Club Q is planning on a 2023 reopening. According to the general manager, Ms. Beyonca, “The club is not having a grand opening. Nor is the club just getting back to business. It’s more of a homecoming. It’s still our home.”
The tragedy occurred on Nov 19, 2022, when a lone gunman, Anderson Lee Aldrich entered Club Q, killing 5 people and wounding many more.
In the spirit of homecoming, Ms. Beyonca wants patrons to know about the drink, named The Derrick Peach. “Derrick Rump was our bartender, and he created this. The drink contains Jameson, peach schnapps and Sprite. It’s not too sweet and it’s not too bitter. When we reopen, I hope the patrons’ first drink order will be his.”
Improved Security and Safety at Club Q
Instead of making only cosmetic changes, Club Q is getting a new look, and investing in new safety measures from the outside in. Ms. Beyonca shares moving forward the owner is designing a different front entrance. “Currently, the parking lot is right in front of the club. The hope is to move the parking lot further back (to create some distance) and to have a memorial garden path at the entrance of the club.”
The inside will display the club’s story, gathered memorabilia, and photos of the five killed: Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, and Derrick Rump. “We received thousands and thousands of kind things, from all over. But I don’t know what collectibles will be chosen.”
Club Q has chosen to increase and improve security. She says the obvious signs will be surveillance cameras and foot security, with other measures unknown to patrons.
Entertainment at the Forefront of the Healing
The second order of business is entertainment. Drag shows will continue to be a staple of Club Q. Ms. Beyonca will be one of the performers on the night of the reopening. When asked about her on-stage song sections she replies, “I’m a ballad queen, honey.”
She’s sweet about Celine Dion and the late Whitney Houston. But for the homecoming, she says song possibilities are Destiny’s Child’s “Survivor” or Kelly Clarkson’s “Broken and Beautiful.” Like Clarkson’s song, Ms. Beyonca admits “This is me now.” She says she had to process loss from many angles.
“As a manager, a friend and as a mother. I lost two sons (who were like my own) that night.” Ms. Beyonca says at Club Q people just become family. Since she sees herself as a matriarch, she now realizes, “When someone calls me mom, I won’t take it for granted.”
Ms. Beyonca is going to become a certified crisis counselor. Based on, “My trauma, I can meet people on a different level.” The Texas transplant admits to attending therapy and taking some time for herself, in her home state. While Club Q continues to make its location a safer space, the reopening sends an important message.
Ms. Beyonca says they won’t want the trauma to be the end of their story. “We are going to be here. We are going to be here for the community. We are going to be here for gay rights.”
Unlike Club Q, the Pulse Night Club in Orlando, Florida ended up vacating their former premises. Pulse opened its doors in 2004. In June 2016, Pulse Night Club was the first gay nightclub to experience a mass shooting with 49 people dead and 53 more injured.
The owner of Pulse, Barbara Poma, decided to give the nightclub a new home, in another part of town. As reported by the Orlando Weekly, Poma says the move came at the request of “supporters and former staffers.” One comment expressing concern about the old site, “It doesn’t feel like home. It doesn’t feel like Pulse.”
Matthew Haynes shared a different perspective on the gay establishment. Haynes told The Colorado Sun he opened a place for LGBTQ persons to drink and dance, but “Club Q has always been a community center more than anything else.”
“We are going to be here for the community,” Ms. Beyonca said. “Many young people don’t have family acceptance. When you come here, you fall into a family.”
To get back to good times, she adds it doesn’t rest on any one person or persons. “It’s going to take all of us—the village.”
