[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 184 (Wednesday, November 30, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6894-S6895]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Club Q Shooting

  Mr. HICKENLOOPER. Mr. President, I had hoped to come to the floor to 
celebrate the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, a bipartisan 
vote to give same-sex couples equal protection under the law. I hoped 
we could reflect on how far we have come.
  But instead, a little over a week ago, we were reminded how much 
remains to be done, how far we have slid back. On Saturday, November 
19, a shooter walked into Club Q, an LGBTQ haven in Colorado Springs, 
and killed five innocent people--five people in a space where everyone 
is empowered to be who they are, to live as themselves, and to do so 
without fear. Unfortunately, that was taken away.
  It is hard not to see this shooting in the context of a rise in hate 
speech toward the LGBTQ community and a rise in using the community as 
a literal target to score cheap political points. The entire LGBTQ 
community has been demonized, slandered, and defamed by politicians and 
public figures.
  Three hundred forty-four laws have been introduced across the country 
attacking the community. We have seen a resurgence of old tropes and 
falsehoods and a fixation on drag shows and drag queens, with baseless 
claims of their danger to children.
  According to the Human Rights Campaign, during the last election 
alone, $50 million worth of anti-LGBTQ ads were run--at best, spreading 
misinformation; at worst, fueling the flames of hate.
  And on November 19, the Colorado Springs LGBTQ community paid for 
that hate. They paid with their lives. The shooter walked in during a 
drag show, no less, and started shooting indiscriminately. Several 
patrons--Richard Fierro and Thomas James among them--ran toward the 
shooter and wrestled him to the ground, saving countless lives. Helping 
Richard and Thomas was a drag queen who attacked the shooter with her 
heels--a drag queen, a supposed danger to children everywhere, 
courageously fighting for her life and the lives of everyone in that 
bar.
  We should be past this. We should all be past this. A clear majority 
of Americans support same-sex marriage, including a majority of young 
Republicans. At its core, our country is about individual freedom--
freedom to be the person you want to be, to live the life you choose to 
live, however you choose to do it, so long as it doesn't infringe on 
others. No one in Club Q was doing anything--not a single thing--that 
harmed or infringed in any way with the rights of anyone else.
  There are many conversations that we need to have about guns, about 
red flag laws, and about protecting the LGBTQ community. We also need 
to talk about the extremism terrorizing our country. A few loudmouths 
have set their sights on some of the most vulnerable among us and 
decided to make them out to be the root of all their problems. So who 
can be surprised that someone out there decided to walk into a drag 
show with a gun and just start shooting?
  It doesn't have to be this way. The Respect for Marriage Act was 
unthinkable not so long ago, as were openly gay Senators, Cabinet 
Secretaries, or judges. Stonewall wasn't just in our lifetimes; it is a 
living memory.
  But we learn. We learn. We keep moving forward because it is hard to 
demonize someone when it is your sibling or your child or your best 
friend.

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We all know someone who could have been a victim, part of that shooting 
targeting this community.
  Club Q is a reminder that it is on us to maintain our hard-fought 
progress. We can't slide back. The passage of the Respect for Marriage 
Act is a measure of hope and a reminder that which direction we go from 
here is still very much a choice. The stakes are too high for anyone to 
sit on the sidelines.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kelly). The majority leader.