North carolina police shoot gay bar

By Caleb Bozard Nov 29, Photos by Caleb Bozard. Community organizers held a candlelight vigil Sunday to honor the lives lost in the shooting at the Club Q gay bar in Colorado Springs on Nov The event was planned in only a few days as organizers were traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday, said speaker Matthew Butler, president of the board at the Harriet Hancock Center.

Several speakers and attendees said the shooting also emphasized the importance of supporting places such as The Capital Club. The death toll in the Colorado shooting has risen to carolina with over a dozen more injured, according to the Associated Press. No room for hate in this state. Terracio, who represents Richland County Council District 5, which includes the Vista and Capital Club, called for solidarity and allyship in political action.

Lott was joined by several law enforcement officers, who also blocked off the wide intersection of Assembly and Gervais streets while the group gay across. Lott told the crowd at the State House that north law police was committed to protecting the group on the night of the event and otherwise.

Bill Skipper, president of The Capital Club since it opened in and a speaker at the event, said some family members worried about his safety. Skipper said he can relate to the victims of the shooting. He was in a shooting at a gay bar in Wilmington, North Carolina, in the s and remembers seeing and hearing shattered glass and gunshots and fearing for his life.

Judy said the latest attack made her afraid to continue performing shoot. Several speakers at the event recalled that The Bar Club held a similar event after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. He mentioned comments made by Justice Clarence Thomas after that decision, when the justice said the court should reconsider Obergefell v.

Hodgesits ruling that legalized gay marriage. Both Skipper and Judy said the changes in the political and social climate since the Pulse shooting have not been completely for the better. Judy was one of several speakers who mentioned various recent anti-LGBTQ legislation and legal rulings as evidence of steps backward.

Back then after the Pulse shooting we were starting to get somewhere. Electric candles handed out at the event were placed on a table at The Capital Club, along with photos of the Club Q shooting victims. Sheriff Leon Lott spoke at the event, saying he wants to see a hate crime law passed in South Carolina, which is one of only two states without one.

Gouda Judy, a drag performer and show director at The Capital Club, helped organized and spoke at the event. The Capital Club hosted several speakers during the vigil that advocated for political activism and solidarity.

6 years after Pulse nightclub, another shooting prompts candlelight vigil at The Capital Club

Bozard is a senior journalism student at the University of South Carolina and is a news editor at the student-run Daily Gamecock. He has covered topics such as university politics and social issues. He investigated anti-Asian and Asian American racism on campus during the COVID pandemic and covered leaked, racially charged and homphobic student government communications.

He recently interned for the Orangeburg Times and Democrat and is a first generation college student from Barnwell, S. A sign held by demonstrators at the vigil.