Club Q survivors open new LGBTQ+ lounge to fill void, offer healing to the community
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Nearly a year and a half after the Club Q shooting, a new LGBTQ+ lounge, The Q, hopes to create a space of love and healing for the community.
The Q opened its doors for the first time to the public Friday. The LGBTQ+ bar and lounge is months in the making and founded by Club Q survivors Michael Anderson and Tara Bush.
“It's going to be a busy night for me,” Anderson said. “I'll be bartending tonight, but for me, that's a full circle moment. When the shooting happened, I was bartending and now we're here opening The Q and once again I'll be bartending. So for me, this is a healing moment.”
Anderson said he hopes The Q can be a healing place for all those in the LGBTQ+ community, especially for those who were at Club Q the night of the shooting, when a gunman opened fire, killing five people and injuring dozens of others.
“This is providing and filling in a gap that I think is so desperately hurting people this past year and a half,” Anderson said. “We want to be able to have this venue be a part of healing and a symbol of resilience and strength.”
After the shooting, Club Q closed indefinitely. The owner, Matthew Haynes, said the plan was to remodel and reopen Club Q, however those plans changed. Haynes said the original location for Club Q will eventually reopen in the future but there is no set date.
So in the meantime, Anderson and Bush decided to open an LGBTQ+ lounge inside the Satellite Hotel. Haynes already had a signed lease for the space, so they renovated it, adding a purple bar top, record-plastered walls and games, like pool and darts.
Anderson said The Q fills a void after multiple LGBTQ+ bar closures, including the Club Q and Icons in December due to a fire. Autumn Quinn, who performs drag, said the last year and a half has been isolating.
“The hard part is there's no place that feels 100% ours,” Quinn said. “We have a lot of venues that provide us a night to be queer and be ourselves but there's no space to just go and relax and talk. This is one of the first times in a while where we're actually doing that again.”
The Q itself faced adversity from people inside the Satellite Hotel. Recently five new members were elected to the nine-person Satellite Hotel board with the platform of opposing The Q. They told KRDO13 Investigates some residents were concerned about the late hours of The Q. However, since the lease is already signed, The Q is here to stay. The bar and lounge will be open everyday starting at 4 p.m. and will close at either midnight or 1 a.m. depending on the day.
“What we intend to do here is be good neighbors and be an asset to this building, not a negative thing,” Anderson said. “We hope that the Q will be successful and then along with that the Satellite will be successful as well.”
Anderson said The Q is now the only LGBTQ+ bar in Southern Colorado which adds pressure but shows the LGBTQ+ community is resilient.
“It's a statement to the country and to the world that LGBTQ people are never going anywhere,” he said. “You can do all sorts of horrific things and say horrific things, whether it's politicians or social media, but we're not going anywhere. As a matter of fact, we're going to come back stronger than before.”
