The father of the accused Club Q shooter has expressed relief that his child isn’t gay.
Aaron Brink, the father of Anderson Lee Aldrich, gave a homophobia-filled interview to San Diego TV station
KFMB. Brink, 48, who has worked as a porn star and mixed martial arts fighter and coach, said he wondered what his offspring was doing in a gay bar. Aldrich, 22, is accused of
killing five people and injuring nearly 20 at the Colorado Springs nightclub Saturday night.
When Brink heard from Aldrich’s defense attorney Sunday, “they started telling me about the incident, a shooting involving multiple people,” Brink told the station Tuesday. “And then I go on to find out it’s a gay bar. I said, ‘God, is he gay?’ I got scared, ‘****, is he gay?’ And he’s not gay, so I said, ‘Phew…’”
Brink said he and his family are Mormons, and “you know, Mormons don’t do gay. We don’t do gay. There’s no gays in the Mormon Church. We don’t do gay.” In reality, the church, known officially as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, does hold anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs, but it has LGBTQ+ members who are fighting for greater acceptance.
Aldrich’s attorneys, in a court filing Tuesday, said
the accused shooter is nonbinary and will now be known by they/them pronouns. But Brink used male pronouns in referring to Aldrich.
Brink, who lives in San Diego, did apologize to the families of the victims and said he took some responsibility because he had praised his child for violent behavior. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he said. “Life is so fragile, and it’s valuable. Those people’s lives were valuable. You know, they’re valuable. They’re good people, probably. It’s not something you kill somebody over. I’m sorry I let my son down.”
Until six months ago, Brink had thought for several years that his child was dead, he told the station. His ex-wife, who had moved to Colorado, called him in 2016 and told him the youth had died by suicide and had changed names from Nicholas Brink to Anderson Aldrich because of shame over Aaron Brink’s work in adult films and the reality series
Intervention. Then Aldrich called Aaron Brink six months ago and started an argument on the phone.
“He’s pissed off. He's pissed off at me. He wants to poke at the old man,” Brink said.
Other family connections: Aldrich’s mother, Laura, is the daughter of California Assemblyman Randy Voepel, a Republican who is at the end of his term after losing his latest reelection bid. Voepel has been a major supporter of Donald Trump and once likened the U.S. Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021, to the American Revolution. “This is Lexington and Concord. First shots fired against tyranny,” Voepel
said a few days after the attack, according to
The San Diego Union-Tribune. “Tyranny will follow in the aftermath of the Biden swear-in on January 20th.” He later said he did not condone the violence that took place at the Capitol.
