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7 months after Club Q tragedy, CO Springs is PROUDLY celebrating PRIDE! [1]
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Date: 2023-06-10
Today marks the beginning of the annual Pikes Peak Pride Fest in Colorado Springs, once known as the “City of Hate.”
I have lived and loved and known and seen the pain that hate in this city has caused for many decades. Something utterly horrible happened 7 months ago that shook us all to the bones.
In the community that once pioneered the rise of an anti-LGBTQ+ movement that earned Colorado the nickname of the “Hate State,” five people were killed and another 25 injured after a gunman opened fire at a gay club. The shooting devastated residents, who say the community is still healing as it prepares for its first pride since the shooting. “We’re all in trauma and we’ve been hurt,” says Liss Smith, the communications and advocacy director at local LGBTQ+ organization Inside Out Youth Services. “Even talking about it now, I shake a little because it just hits so close to home… I know that many of [the staff at Inside Out] have been feeling deep-seated anxiety and dread ever since. And I don’t know when or if it’ll ever go away.” time.com/...
What happened that night at Club Q was devastating. But it’s effect on the so-called city of hate has been surprisingly uplifting. The community has come together in support of the LGBTQ+ movement more than I have ever seen before. Perhaps it was because this event highlighted the fact that people at this club were just everyday people, from the hero who saved the day, to the belovedness of those who died, to the heartache of those who lost loved ones, to the tragic story of how the shooter had given so many warning signs of what was to come. But in the aftermath, the city somehow elected their first Black mayor — NOT a republican — who comes with a fresh people-centered agenda.
And this year’s Pride Fest is being held with complete and total PRIDE and support from the entire community.
At a time when there are many new laws trying to censor talk about “gayness” in schools, and others trying to attack our freedom of expression regarding drag or access to gender affirming care, many Pride parades are being canceled or held with a “climate of fear.”
“Some communities have struggled with being granted permits for pride, or with the withdrawal of their typical sponsors for the annual event.” Not in Colorado Springs!
Tens of thousands are expected to gather at pride on Saturday—not just to see the drag queens, burlesque performers, bands, and more than 120 exhibitors, but also to be in community and commemorate the victims. Richard Fierro, the Army veteran who disarmed the shooter that night, will be the grand marshal of the parade, leading the way in his El Camino. And hosts have also been ardently preparing for a memorial that they say has been planned with input from the families of the victims and survivors. time.com/...
Pikes Peak Pride Fest Date: June 10-11, 2023.
Time: 10:00am-7:00pm.
Where: Alamo Square Park, 215 S Tejon Street, Colorado Springs (Pioneer Museum)
Cost: Free admission to the festival.
Parade: Sunday, June 11, 11:00am. Acacia Park to Pioneer Museum via Tejon Street.
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https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/6/10/2174530/-7-months-after-Club-Q-tragedy-CO-Springs-is-PROUDLY-celebrating-PRIDE
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