Tucson Queerstory Board President Randy Pease and his husband, Tom, have been visiting Venture-N since its opening in the early ’90s. He said that as queer bars in the city are dwindling, Venture-N still stands as a hub for community, solidarity and visibility — even in the face of anti-queer violence. 

“First and foremost, it’s about safety, like-mindedness and feeling like you’re part of a community — a place where you can go and feel supported,” Pease said of the importance of queer spaces like Venture-N. “This incident has reminded us again how important it is to be a solid community of people. 

“It was a sad reminder of how and why we need to always be vigilant and come together as one.”

On Aug. 31, Vincent Anthony Siqueiros, 42, and Cameron Davis Capara, 33, were found dead outside historically queer bar Venture-N. The Tucson Police and Fire departments responded to reports of a shooting around 12:30 a.m. and found Siqueiros, Capara and a third individual — Ousman Ceesay, 44 — with gunshot trauma. Ceesay, who police identified as the shooter, was transported to a hospital, where he died shortly afterward from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Tucson police later confirmed the shooting was a hate crime. Investigators determined that Ceesay had no apparent connection to Siqueiros or Capara and recovered a note from his residence indicating that he acted alone and that the shooting was a targeted attack motivated by hate toward the LGBTQ+ community. Police also determined that shell casings recovered from the scene came from the same firearm, a 9 mm handgun recovered there.

The loss of Siqueiros and Capara was felt throughout Tucson, including among Venture-N staff and organizations both within and outside the queer community. 

Tucson Queerstory, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on the preservation of LGBTQ+ history, organized a candlelight vigil for the two men on Sept. 2, which drew over 1,000 supporters. The attendees included various community leaders from local LGBTQ+ organizations, along with Capara and Siqueiros’ friends and family and members of the clergy, Pease said. 

The outpouring of support went beyond the vigil as well. Pease said that everyone was invited to Venture-N after the vigil to raise a glass for the two men and the bar remained “packed” for three nights in a row afterward. At the vigil and gatherings that followed, many took the opportunity to share their memories of Siqueiros and Capara.

“I worked on Sunday and the last thing I did before I left the building was hug Vincent,” Venture-N General Manager Amy Denison said, recalling a gift that Siqueiros gave her shortly before he was killed. “He had this fan I thought was so cool and he got me a pink one that lights up — he’s like, ‘It’s so gay, this is for you.’ I hugged him before I left on Sunday and then Monday morning around 6, I noticed I had a text message from my co-worker and from 2 in the morning. When I first looked at the text, my brain just went, ‘Well, this is a joke.’ I think you’re just trying to protect yourself when you see those kinds of things — like this can’t be happening here.

“The reeling and unbelievable horror of it — it’s hard.”

Denison said she was grateful to Tucson Queerstory for organizing the vigil and felt that opening Venture-N before and after the gathering gave people an additional place to grieve and support one another.

For Capara’s family, the loss was deeply personal.

“He was one of the happiest, most giving individuals I’ve ever known,” said Teresa Johnson, Capara’s aunt. “He didn’t judge anybody for how much money they had, what religion they were, what color skin, what sexual orientation, or any of that. 

“He was generous to a fault — even when he didn’t have anything money-wise, he would find it somehow. (He would) make it by doing some photography and share it.”

Even as a young boy, Johnson said, Capara “knew no strangers” and was able to make friends wherever he went — a quality he would carry into his adulthood. She hopes that everyone who hears his story remembers his unfailing generosity and is inspired by the kindness he brought into every area of his life.  

The loss of her nephew has proven very difficult to navigate for herself, her daughters and the rest of her family. They traveled from Colorado to attend the vigil and later visited Venture-N itself, Johnson said, despite how difficult it was to return to the place where Capara died. Her family wanted to demonstrate to the queer community that they were prepared to stand with it in the same way it had stood with Capara and his family.

Johnson is a retired military service member who also worked in the judicial system. Through tears, she said the hatred that led to her nephew’s death was not the legacy she hoped to leave through her years of service.

“This is not the legacy that I chose by wearing a uniform,” Johnson said. “I wanted all people to be treated fairly.”

 She said that voting is one of the ways she feels that the community can contribute to a safer future. Johnson also noted that she is looking into various local agencies and organizations that support the queer community and encourages others to do the same. Johnson added that her family was kept informed throughout the investigation and praised Tucson police for waiting until information was confirmed before releasing it publicly.

In a similar vein, military veteran advocacy group Vets Forward also spoke out against anti-LGBTQ+ violence in the community. In addition to condemning bigotry, Vets Forward Southern Arizona Director Shelly Burgoyne called for changes to gun laws, including universal background checks, safe-storage requirements and restrictions on assault rifles. Burgoyne said she wants to let the queer community and the public at large know that veterans and military service members do not support hate or violence against the LGBTQ+ community. 

“A lot of people — especially those that are ingesting a daily diet of hate on Fox News, OAN, and other outlets — think that military veterans are in their camp in terms of this hate and it’s simply not true,” she said. “Our military is made up of people from all backgrounds and walks of life and we really don’t want people ever thinking that and bringing us along with their hate. 

“We need to make sure that we make it clear that this is absolutely not acceptable — it’s cowardly, it’s violent, it’s murder and it’s disgusting.”

For its staff and patrons alike — including regular customer Patrick “Shirtless” Dooley — Venture-N is “an all-inclusive neighborhood haunt,” which has served as a sanctuary for decades. Many community members explained that they do not intend to allow fear to disrupt their lives, or force them back into the metaphorical closet. Johnson encouraged members of the community to “keep standing together, keep rallying and keep taking their spaces back.”  

In light of Vincent Anthony Siqueiros and Cameron Davis Capara losing their lives to homophobic violence, Denison, Johnson and Pease all expressed that the resounding community sentiment is clear — the LGBTQ+ community isn’t going anywhere.

“What I have seen, working since this has happened, is that there’s been the outpouring of people coming in, standing up and saying, ‘We’re not going anywhere,’” Denison said. “We’re here, the doors are open and we support our community.”

“Not one person’s violence against us is going to change that — and it hasn’t,” Pease said. “If anything, we take that and we become stronger.”