Chasten Buttigieg, Others Slam Lauren Boebert’s Massacre Statement

U.S. House of Representatives member Lauren Boebert is under fire after commenting on the Colorado Springs mass shooting at Club Q.

News broke Sunday morning that five people were killed and at least 18 injured by a shooter the gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The suspect, who was subdued by two patrons and subsequently taken into custody by police, has been identified as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich. He allegedly walked into the venue and began firing immediately, carrying two firearms, one of which was a long-gun.

Local media reports reveal that Aldrich was arrested last year in connection with a bomb threat. At the time he was found to be in possession of weapons.

As statements poured in about the shooting -- which brought to mind the Pulse massacre -- Boebert tweeted out a message.

"The news out of Colorado Springs is absolutely awful," she wrote. "This morning the victims and their families are in my prayers. This lawless violence needs to end and end quickly."

Boebert, who was recently re-elected as a representative for Colorado, was quickly condemned.

"You encourage this type of hatred," Chasten Buttigieg tweeted, pointing at Boebert's support of anti LGBTQ+ figureheads. Buttigieg, author, educator, and outspoken husband of U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, has developed a reputation for being vocal online around LGBTQ+ issues. "Get off Twitter and start looking inward."

Others also chimed in.

"Heartbroken about the growing hate against trans people and anti-LGBTQ violence," Robert Garcia, an out congressman-elect from California, tweeted in response. "This mass shooting in Colorado is horrific and devastating. And I am furious that members of Congress like Boebert have the fucking audacity to say anything when they spread this hate constantly."

Many are drawing direct correlations between the increase in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in the Republican party including "don't say gay bills" as well as other efforts like the attempted outlawing of drag performances in some states, as correlated with the shooting. Club Q called the massacre a "hate attack." Police have not spoken to motive or classified the shooting as a hate crime yet.

In the past Boebert has referred to LGBTQ-inclusive education as grooming, said that it should be illegal to come out before the age of 21, and referred to drag as "depravity."

"We don't want to hear a peep from those of you gleefully trafficking in anti-LGBTQ hysteria to score cheap political points," Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse Massacre and current press secretary of Equality Florida tweeted. "Save it."