On the heels of the president signing marriage equality into law, the House Oversight Committee spent its final hearing of the year looking at the dangers members of the LGBTQ community continue to face.
"Hate speech turns to hate action and hate almost took my life from me at 25 years old," said Michael Anderson, a survivor of the Club Q shooting.
Survivors of November’s mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs are imploring members of Congress to do more to stop not only mass shootings, but also hundreds of pieces of nationwide legislation they say, are targeting members of their community for not allowing gender-affirming health care and increasing discrimination in schools.
"This violence does not happen in a vacuum state, lawmakers have introduced bills that restrict where we can truly and openly be ourselves," said Matthew Haynes, a founding owner of Club Q.
The survivors say some of these bills are harmful.
Florida Republican Congressman Byron Donalds — who introduced the legislation (HB 989) to allow parents to weigh in on which books schools purchase – says the process is fair.
Affidavit: Club Q Shooting Suspect Opened Fire Upon Entering The Venue
The new information on the attack comes amid fresh reports that law enforcement knew how risky the suspect might have been.
"There is a systematic approach for every district to take in public comment about material that is going to be purchased by the school district," said Rep. Byron Donalds.
But Brandon Wolf who survived the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, says it’s just not happening that way, out of fear it would violate Florida’s newly passed so-called "Don’t Say Gay" bill, which bans classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity through third grade.
"Palm Beach County as a result of the passage of HB 1557 went around the community review process and universally banned a whole host of books that had LGBT characters and written by Black authors and the reason given is it be in violation of HB 1557," said Brandon Wolf, a survivor of Pulse nightclub.
Republicans while condemning the recent mass shootings and hate crimes, did not distinguish them from other recent attacks including: on pro-life and Christian communities. They say the focus needs to be on crime overall and the number of police on the streets.
