It may seem all too common now, but a mass shooting like Colorado Springs still shocks.
In the wake of that tragedy, in which five people were killed inside an LGBTQ+ nightclub, Boston club goers, managers and others expressed their horror Monday night to GBH News. From lines outside queer friendly clubs to gay bars, there was an uneasy mix of determination not to be deterred from building community with worries about safety.
Despite the long history of violence against the queer community, after the 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Ellyn Ruthstrom said the LGBTQ+ community has felt a “heightened sense of potential for violence.”
“And so when we hear something like [Colorado Springs] happened, I wouldn't say it's surprising, even though it is shocking,” said Ruthstrom, executive director of Speak Out Boston, which trains LGBTQ+ speakers to share their stories publicly, “We know we're a target. So we know that there are forces out there who want to unsettle us, who want to terrorize our community.”
Still, she called the Colorado Springs tragedy “gut-wrenching.”
“These are our safe spaces that we go to for community support, for joy, for connection within our own communities. And so when that space is violated, it's really traumatic for our communities,” said Ruthstrom.
What made this shooting more tragic, Ruthstrom said, was that the violence took place on the same day as the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to draw attention to the violence against transgender people and to honor those killed over the year. Organizers of an in-person event set to take place in Boston moved it online because of what happened in Colorado Springs, Ruthstrom said.
Outside the House of Blues in Boston Monday night, a long line of customers waited in the chilly evening to see “A Drag Queen Christmas,” a celebrity drag show. There were bag checks and metal detectors — part of the club’s usual security process.
“I think everybody’s a little scared, being on edge just with the climate in our country that mass shootings are happening all the time,” said Emily Roskowski, a social worker from Boston. “And anytime you’re in a crowd anywhere it's sort of on the back of your mind.”
Roskowski said it would take reforms “on a national scale” for people to feel more safe, but that the tragedy in Colorado Springs wouldn’t deter her.
“I’m going to continue to support live entertainment and artists that I love and am excited to see,” said Roskowski, “And I hope that we have better policies to keep us safer in the future.”
Further down the line, Meghan Deaguiar was excited to see the performance but called it a “sad time.”
“People are just trying to go out and have a good time and how can you be so mean to people you don’t even know,” said Deaguiar, a trucking company dispatcher who lives outside Boston, ”They’re strangers. How can you hate anybody that much?”
Some local LGBTQ+ venues said they have had to think about safety more often in recent years.
“Obviously here at the Midway where we have a diverse crowd, our concerns are that maybe they are targeting such places,” said Lenny Lashley, bartender at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain, a live music venue which hosts a popular weekly “Queeraoke” night, billed as a “staple Boston queer night."
Lashley said the club stays in touch with local law enforcement, and had expressed safety concerns months before the tragedy in Colorado when there was a white supremacist march in Jamaica Plain in July.
“It’s something that we’re aware of and we want them to be aware of and pay attention to for sure,” Lashley said.
"These are our safe spaces that we go to for community support, for joy, for connection within our own communities. And so when that space is violated, it's really traumatic for our communities."-Ellyn Ruthstrom, executive director of SpeakOUT Boston
Kristen Setera, spokesperson for the FBI Boston division told GBH News that they were “not aware of any specific, credible threats to public safety at this time” but encouraged vigilance.
On Monday night, the FBI hosted a conference call for community partners to address the attack at Club Q. She added the FBI interacts “regularly” with members of the community.
Boston Police Department Sergeant John Boyle declined to comment on specific security procedures, but said the department’s community liaison, Deputy Superintendent Richard Dahill, had “open lines of communication with the LGBTQ+ community through meetings, emails, and phone calls.”
Still, some local LGBTQ+ business owners say the national conversation about gender identity and LGBTQ+ issues has led to a heightened sense that something like the shooting could happen.
“It’s just something that you try not to think about but you can see what’s going on in the country,” said Bill Svetz, who owns Cathedral Station in South End, which is described as a “gay sports bar and neighborhood pub that welcomes everyone.”
He said he felt the transgender community, which has received more focus in recent years, is being “targeted.”
“To me, it's the MAGA Republicans, to be very candid with you,” said Svetz. "You can hear it all over the radio … on Facebook or go on Twitter and stuff like that. And that's where they generate this animosity towards different people.”
Back at the House of Blues in Boston, Angela and Michael Ingersoll, performers and producers, were among those standing in the cold outside the venue Monday night. They’d flown in from Chicago to see their favorite drag performers.
“Everyone should be able to go celebrate life and celebrate music and see each other,” said Michael Ingersoll, “and be with whom they love no matter whom they love, safely.”
