty Law Center has suggested that anti-LGBT hate and conservative Christians may be responsible for a shooting at a gay nightclub. Police will often rely on legal names to identify victims or suspects. In 2019, Brandon Ragan, one of the departments LGBTQ liaisons, told WMFE, Orlandos public radio station, that the department had made mistakes in its investigation into Gardens death and would learn from them going forward. Though it was later ruled unconstitutional, the campaign cemented the citys reputation, drawing more like-minded groups and galvanizing progressive activists in response. The man suspected of killing five people and wounding 17 others at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub will face multiple murder and hate crime charges, Leslie Herod followed an opposite trajectory. Introducing the victims as they lived was a way to represent them with compassion and dignity, Castro told CNN. Thats usually the club that most people here in Oklahoma, when they take a trip out there, thats where theyre recommended to go for a safe space, Tempest Cartwright, who was best friends with a Club Q bartender who was killed in the shooting, told BuzzFeed News last year. Community members gather for a vigil Sunday at the All Souls Unitarian Church in Colorado Springs. In the 1990s, the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family advocated to amend the Colorado Springs Constitution to make it illegal to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. He said the horrific event exposes the evil and wickedness inside the CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. A person pauses to pay respects at a makeshift memorial in November 2022, near Club Q. Ren Kurgis, left, and Jessie Pacheco leave flowers Sunday at the growing memorial in Colorado Springs. Will that affect potential hate crime charges? A lot of people here know Club Q as being that safe haven., Paige Skinner is a breaking news reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles. Copyright 2023 KKTV. Focus on the Family is privileged to be one of many organizations in our city positioned to help and support the needs of struggling individuals and families. To be sure, most people share varying degrees of personal information with family, co-workers, friends, and other acquaintances and that is, perhaps, especially true of people in the LGBTQ community. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/colorado-springs-reckons-with-past-after-club-q-shooting, Club Q owner says Colorado Springs shooting comes amid a new type of hate, Six killed when employee opens fire inside Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, Why far-right groups are increasingly targeting the LGBTQ community, Prosecutors pursue hate crime charges in Colorado LGBTQ nightclub shooting. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much After the shooting, Focus on the Familys president, Jim Daly, said that like the rest of the community he was mourning the tragedy. Refusing to acknowledge someones humanity in death adds insult to injury, according to GLAAD, compounding the tragedy by invalidating the persons lived reality.. The idea of latching onto a city with a bright future is part of what drew Michael Anderson, a bartender at Club Q who survived last weekends shooting, to move here. We urge everyone to pray for peace and we also pray for the individual or group responsible for this mischievous and unwarranted defacing of our ministrys property.. Jessi Hazelward wipes a tear from her friend Amanda Grueschow's face during a vigil in Colorado Springs on Sunday. These attacks should come as no surprise to those familiar with this leftist groups political tactics. For others, the shocking act of violence in a space considered an LGBTQ refuge shattered a sense of optimism pervading everywhere from the citys revitalized downtown to the sprawling subdivisions on its outskirts. Focus on the Family is an evangelical organization founded in California in 1977. COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - Vandals defaced a sign outside a local Christian ministry Thursday, accusing the organization of complicity in the horrific massacre at an LGBTQ+ nightclub. Club Q was more than a night out. Police chief Adrian Vasquez took a basic but still relatively uncommon step when announcing the names of the five victims killed at Club Q, the beloved LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Group claiming responsibily for graffiti points to Focus on the Familys legacy of hateful theology, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile, Related video: Police identify Colorado Springs shooting victims by how they identified themselves. Wilson does not mention that Gordon Klingenschmitt, who runs the Pray in Jesus Name Project, condemned the shooting. Alex Clemons and his daughter Epifania pay their respects at a makeshift memorial near Club Q on Sunday. It is hard. With the city under the national spotlight, he said the organization wanted to make it clear it stands against hate. Leia-jhene Seals hugs R.J. Lewis during the vigil at the All Souls Unitarian Church. Opinion: Colorado farms going fallow? Candidate name: Tom Strand. The amendment passed, and Colorado earned the nickname the hate state, according to the Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum. There must be a willingness to learn about the full lives of those taken from us for the sake of respecting and honoring their lives.. Much of the legislation aimed to limit trans youths access to gender-affirming health care or banned participation in school sports that aligned with their gender. Their blood is on your hands, vandals spray-painted at the Colorado Springs headquarters of Focus on the Family. Published Still, he noted signs that the city was more culturally conservative than others of similar size and much of Colorado: Colorado Springs is kind of an outlier, he said.

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