What happened in Colorado Springs is still on the minds of many in the LGBTQ+ community. People want to feel safe when going out.
Rumors is a popular LGBTQ+ alternative nightclub.
“Everyone is welcome and should feel welcome,” Rumors GM Brett Grinage told FOX 17.
The business says it’s ready to welcome plenty of people on the biggest bar night of the year.
“One thing nice about the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is all the people that used to live here that you got to know through the years come back to visit family, so that's nice as well as our regulars probably go home with to their families,” Grinage added.
Security is and has always been a top priority, even before the latest shooting to happen to the LGTBQ+ club in Colorado Springs.
“Not again, basically, again, not again. But it makes you think of your own place when you're in the business. We're in the heart of a bigger, a big city. And we're very visible to what could happen,” Grinage said.
Rumors in 2021 hired on Richard Schneider and his security team, which does carry firearms. They plan to have a larger presence on Wednesday night.
“One of the largest things that security is useful for is being marked as a visible deterrent. People see a security they don't really want to bother with it,” Field Operations & Logistics Agency Owner Schneider told FOX 17.
“I mean, I think we don't feel safe, generally speaking. That's why places like Out on the Lakeshore exist. We don't feel safe because of the 32 murders that we've seen in this year alone. We don't feel safe because of shootings at nightclubs,” Out on the Lakeshore Executive Director Kate Leighton-Colburn said.
Out on the Lakeshore is a community of parents, family, and friends of the LGTBQ+ community. Their goal is to make sure no one navigates being a LGTBQ member alone.
“So what we're, what we're trying to do is provide a safe space for people just on an individual level, but also advocate for the community as a whole,” Leighton-Colburn SAID.
Rumors has the same goal in mind so that everyone has a safe place.
“When people walk in, they're just like, 'well, this place is serious. And we feel safe here.' And that's what I get from the staff as well as the customers,” Grinage said.
They say they have a plan and team ready in case the worst were to happen.
“Some of us, like myself, our basic life support train. We also have an on-site or an on-staff EMT. Medical training we see is a big conduit for security,” Schneider said.
