NBC News correspondent Niala Charles stuttered while attempting to avoid using the Colorado Springs shooter’s biological pronouns, while covering the suspect’s criminal charges.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, has been charged with 305 counts after allegedly killing five and injuring several others in the Club Q nightclub. El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen formally charged the suspect with the charges, which include murder, attempted murder and assault.
After accusations that the political right was at fault for the shooting, claiming they had used rhetoric that incited violence towards LGBTQ individuals, attorneys revealed that Aldrich identifies as “non-binary” and uses “they/them” pronouns. While covering the charges on NBC News on Tuesday, Charles attempted to use Aldrich’s preferred pronouns.
“The defense says its client uses ‘they/them’ pronouns, which doesn’t indicate their sexual identity and clearly hasn’t stopped the district attorney with charging them with bias. Prosecutors say there’s an voluminous amount of evidence in this case to support those charges, and as for the penalties, in the state of Colorado, there isn’t a death penalty, so the suspect is looking at a possible life in prison. In court today, the suspect was in a yellow jumpsuit and significantly less bruised than when we saw them in their last court appearance and after two people charged him — them and prevented them from doing even more damage, hurting even more people,” said Charles.
Liberal media made the claim that the conservative opposition to LGBTQ+ events, such as Drag Queen Story Hour for children, led to hatred and violence towards gay and transgender people.
MSNBC anchors Joy Reid and Chris Hayes accused the “right-wing” of being obsessed with attacking drag shows for children on their program immediately after the shooting occurred.
“It makes me sad … that that scares right-wing people so much that they would try to ban it or your governor sued people over it, and then people act surprised when there’s violence against people who are trans and LGBTQ,” Reid said.
A footnote on the court filing by attorneys addressed Aldrich’s gender identity and preferred pronouns, saying Aldrich will be referred to as “they/them” and “Mx. Aldrich” in all legal documents. The suspect is believed to have intentionally targeted Club Q for its LGBTQ setting and has been formally charged with bias-related crimes.
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