Gee & Ursula: ‘Where does the hate come from?’ in LGBTQ+ nightclub shooting

Police haven’t officially called it a hate crime, but Gee & Ursula are using the Colorado Springs mass shooting at an LGBTQ+ nightclub to frame the question, “Where does the hate come from?”

Gee Scott pointed out the shootings in recent days. “In less a week, we’ve had Virginia. We saw what happened out there with the three students that were killed. We’ve had Idaho. We saw what happened even though it wasn’t a gun. It was a knife and we still haven’t found the suspect in that killing yet.

“Now we have Colorado.”

Gee said locally, we had the Ingraham High School shooting where a 17-year-old was killed. He believes that with all this violence, we are becoming desensitized.

“It is so normal now to wake up every day. And we just talk about it and talk about it,” Gee explained. “We talk about crime, mass shootings, death, all of those things.”

Gee said that if you are a 15 or 18-year-old, you don’t even know a world without mass shootings.

“At some point, we will have to change this. Because if we don’t, we’re asking for even more,” he said. “So you think it is bad now? Can you imagine it getting worse than this?”

Ursula said it has gotten so bad that her sons don’t even listen to the news. She said they think it is too much and unbearable.

Ursula posed the question with the Colorado Springs shooting as a backdrop, “Where does that level of hate come from?

“Because you have to look at this and say, ‘How could this have been prevented?’ What environment is this young man growing up in where he takes it upon himself to walk into a club that is obviously a community and a safe haven for members of the LGBTQ+ community and goes in and just mowed down a bunch of people?”

Gee & Ursula Show producer Andrew “Chef” Lanier volunteered to answer the questions. “We spent the last two years listening to and seeing anti-trans and anti-gay propaganda almost every single day in the news.

“We’ve heard for more than two years from one political party telling Americans that gay and trans people are groomers, who are out for your children, and they’re bent on destroying the American family.”

Chef pointed out that discussions about gay topics have been banned in schools. He also referred to the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill.

“That’s going national in October. Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana and 32 other Republicans also co-sponsored the ‘Stop the Sexualization of Children Act,’ which would prohibit any federal funds from being used to develop, implement, facilitate or fund any sexually oriented program, event literature, etc., revolving around gay people that would basically defund America’s libraries.”

Ursula said she wasn’t willing to make a direct correlation yet between the Colorado Springs shooting and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. But she did ask, “When you spread this much hate, what impact does it make on someone who’s young and impressionable?”

Gee had a request for corporations that support LGBTQ rights. He wanted companies to do more than put out flags.

“You see some of these folks out here in this country that are promoting and empowering this hate? You have the ability to put a stop to that,” Gee said. He wants companies to take a stand and address the problem. He wants them to be specific when it comes to hateful rhetoric.

“If you’re gay, you are still a person and you belong,” Gee said. “There is nobody in this country that can tell someone that based on their sexual preference that they don’t belong. They have every right to be here.”

Listen to Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin weekday mornings from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.