Editor’s Statement: Club Q Shooting

It is heartbreaking to have to write this statement at all. Like everyone else, I was hoping to end what was still a rough and trying year on a positive note, playing shows and throwing OFM events that engage and connect with the community.

And, while my plans haven’t changed, there is now a dark cloud that hangs over the rest of the year and our preparations for it. Things like how to increase security, whether to involve police, if we need pat-downs, and other disturbing points of conversation, are becoming par for the course when it comes to planning our end-of-year festivities. Events that were meant to spread joy are now being met with apprehension and fear from the folks throwing and attending them.

As a business owner and editor, as well as someone in a public position in the community, I am doing everything I can to wear all my hats well under the circumstances: report the news, get the word out about updates, share vigils on our socials and calendar, navigate event security, speak with sponsors and advertisers, council my team, make a statement. And I’m glad to do these things despite how hard it is right now because I feel the world needs queer events, media, and information now more than ever.

But there is a part of me that just wants to scream and riot that I too am impacted—that I just lost friends of friends—thank goodness no one closer, and then even that thought brings guilt—that this could happen to me, to any of us, to my friends and co-workers, at any time, on any night. That members of my own family, and many of your families, want us dead for being queer. That I no longer want being openly queer to also be terrifying.

I don’t think I have a grand resolution or a perfect answer to wrap this up—I am working hard to serve the community, and I am suffering and struggling and not OK, as I know you all are as well. I simply ask that whomever you are, whatever your relationship with OFM over the years, reach out if you are hurt, can reach out if we can help. No matter what petty infighting may sometimes go hand in hand with our community, we are one, and we are family.

–Addison Herron-Wheeler