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‘They Needed A New Boogeyman’: NBC Reporter Blames ‘QAnon Narrative’ For Colorado Springs Shooting

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A NBC reporter appeared to blame “QAnon” narratives targeting “drag shows” for the recent Colorado Springs, Colorado, shooting at a LGBTQ nightclub that resulted in multiple deaths.

NBC senior reporter Brandy Zadronzy’s comments came in the wake of a shooting at Club Q, a Colorado nightclub popular with the LGBTQ community, that left five people dead and at least 18 wounded. Anderson Lee Aldrich, the alleged shooter, was charged with first-degree murder and hate crimes.

Aldrich reportedly was arrested in 2021 for kidnapping, according to a press release from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

Zadronzy labeled LibsofTikTok, an account that reposts material from social media, as a “hate account” in a Monday tweet. 

“The LGBT community has always been a subject of hatred for a certain brand of fringe kind of person, right? But something happened in March and April of this year,” Zadronzy told MSNBC host Chris Jansing. “In March and April of this year, as the far right-wing conservatives sort of got over CRT or Critical Race Theory, they needed a new boogeyman and they leapt on LGBTQ community members, specifically trans people, their doctors, their caregivers, libraries that had books that were LGBT-focused. This was really just sort of the cause célèbre on the far right.”

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Some “family friendly” drag events featured drag queens dancing to music with explicit lyrics, lessons in “genital tucking” or teaching children how to dance for tips. Parents across the country have protested explicit books in schools, including Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan, but no evidence has shown the protests are linked to the “far right.”

“They targeted drag shows a lot, in part because Drag Time Story Hour, where a drag queen would come — it’s ubiquitous and libraries all over the country had it, a drag queen would come read a story, it was fun, the kids loved it, and then also some sort of friendly, friendly drag shows, it would be on a Sunday, brunch, you could bring the kids, they’d see a show, and the far right conservatives leapt on this and they put it together with frankly a QAnon narrative that has been out and it was, ‘They’re out to get your children,’” Zadronzy said.

“The demonization, dehumanization and moral panic around children in our community somehow being threatened by LGBTQ teachers, librarians, performers, that is the threat that is going through,” Zadronzy said. “And when you demonize someone to that extent and you make them feel like an existential threat to you and your children, it is no wonder, again, that we get this kind of violence.”