House Oversight Committee to host Club Q shooting survivors in hearing on anti-LGBTQ threats
Less than a month after a deadly shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, the House Oversight Committee will host survivors for a hearing on violence and
WASHINGTON — Less than a month after a deadly shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, the House Oversight Committee will host survivors for a hearing on violence and threats against LGBTQ people, NBC News has learned.
The Dec. 14 hearing will include testimony from bartender Michael Anderson and from James Slaugh, both of whom survived the Club Q shooting, as well as the club’s founding partner and co-owner Matthew Haynes, the committee told NBC News. The panel will also hear from Brandon Wolf, who survived the 2016 shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, where a gunman killed 49 people.
The hearing comes as the U.S. sees a rise in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and an increase in inflammatory rhetoric and hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people.
“Make no mistake, the rise in anti-LGBTQI+ extremism and the despicable policies that Republicans at every level of government are advancing to attack the health and safety of LGBTQI+ people are harming the LGBTQI+ community and contributing to tragedies like what we saw at Club Q,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who chairs the committee, said.
The hearing is likely to be one of the committee’s last before Republicans take control of the House, and thus the panel.
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