Kimberly has buried 10 LGBTQ+ friends she lost to hate crimes and suicides. When she received word that a mass shooting killed five people at Club Q on Saturday, she sat in bed for hours, terrified she would have to lay to rest yet another person she loved.

She awoke Sunday to a phone call from her brother, who greeted her with a somber question: “Are you dead?” 

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“He was so scared that somebody else answered my phone and was going to tell him that I was dead,” said Kimberly, who chose not to share her last name due to her status as an LGBTQ+ community member. “I am so familiar with the tragedy of being a part of this community.”

Kimberly was one of more than a dozen speakers who showed up to Monday’s vigil at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, an event hosted by the College Democrats club. Dozens more listened from the crowd with candles in hand. The vigil was one of several held around Colorado Springs on Monday night.

Others returned to the parking lot outside of Club Q, where emotions were especially raw as people added to a candlelit shrine and embraced each other on the scene where five people were killed and 18 more were injured in a supposed safe space.

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At Acacia Park, just north of Downtown, members of the LGBTQ+ community shared stories of their heartbreak over the violence, the need to prevent future tragedy and the importance of representation of their community in popular culture and politics. 

A speaker, Allie Forest, said she was invited to Club Q the night of the shooting and knew one of the victims. She stayed home because she had promised her own 6-year-old and her niece a movie.

“Literally, love saved me,” she said.

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Forest’s sister, Jill Estrada, also spoke. She said she was inspired to come out of her shell and fight for safety for her community by her 7-year-old daughter, who drew a picture of blob monsters of all shapes, colors and sizes to protect the victims of the shooting.  

“I am not going to stand behind and stand back and let things happen – not to my community, not to my home, not to my family. We need to gather together to make it safe for our children to be who they want to be, for our friends, for our family or our loved ones. … So we don’t have to bury any more people just for being who they are and loving who they love,” she said through tears.