WHEN A 22-YEAR-OLD MAN OPENED FIRE IN A Colorado Springs nightclub during a drag performance on November 19, leaving five people dead, he put new light on a long-simmering debate within the Mormon Church about its stance on gay, lesbian and transgender people. The alleged shooter Anderson Lee Aldrich was brought up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In the days following the shootings, Aldrich’s father, a former adult film star and mixed martial arts fighter with a history of substance abuse, appeared in a television news interview admitting that he condoned his son’s violent behavior as a child while alluding to the values of their Mormon heritage, saying “You know Mormons don’t do gay. We don’t do gay.”
“We don’t get (Cedar Fort Publishing) tweeted after the shooting. “We have to face it. Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric from the church influences members.”
