Checking in Re: the CO Springs Shootings
Obviously, we're all still reeling from what happened in CO Spring, the 5 siblings who were murdered by a young man who was lied to about who we are. There aren't any good words to say. I don't even want to look for hope at this moment. I've noticed my tendency to shut down, to distract and numb out was prominent. My boyfriend came over and just held me for a long while in silence, and that helped.
But mostly, I stayed offline. And that's what keeps my mind from being so attached to the horrifying repeating news cycle. Going over the same articles over and over again. Looking for some new clue or detail. Looking for something that will make me feel... better? I really don't know why I'm still staring into my phone, at the same articles... what do I expect but sorrow?
And that is not a bad thing. It just is. It's something for me to notice and what I'll do in the meantime, between this thought and the next is ask what is gonna help me to feel safe and held while I process this big sadness.
I expect to be slower this week. I expect my mind to be cluttered. I expect to cry at the drop of a hat. And I expect I'lll be able to take care of myself thru every bit of it.
I know you can too. Who do you need to reach out to with Love or for Love? How are you resting and slowing down more? How are you letting yourself grieve?
I'm gonna leave you with the words of podcaster and writer, Dan Savage. He said some things that gave me comfort in this twitter thread.
It's not just that gay bars are supposed to be a safe space.
People who hate queer people want us to keep it private. Behind closed doors. Someplace they don't have to see it. And the doors of a gay bar are doors we keep it behind. A place we can go and be together and not bother *them* with the fact of our existence.
And behind those doors... is a place we can forget *they* exist. Not straight people. There are straight people in gay bars and clubs. Our friends. But behind those doors we can forget — we can suspend our disbelief — and pretend the haters don't exist. Just for a few hours. An attack like this says "not even here."
Behind closed doors isn't good enough for *them.* It's not that they want us to exist out of sight. They don't want us to exist at all. So, if we're not safe in there... behind closed doors... where they say they want us... we have no choice but to fight to make it safe everywhere, for all LGBT people. "Out of the bars and into the streets!"
That was a chant heard during the Stonewall Riots. The modern LGBT civil rights movement began with an attack on a bunch of queer people—gay men, drag queens, trans women, butch dykes—being themselves behind closed doors.
The raid on the Stonewall Inn was state-sponsored violence. The attack on Club Q in Colorado Springs last night... well, we're waiting on the full details. But it looks like GOP-sponsored violence. Not just the logical result of the "groomer" blood libel, but the goal.
They used to say there was something wrong with us because we only gathered in seedy bars. But that was where they herded us. That was the only space we were allowed. And when they attacked us in a gay bar one time too many... we poured out of not just that bar, but all of them. Into the streets. Behind closed doors was never enough.
They knocked down those doors and arrested us in bedrooms and evicted us from our apartments and fired us from our jobs and made something that's already hard to do—loving another human being—almost impossible.
We fought back then. We fought back last night.
"The 22-year-old suspect... immediately began shooting at people once he entered Club Q and at least two people 'confronted and fought' with him, stopping him from harming others, officials said."
(washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11…)And we're going to keep fighting. Because if we're not safe behind the closed doors of a gay bar — if they can't let us have even that — then we're not safe anywhere.
So we will fight until we're safe everywhere.
Read the whole thread here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1594392622034190336.html
