A formal statement will be coming from the National Lavender Green Caucus and National Green Party shortly on the horrific mass murder which took place in Colorado Springs.  

My name is Margaret Elisabeth, I’m a Co-Chair of the National Lavender Green Caucus and a Co-Chair of the Steering Committee of the Green Party of the United States.  I’m a nonbinary trans femme and, on behalf of the National Lavender Green Caucus, I want to speak to all of you reading this very personally.

I’m angry and heartbroken at the news we received overnight about the terrorist attack on Club Q, in Colorado Springs, CO. in which at least 5 people were killed and 25 injured.  I’m heartbroken for the victims and their families, for the patrons and for the staff.  I’m grateful that it wasn’t worse, it certainly could have been if not for the actions of two heroic patrons.

I’m furious that Anderson Lee Aldrich had previously been arrested for a bomb threat in June 2021, only to be released and able to purchase a firearm.  How can you be arrested for a bomb threat and still be permitted to purchase firearms?  I want to shout “This has to stop!” yet it doesn’t.  What good are gun-control laws if they are not enforced?

Every year we gather on this day to mourn our dead.  Is it a “good” year that only 33 trans people that we know of were killed in the United States for being trans? Overwhelmingly the trans people who are murdered are Black and Brown trans women and we engage in a morbid and macabre situation every year; during the same week we start with a celebration of trans people existing, we end with a public mourning of our dead.

Club Q is a gay and lesbian night club that features drag shows on Saturdays, and Club Q’s Facebook page said the planned entertainment included a “punk and alternative show” preceding a birthday dance party, with a Sunday “all ages brunch.” The attendees were trying to enjoy a social night out with friends, in a safe place to express themselves, like every other person in the country. A night of music, laughter and fun.  Instead they received a lifetime of pain and trauma, if they were fortunate enough to live.

I have no words to express the depth of my anger, hurt and sadness tonight.

In solidarity and mourning,

Margaret Elisabeth
Co-Chair, National Lavender Green Caucus

The Green Party of Washington State has joined a coalition of organizations calling on President Biden to act on his pledge to end the federal and military death penalty.

We stand in solidarity with all concerned citizens and call on President Biden to:

• Commute the sentences of those currently on federal and military death rows;
• Order a halt to new death sentences in federal prosecutions;
• Order the Federal Bureau of Prisons to demolish the federal execution chamber and the building in which it is housed at the Federal Correctional Institution at Terre Haute;
  • Consider replacing it with green space for use by inmates and prison staff;
• Pledge to support and sign H.R. 262/S.B. 582, the Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act, which abolishes federal and military death penalty laws, removes the possibility of death sentences, and mandates fair re-sentencing of those currently on federal and military death rows.

We encourage individual supporters to write to their members of congress, sign the petition to President Biden, and find additional resources for action at http://deathpenaltyaction.org/federal-death-penalty

This will be an ongoing effort until President Biden fulfills his campaign promise to abolish the federal death penalty. The ask may be modified at times as appropriate. The list of endorsing organizations will be updated regularly. The first presentation of this list will occur in mid-November, 2022. All of the organizations signed on by November 11, 2022 will be included in the congressional “dear colleague” letter inviting Members of Congress to sign on, and in press materials disseminated at that time. This list will continue to grow and be used by the members of congress and this ongoing campaign, as needed.