Colorado Springs pastor speaks on devastation of mass shooting at LGBTQ nightclub, a once safe space
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Sunday, November 20 is Transgender Day of Remembrance. It's an annual observance that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.
Pikes Peak Metropolitan Community Church is holding a vigil at 5:30 p.m. at Temple Beit Torah located at 522 East Madison Street in Colorado Springs.
KRDO will be streaming the vigil below:
The vigil is for those whose lives were lost in the shooting Saturday night. The church was already planning on holding a service for Transgender Day of Remembrance. But since the mass shooting, the focus has shifted to the specific victims.
Now, the purpose is to gather and mourn the five lives lost.
There will also be a Zoom link for those who want to attend but cannot make it in person.
"We're devastated that one of our gathering places for the LGBTQ community in Colorado Springs has been violated in such a horrifying way," Pikes Peak Metropolitan Community Church Pastor Alycia Erickson. "We're devastated by the loss of life and we want to come together to comfort each other, to mourn the lives lost, and just be together."
The Pikes Peak Metropolitan Community Church was founded as a safe space and interfaith service for the LGBTQ community.
"For a long time LGBTQ people have not been welcome in many public spaces because they can't be themselves in those places," Erickson said. "So gay bars within our LGBTQ community have long been a sanctuary, a home away from home for many people in our community. So it is double horrifying and devastating to have someone target our community at the very place where people go to be themselves and be who they really are."
