Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said Monday on CNN “This Morning” that it was “hard to conceive” the motive was not “hate” in Saturday’s shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs that left five people dead and 25 injured.
Weiser said, “So the investigation’s ongoing, and I think it’s fair to say, based on the facts, it’s very hard to conceive a situation where the motive wasn’t generated by hate. This was a well-known nightclub that individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation, or gender identity, the LGBTQ community knew was a safe place. It was a place where people could be their authentic selves. And someone came and essentially took all that away. Because we know there’s so much of this hate out there, particularly towards individuals who are LGBTQ. And this is obviously something that is painful. It was on Transgender Remembrance Day when it happened. So this is a call to all of us to look at that hate and ask, what do we do about it?”
He added, “The legitimatization of hate towards LGBTQ+ individuals has to stop. The idea that we can say to someone that they’re less than human or they don’t have a place in our society is a very dangerous road. Because we know that sets the preconditions for people to think, oh, this person is not worth living. I can use my own, and you heard people use this phrase Second Amendment remedies or other such phrases justifying hate crimes, violence. We can, and we all must recognize that everyone has a right to be their best authentic selves, to love who they love, and not have to live in fear that they’re going to be demonized.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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