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As a Black transgender woman who has extensively reported on the rise of anti-trans hate in America, the massacre at Club Q in Colorado Springs is the moment I have always feared, but hoped would never come.
Our entire community mourns, and every life taken or changed in that horrifying attack is yet another reminder that we are not safe, even in our own spaces. The deaths of two young trans people—Daniel Aston, a trans man who worked as a bartender at Club Q, and Kelly Loving, a transgender woman having a night out with her friends—are especially symbolic. They were murdered on Transgender Day of Remembrance, a pinnacle day in the month that the trans community sets aside to mark all of those tragically taken from us due to anti-trans violence.
This is a day that has only gotten more significant each year. 2021 was the deadliest year on record for the transgender community, topping a surge in LGBTQ+ violence which began with the election of Donald Trump in 2016. This points to the fact that this violence has political dimensions.
According to the Crowd Counting Consortium, in the past two years, there has been a steep and sustained increase in the rate of right-wing demonstrations pushing anti-LGBTQ claims. These protests are increasingly focused on transgender people and drag shows, like the one hosted at Club Q on Saturday night, making them targets of right-wing paramilitary groups like the Proud Boys. And these claims are amplified and championed across right-wing and Christian Nationalist media like Fox News and The Daily Wire in a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda.
It's no surprise that violence against members of the LGBTQ+ community was up nearly 20 percent in 2020, the most recent year for data.
But these attacks are a natural consequence of a larger assault against LGBTQ+ people, particularly those who are trans.
In the Anti-Trans Hate Machine, I and my team of journalists have documented how a coordinated campaign of right-wing politicians, hate groups, think tanks, and Christian Nationalist billionaires have created an ecosystem to spawn hundreds of anti-trans bills and to create a culture of fear. This effort to dehumanize trans people, picked up by anti-trans figures like Matt Walsh, create the conditions for stochastic terrorism like we saw at Club Q.
In fact, the Club Q attack came just after the Congress for the first time announced plans to take up federal legislation to codify protections for same-sex and interracial marriage. And while this would be historic, what LGBTQ+ people need is legislation to extend all equal protections to everyone in our community by amending the 1965 Civil Rights Act to broaden its reach.
That legislation, the Equality Act will not only impact the material conditions of LGBTQ+ people, but send a clear message that the United States recognizes the fundamental humanity of everyone regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Amid a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ attacks, this legislation is a clear way to help neutralize the atmosphere of hate fueling violence. And it would honor the victims of the Club Q massacre.
The good news is that the Equality Act can be passed this year. It can be attached to the Respect for Marriage Bill, which has already passed in the House and is quickly making its way through the Senate.
Trans people in particular need the Equality Act's protections.
The most marginalized of trans people, especially Black trans people, face the highest levels of violence, employment discrimination, houselessness, and lack of health care of almost any group of people in the United States.
And research from the Department of Justice shows that the more economically marginalized you are, the more likely you are to experience physical violence. Therefore addressing policy violence against trans people is an important way to lower the physical attacks on this community.
Using the marriage bill as a vehicle for the Equality Act would help address a fundamental error made in the LGBTQ+ movement. Since 2000, marriage equality was centered as the primary human rights focus for LGBTQ+ Americans. But the persistence of acute disparities for our community, especially those at the intersections of race and gender identity, shows the fallacy in this approach. The Equality Act would help us correct this strategic error.
To be clear, the Equality Act won't be a cure all. As with the Civil Rights Act, discrimination will still persist, and massive investments will still be required to truly overcome it.
But there's something even more important about the Equality Act right now. Its passage would be a powerful statement of national values at a critical time.
Even as President Biden has repealed the most egregious anti-trans policies of his predecessor, they have been replaced by a wave of anti-trans bills sweeping the nation. Over 300 bills in over 40 states have been introduced in just 2022 alone. The harshest would ban creating safe space in schools for trans and other queer youth, equal access to health care or teaching LGBTQ+ history even at state colleges and universities.
These anti-trans bills signal that trans people are not like everyone else and can be targeted. These bills are designed to create a climate of hostility and they are succeeding.
Therefore, the Equality Act is an antidote to the cesspool of marginalization and hate which are key ingredients to the violence we witnessed just days ago.
If members of Congress are serious about memorializing Daniel, Kelly, and all those killed or injured in the massacre at Club Q, they can do it by passing real legislation to materially improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people before the year is out. Pass the Equality Act now.
Imara Jones is an award-winning journalist, and the founder and CEO of TransLash Media, a cross platform narrative organization focused on centering the humanity of transgender people in the United States. Imara is the host of the podcast, The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
