DENVER — Club Q plans to reopen this fall, the nightclub’s owners announced Monday on Facebook.
The Colorado Springs club, which was devastated by a shooting in November that left five people dead and 18 injured, has been working with a women-owned architecture firm on a permanent tribute to the victims: Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh and Derrick Rump.
“Their memories will be carried forward and honored forever, while we work to make Club Q a forever home for our LGBTQIA+ community,” the owners wrote in a post.
The new Club Q will also feature enhanced security measures — such as new screening technology — which the owners hope can serve as a model for other queer spaces across the country.
The bar has brought on two victims of the shooting to its staff and plans to add at least one more. The owners said on Facebook that they will soon start distributing money raised through a GoFundMe and other fundraisers to former employees and third-party contractors.
“It was 20 years ago that I fought through a very different time in our country to ensure our community would have a safe space to gather and commune,” Matthew Haynes, founding owner of Club Q, said in the Facebook post.
“It has been two decades now that we have kept the doors open as a place where everyone, regardless of gender identity or who they love, had somewhere to belong. To everyone who has asked me to reopen the club, I assure you we are working very hard to bring our home back. We look forward to being able to gather as one community again.”
Patrons and community members after the shooting said Club Q served as a vital space for Colorado Spring’s gay community — a home away from home in a place that didn’t have many other welcoming gathering places.
Prosecutors last month sought additional charges against the person who carried out the shooting. The suspect already faces 305 criminal charges in connection with the attack, including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, bias-motivated crimes and attempted murder.
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