The 22-year-old shooter who opened fire at the gay nightclub Club Q in Colorado Springs Saturday night is being described in court documents as “non-binary.”
According to defense motion documents filed on behalf of Anderson Lee Aldrich — Aldrich is non-binary — will be addressed as Mx Aldrich, and will be using they/them pronouns for the purposes of all formal filings.
In a clip that has now gone viral, CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota was left speechless after reporting on the new information regarding the non-binary identity of the shooter.
Aldrich, who left five people dead and at least 25 others injured, was eventually taken down by Army veteran Richard Fierro, who disarmed and subdued the shooter with the help of others.
Shortly after the attack, several prominent Democrats and media personalities were vocal in placing blame on what they allege are ongoing political attacks on the LGBTQ community by those on the right.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is gay, told CBS that it was not surprising that physical attacks followed political attacks on the gay community.
In a statement marking the transgender day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed the attack on “MAGA Republicans,” stating that the fight (to protect transgender Americans) was more urgent than ever as “right-wing extremists target transgender Americans’ most fundamental rights and freedoms.” She went on to accuse Republicans of “spouting dangerous rhetoric from cable news desks or openly bullying schoolchildren from the halls of power” and “cruelly undermining the safety and well-being” of the transgender community.’
On MSNBC, former FBI Assistant Director Frank Figluizzi expressed satisfaction that the shooting was being categorized as a hate crime and hypothesized that the shooter could be a consumer of information from people such as Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Tucker Carlson.
The Club Q killer "is a consumer of these people & those people should face civil consequences from the victims." pic.twitter.com/M4OkIKenjJ
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) November 23, 2022
The media has so far been relatively silent since news about the shooter’s gender identity became public.