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Dear John,
The murderous attack Saturday night on Club Q, an LGBTQ+ venue in Colorado Springs which left at least five dead, dozens more injured and countless families and communities changed forever reminds us of our need to be ever vigilant in combatting hate-fueled violence. This wasn’t the only shocking incident this weekend; in New York, vigilance led to arrests tied to threats against the Jewish community.
While we are still awaiting confirmation of motive, the Colorado Springs massacre is reminiscent of the 2016 attack at an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in which a gunman killed 49 people. The tragedy in Colorado Springs looks to be the latest in a long line of extremist attacks targeting marginalized communities including not just Orlando but also Buffalo, Oak Creek, Charleston, Pittsburgh, Poway, El Paso — and more.
ADL and the other members of the
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Community Safety and Solidarity Coalition condemned the horrific attack. As organizations representing a range of racial, ethnic, religious, LGBTQ+ and other groups who also have been targeted by hate-fueled violence, we express our deep sympathy and urge collective action. Communities at risk of hate-fueled violence understand that an attack on one of our communities is an attack on all.
An important thing to recognize is how the current environment of anti-LGBTQ+ bias, discrimination and hate has created the conditions for violence to thrive. We recommend reading this
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new ADL resource on how language, attitudes and acts can escalate to discrimination and bias-motivated violence. We encourage you to share this with your children and other young people who are reacting to the news.
In another alarming episode in this hate-fueled weekend, ADL and partner organizations worked tirelessly alongside law enforcement to support the New York Jewish community as a specific threat emerged that resulted in the apprehension of two suspects at Penn Station in New York City and the seizure of weapons. This comes at a time of heightened sensitivity in the area’s Jewish community after an 18-year-old was charged with sending threats to the Jewish community in New Jersey just two weeks earlier. As always, we ask the community to remain vigilant, and to
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report incidents to ADL.
Taking Action
We call on the White House to host a senior-level convening with leaders of the LGBTQ+ community to hear directly from those impacted by the Colorado Springs violence and broader violent trends. We ask the Administration to accelerate the promised outcomes from the recent United We Stand Summit against hate, terrorism and violence and to fully implement the National Strategy to Counter Domestic Terrorism in a civil rights-protecting manner.
As a timely step towards protecting the LGBTQ+ community,
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ADL and GLAAD, the LGBTQ media advocacy organization, announced a new partnership last week to increase our joint ability to monitor, expose and disrupt anti-LGBTQ+ hate.
Too often, we have witnessed marginalized communities attacked in places they believed to be safe. The Nonprofit Security Grant Program was enacted to provide needed funds to communities to make their gathering spaces safer. While not all places that have been targeted qualify for such grants, many do, and virtually all communities have some gathering spaces that would qualify.
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Join us today in asking your U.S. Senators for their support.
We mourn the lives lost in Colorado Springs, but we refuse to become numb to the spread of hatred and conspiracy theories online, to the rise of hate crimes and bias incidents. We must find ways for our communities to feel safe from hate.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Greenblatt
CEO and National Director
ADL
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