About 250 people gathered at the Santa Fe Plaza Tuesday night to remember the five murdered late Saturday at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs.
People gathered on the Plaza holding candles to remember Kelly Loving, Daniel Aston, Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh and Raymond Green Vance who died at Club Q along with praying for the injured.
The Human Rights Alliance organized the event with help from the City of Santa Fe.
City Manager John Blair says he and other members of the LGBTQ community are angry that such hateful acts keep happening.
“I am so sick and tired of decades of opportunists who come after our community who attempt to deny who we are. Who dehumanize us because it makes it easier to slaughter us, who deny our humanity,” he said. “The people who Tweet after Tweet, day after day on television, call us things like ‘Groomers’, ‘freaks’, we are none of those things. We are all exactly who we are supposed to be.”
Human Rights Alliance President Kevin Bowen says its important for members of the LGBTQ community to come together to grieve.
He says across the country people are frightened because the negative rhetoric has been ongoing for a long time and that many in the community believe blood is on the hands of politicians who have exploited the situation.