By: Chris Freeman, Director At Large

The weekend of November 19, 2022, brought an all too familiar scene back into the national spotlight. A man, and confirmed member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, entered Club Q in Colorado Springs and repeatedly shot into the crowd, killing 5 people and wounding at least 19 others.

The shooting looks very much like a "bias-motivated" crime - a hate crime. Club Q was seen by the local LGBTQ+ community as one of the few places to express their identity without fear. In addition to the loss of the individual people who were murdered, that community is almost certainly grappling with the loss of something many of us take for granted - a sense of safety.

If you look through the hate crime statistics from the FBI (https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/pages/explorer/crime/hate-crime), an uncomfortable trend is unavoidable. The top five most common types of bias offenses against LGBTQ+ people is overwhelmingly violence against their person. Bias offenses against various Christian groups are overwhelmingly property crimes. In this country, and probably the world over, the dominant group does not have much to fear from any of the oppressed groups no matter what their propaganda says.

The vast majority of anti-LGBTQ+ violence is a direct result of religious radicalization. And as Martin Niemöller claims in his poem "First They Came", we are in this together. The Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers group recognizes that we have a duty to show up whenever civil rights are attacked.

We mourn the loss of Daniel Aston, Kelly Loving, Ashley Green Paugh, Derrick Rump, and Raymond Green Vance. We did not know them, but our lives are enriched by people just like them. They are our sons and our daughters, our friends and our neighbors. Our hearts go out to their families, who are dealing with a loss most of us never have to even imagine.

But we don't stop at "thoughts and prayers". There are many ways to provide support, directly and indirectly.

Club Q has chosen Colorado Give 365 (https://www.coloradogives.org/donate/COHealingFund) as the official donation site.

Blood donation is another effective way to ensure emergency services are properly equipped.

Call your legislators to fight against laws which remove legal and social protections for vulnerable populations.

And in your daily life, take a stand against minor injustices.