Congress
Club Q massacre survivors testify before Congress
Hearing focused on rise of anti-LGBTQ extremism, violence
Two survivors of the Club Q massacre on Wednesday testified during a House Oversight Committee hearing that focused on the rise of anti-LGBTQ extremism and violence in the U.S.
Michael Anderson, a Club Q bartender, noted he grew up in Central Florida and “was taught in my private religious school and by many conservative voices to hate who I was, that being born gay was something to reject.”
Anderson told the committee that he “waited, silent and suffering” until he came out as gay at 16. Anderson also said gay bars and clubs “helped me embrace who I was and formed me into the man I am today.”
“On Nov.19th, 2022, a deranged shooter entered Club Q armed with an assault rifle, a pistol, an incredibly disturbing amount of ammunition and an even more disturbing amount of hatred in their heart, all while cowardly hiding behind a bulletproof vest,” said Anderson. “This shooter entered our safe space and our home with the intention of killing as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. They used a military style weapon that exists solely for the intention of killing other human beings and began to hunt us down as if our lives meant nothing.”
James Slaugh told the committee that he was at Club Q with his partner and sister when the gunman opened fire.
The gunman shot Slaugh in his arm, and his partner in his leg. Slaugh’s sister was shot more than a dozen times.
“The events of Nov. 19 were a nightmare come true,” said Slaugh. “Five wonderful people were still murdered: Ashley Paugh, Raymond Green Vance, Daniel Aston, Derrick Rump and Kelly Loving. We miss each of you.”
“Club Q was a second home and safe space to all of us,” he added. “Outside of these spaces we are continually being dehumanized, marginalized and targeted. The fear based and hateful rhetoric surrounding the LGBTQ community, especially around trans individuals and drag performers leads to violence. We shouldn’t have to fear being shot when we go to our safe spaces.”
Matthew Haynes, Club Q’s founding owner, in his testimony thanked local and state officials and LGBTQ rights groups — specifically One Colorado, Inside Out Youth Services in Colorado Springs and GLAAD — “for the efforts and support they have all provided to our community during this time.”
“We should not be meeting under these pretenses,” said Haynes. “I know that we as a community are in the thoughts and prayers of so many people, including many of you, unfortunately these thoughts and prayers alone are not saving lives, they are not changing the rhetoric of hate.”
Colorado prosecutors earlier this month indicted the suspected gunman with 305 charges that include first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and bias-motivated crime.
The hearing took place a day after President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act during a ceremony on the White House’s South Lawn. (Only 39 House Republicans voted for the measure when it received final approval on Dec. 8, the same day that Russia released WNBA star Brittney Griner in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.) It also took place against the backdrop of a proliferation of anti-LGBTQ bills that lawmakers across the country have introduced; an increase in online hate speech, harassment and threats based on sexual orientation and gender identity and anti-LGBTQ violence.
“To the politicians and activists who accuse LGBTQ people of grooming children and being abusers, shame on you,” Anderson told the committee. “As leaders of our country, it is your obligation to represent all of us, not just the ones you happen to agree with.”
“Hate speech turns into hate action, and actions based on hate almost took my life from me, at 25 years old,” added Anderson. “I beg you all to consider your words before you speak them, for someone may use those words to justify action – action that may take someone’s life.”
Haynes in his testimony noted he received “hundreds of hate mail and emails” after the Club Q massacre.
“I woke up to the wonderful news that five mentally unstable faggots and lesbians and 18 injured,” read one of them. “The only thing that I’m mad about is that the faggots had courage to subdue the wonderful killer. I hope more shootings happen again. Have a blessed day.”
“The shooter was doing God’s work, five less fags not enough,” said another. “Those that stopped him are the devil.”
Haynes told the committee that now “is a critical time for national, state, local elected officials, community and religious leaders to drop the politics and work with LGBTQ leaders and small business owners like me to support and affirm LGBTQ events, venues, communities and must importantly people.”
“We need safe spaces like Club Q more than ever,” he added. “And we need you, as our leaders, to support and protect us.”
Democratic New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, the committee’s outgoing chair, in her opening remarks noted the Club Q gunman’s “depravity robbed us of five innocent lives” before she read the victims’ names.
“In attacking Club Q, the shooter attacked the sense of safety of LGBTQI people across the country,” she said. “The attack on Club Q is not an isolated incident, but a trend of broader intimidation.”
Inside Out Youth Services President Jessie Pocock in her testimony noted at least one of the massacre’s victims had previously visited her organization.
“This is not ok. This is not normal,” said Pocock.
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson told the committee the Club Q massacre “is just one example of the violence that has shattered LGBTQ+ lives, families and communities in the past few years.”
“Violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ communities is the tragic result of a society that devalues our lives — particularly the lives of black and brown transgender and gender non-conforming people,” said Robinson. “And this hate and violence is on the rise.”
Robinson in her testimony cited openly gay California state Sen. Scott Wiener, who received a bomb threat earlier this month that contained his home address and described him as a “pedophile” and a “groomer.”
“Fueled by nearly unfettered access to guns, and political extremism and rhetoric that is deliberately devised to make our community less safe, less equal and less free,” said Robinson. “Violence has become a lived reality for so many in our community.”
GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis, National Center for Transgender Equality Policy Director Olivia Hunt, Ilan Meyer of the Williams Institute, Charles Fain Lehman of the Manhattan Institute and Equality Florida Communications Director Brandon Wolf also testified.
Wolf in 2016 survived the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, Fla., that left 49 people dead and 53 others injured.
Congress
Five HIV/AIDS activists arrested outside Susan Collins’s D.C. office
Protesters demanded full PEPFAR funding
U.S. Capitol Police on Tuesday arrested five HIV/AIDS activists who protested outside U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)’s office in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
A press release that Housing Works, Health GAP, and Disability Voters of Maine issued notes 30 HIV/AIDS activists “carried out an act of civil disobedience” at Collins’s D.C. office and “delivered mock ‘bodybags'” to her office in Portland, Maine.
“Activists were reacting to deadly harms caused by Collins’s unwillingness to hold Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought accountable for illegally obstructing the release of already appropriated funding for lifesaving HIV treatment and prevention,” reads the press release.
Elizabeth Koke, senior director of brand strategy for Housing Works, told the Washington Blade that Housing Works CEO Charles King is among those who were arrested in D.C. The press release notes 30 HIV/AIDS activists participated in the protest.
Activists since the Trump-Vance administration took office in January have demanded full PEPFAR funding.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio Jan. 28 issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the freeze on nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending. HIV/AIDS service providers around the world with whom the Blade has spoken say PEPFAR cuts and the loss of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which officially closed on July 1, has severely impacted their work. (The State Department last month announced PEPFAR will distribute lenacapavir, a breakthrough HIV prevention drug, in countries with high prevalence rates.)
The New York Times in August reported Vought “apportioned” only $2.9 billion of $6 billion that Congress set aside for PEPFAR for fiscal year 2025. (PEPFAR in the coming fiscal year will use funds allocated in fiscal year 2024.)
Bipartisan opposition in the U.S. Senate prompted the Trump-Vance administration in July withdraw a proposal to cut $400 million from PEPFAR’s budget. Vought on Aug. 29 said he would use a “pocket rescission” to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid that Congress had already approved.
The federal government has been shut down since Oct. 1.
“In July, we applauded Collins’s willingness to fight for people with HIV which resulted in a temporary reprieve from further unlawful cuts,” said Health GAP Executive Director Asia Russell. “In response, Vought has gone behind Collins’s back. Why isn’t she fighting back? We cannot allow Collins to refuse to take action now — just because Vought is violating the law doesn’t mean she can break her promise to people with HIV.”
Collins chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“Collins has said that PEPFAR funds are not reaching people in need, yet she refuses to use the full power of her position to end the political obstruction and lawlessness while people continue to die,” said Marie Follayttar of Disability Voters of Maine. “The consequences of her inaction, and of her votes, will be measured in body bags around the world.”
The protesters’ press release notes two specific demands for Collins:
• Fully restore PEPFAR programming by directing Vought to release withheld PEPFAR funding consistent with Congressional appropriations
• Include the release of withheld PEPFAR funding as part of her 6-point plan to re-open government
“Senator Collins has been the Senate champion for PEPFAR and was responsible for saving the program from $400 million in cuts just three months ago,” Blake Kernen, Collins’s press secretary, told the Blade on Wednesday. “It was difficult to understand what the protesters wanted or their message.”
“Many entered the office, sat on the ground, and used a loud noisemaker, which made it impossible to hear,” said Kernen. “A member of Sen. Collins’s staff offered to speak with the group, but they continued to shout over her and refused the offer.”
Congress
Mike Waltz confirmed as next UN ambassador
Trump nominated former national security advisor in May
The U.S. Senate on Sept. 19 confirmed former U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) as the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
The Florida Republican had been the national security advisor until President Donald Trump in May tapped him after U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) withdrew her nomination in order to ensure Republicans maintained their narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Senators approved Waltz’s nomination by a 47-43 vote margin.
“Thank you President Trump and the U.S. Senate for your trust and confidence to Make the UN Great Again,” said Waltz on X.
The U.N. General Assembly is taking place this week in New York. Trump is scheduled to speak on Tuesday.
Congress
State Department urged to restore LGBTQ-specific information in human rights reports
Congressional Equality Caucus sent Secretary of State Marco Rubio a letter on Sept. 9
The Congressional Equality Caucus has called upon the State Department to once again include LGBTQ and intersex people in their annual human rights report.
U.S. Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Julie Johnson (D-Texas), and Sarah McBride (D-Del.), who co-chair the caucus’s International LGBTQI+ Rights Task Force, spearheaded a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sept. 9.
The 2024 human rights report the State Department released last month did not include LGBTQ-specific references. Jessica Stern, the former special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights under the Biden-Harris administration who co-founded the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice, described the removal of LGBTQ and intersex people and other groups from the report as “deliberate erasure.”
“We strongly oppose your decision to remove the subsection on Acts of Violence Criminalization, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity or Expression, or Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC Subsection) from the State Department’s Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (Human Rights Reports),” reads the letter. “We urge you to restore this information, or else ensure it is integrated throughout each human rights report.”
Congress requires the State Department to release a human rights report each year.
The Congressional Equality Caucus’s letter points out the human rights reports “have been a critical source of information on human rights violations and abuses against LGBTQI+ persons around the world.” It specifically notes consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in more than 60 countries, and the 2017 human rights report included “details on the state-sponsored and societal violence against LGBTQI+ persons in Chechnya, including extrajudicial killings.”
Immigration Equality in response to the 2024 human rights report said the reports “serve as key evidence for asylum seekers, attorneys, judges, and advocates who rely on them to assess human rights conditions and protection claims worldwide.”
“The information in these reports is critical — not just for human rights advocates — but also for Americans traveling abroad,” reads the Congressional Equality Caucus’s letter. “LGBTQI+ Americans and their families must continue to have access to comprehensive, reliable information about a country’s human rights record so they can plan travel and take appropriate precautions.”
The caucus’s full letter can be read here.
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