Despite the Club Q mass shooter murdering five people and injuring 18 people, his father is just relieved to know his son is not gay.
When 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich opened fire inside Club Q during a drag show Saturday night, the world was painfully reminded of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida. Aldrich’s rampage was stopped by good samaritans within the club, who beat and subdued him until law enforcement arrived, though the damage was already done. As survivors grapple to make sense of it all and loved ones are forced to face the unthinkable, Aaron Brink, Aldrich’s father, is breathing a sigh of relief knowing his son is not a member of the LGBTQ+ community that he targeted.
“They started telling me about the incident, a shooting involving multiple people. And then I go on to find out it’s a gay bar. I said, ‘God, is he gay?’ I got scared, ‘S**t, is he gay?’ And he’s not gay, so I said, ‘Phewww,'” Brink stated in an interview with CBS 8.
According to Brink, who was once a porn star performing under the name “Dick Delaware,” his family is Mormon, and his religion “we don’t do gay.” Aldrich was confirmed to be a member of the Mormon Church but had not been active in some time. Brink also revealed that he once encouraged violent behavior in his son, telling him that it could get him “immediate results.”
While Brink insinuated that his son was not fond of gay people, a lawyer for Aldrich claimed that he identifies as non-binary, preferring the use of they/them pronouns.
Sadly, the shooting could have been prevented had his previous threats been taken seriously. In 2021, Aldrich was arrested for threatening to blow up a house, but charges were later dropped. That incident should have triggered Colorado’s red flag laws, which would have seized his guns. However, no action was taken, and the AR-15-style semi-automatic weapon used in the Club Q shooting was purchased legally.
Aldrich is being held without bond for five counts of murder and five charges of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury.
