SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – With a few brush strokes, Eddie Reynoso came to the Hillcrest Pride Flag to pay his respects and be there for other San Diegans in the LGBTQ+ community who were grieving following a mass shooting at anLGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs.
Five people were killed and 18 more were injured before heroic patrons of Club Q subdued the gunman and police arrested him, according to the Associated Press.
"If you need a place to mourn, if you need a place to feel safe, come to the Pride Flag and we're going to be here. There's someone going to be here,” Reynoso, the Executive Director of Equality Business Alliance, said.
Reynoso's business travels have allowed him to meet plenty of people in this close community.
"Colorado Springs has a really small and tight-knit LGBTQ community. It's a very Christian community. So, the fact that something like this can happen in a small town like theirs, it's shocking to them,” Reynoso said.
Local journalist Jerry McCormick lived in Colorado Springs in the early '90s.
Despite being 1,100 miles away, the city holds a special place in his heart.
"And it was a place for me to just kind of explore and come into my sexuality. And so, Colorado Springs was the first place I came out as a gay man,” McCormick said. "It just really is heartbreaking that we live in a world where you can leave your house and not come home."
At least five lives were taken, and at least five families are changed forever. It all happened just hours before the Transgender Day of Remembrance. It's a day where each year people remember and pay respect to those in the trans community whose lives were lost to violence.
Reynoso said every victim should be honored.
"We need to talk about transgender brothers and sisters and siblings who have been killed. But, we also have to talk about our siblings who were taken through gun violence. And we need to step up our call to action on both hands,” Reynoso said.
