Club Q Shooter’s Dad Expresses Relief that His ‘Son’s Not Gay’

When the porn star father of the Club Q nightclub shooter learned what his son had done, his reaction was a bit confusing.

“What was he doing at a gay bar?” is what San Diego station CBS 8 reported Aaron Brink wanted to know first.

“We don’t do gay,” Brink told a reporter who caught up with him outside his home. “There are no gays in the Mormon church.”

CBS 8 also broke the story that the shooter had changed his name six years ago from Nicholas Brink to Anderson Aldrich. Aaron Brink told CBS 8 his son’s mother told him he was embarrassed that his father was a porn actor and appeared on “Intervention,” a reality television show about drug rehab.

Brink made no bones about expressing relief his son is not gay. But his son apparently told jail officials he doesn’t identify as male, but rather, nonbinary.

CBS Colorado reported that court documents show Aldrich’s preference for they/them pronouns.

Brink told CBS 8 he instilled manly ideals in his son. “I praised him for violent behavior very early. I said it’s something that works that’s instant, and you’ll get immediate results,” Brinks recalls saying.

But in the next breath, after learning details of the shooting, he says, “Life is so fragile; it’s valuable,” in a somber tone.

Brinks said his ex-wife called in 2016 and said Aldrich killed himself after the name change. The family had not been together for many years. Brinks said he learned his son was living six months ago when he called to chew out his father. “He’s pissed off; he’s pissed off as me, and he wants to poke the old man,” Brinks told CBS 8.

The Colorado Springs Gazette published a story quoting Kim Stromgren, a licensed therapist in Denver, about how the narrative changes if Aldrich identifies as LGBTQ. “Hate creates self-hate.”

She said intolerance contributes to internalized homophobia and transphobia, which she said can breed violence when self-hate manifests as hate toward others, according to the Gazette.

Brinks told CBS 8 he loves his son “no matter what.”