By Madison Lira

After the horrific shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs on November 19, 2022, Pueblo community members and LGBTQ+ CSU-Pueblo students feel a lack of resources to help process a traumatizing attack on their community.
In the city of Pueblo, there is only one LGBTQ+-friendly bar in the downtown area, The Downtown Bar. Many LGBTQ+ members in Pueblo tend to travel to Colorado Springs, as the nearest nightclub that is friendly to the community is Club Q. As for other resources in Pueblo, the Southern Colorado Equality alliance has a couple of support groups in the city listed and national hotlines listed, such as The Trevor Project and the Trans Lifeline. Some support groups are a Transgenerations group, providing a support group for trans people of all ages, and a couple of LGBTQ+ friendly churches and youth groups such as the Metropolitan Community Church of Pueblo.
Although there is an LGBTQ+-friendly club on campus (Prizm) and the student counseling center located in the Center for Health and Human Inquiry building, there still seems to be some difficulty in finding accommodating LGBTQ+ resources on campus.
In the student counseling center on campus, the admin counseling specialist, Kayleigh Travierso, discussed how students could seek assistance from a licensed professional on campus. The center has built-in walk-in times for students who don’t have an appointment to have a chance to speak to someone, and a phone number listed on their CSU-Pueblo website, where you can call and talk with a licensed therapist anytime.
Travierso also mentioned that the counseling center does provide accu-detox, where someone performs acupuncture in the ears to help relieve any stress or trauma for someone who may not be comfortable opening up and talking with someone else about it.
Travierso says that the assistant dean of student support and advocacy, Bonnie Fruland, is extremely helpful in letting her know when and where some resources are held (mainly the Prizm club).
“I think as far as a staff member standpoint, I do feel that maybe we can be a little bit better about getting that [Prizm club hours & dates] on the website,” Travierso said. She tries to stay up-to-date on the different community resources offered.
For the most part, however, Travierso had said that “The information is out there; just where is it? That’s the biggest thing, different organizations making sure that the information is posted out there and it’s accurate and up-to-date.”
Prizm Club leader, Joseph Ochoa, discussed a similar view of the resources available to students and LGBTQ+ members in the community. Ochoa had discussed that the Prizm Club offers different contact information for support groups if anyone from the counseling center “felt uncomfortable with discussing the shooting with club staff or electives.”
When asked about the difficulty of finding LGBTQ+-friendly resources on campus and in the community, Ochoa said that “I personally think that it can be difficult to find resources, but members in Prizm are involved or know of multiple sources that can help with different scenarios, and with us being found in the Center for International Students and Inclusive Excellence, we are able to find outside sources either through the college or in the community.”
A similar note to Travierso, where the information for these resources is out there. It is just much more difficult to find them if you don’t know where or who to ask about them.
With a high rate of LGBTQ+ members in Pueblo, there is so much the community can do to help their members and students here. Ochoa said that the community could provide support by lending an ear to the strife of others and keeping an open mind when it comes to sensitive topics and political issues regarding the LGBTQ+ community.
Ochoa offers some words of advice to those students and community members. “There will always be struggles and hate in the world, but if we are able to stand with one another and support each other, the struggles may lessen, and we can solve many of the problems that we may face head-on.”