Armed protesters and counter-protesters clashed outside a drag queen storytime event at an Oregon pub over the weekend.
Greater than 300 demonstrators hurled rocks and smoke grenades at one another outside Old Nick’s Pub in Eugene as a bunch gathered inside to read a story.
The pub was the most recent goal of LGBTQ+ hate after right-wing personalities complained about an 11-year-old drag performer called Vanellope who was expected to perform.
Authorities said the gang lobbed rocks and a few smoke bombs at each other before police shut the event down, in accordance with the Register Guard.
Some protestors in the gang got here to the event for young children armed with semi-automatic rifles, officials added.
Drag queen storytime events have recently and increasingly develop into the goal of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric across the country, though the events have been happening since 2015.
Opponents claim that this system during which flamboyant performers wearing vibrant drag outfits read storybooks to children is detrimental to kids.
Organizers, nonetheless, said the protests against the events have been terrifying and endangering the performers in addition to children.
In a Facebook statement Friday, Old Nick’s Pub said the critics and protestors have “twisted what’s a fun and innocent event for teenagers and families into something disgusting and vile.
The pub said it spent $2,000 on private security Sunday and expects to be “a goal for violent extremists for an excellent while.”
Staff members have been receiving “racist and homophobic hate mail, physical threats of violence, and repeated attacks by right wing media outlets framing our Drag Queen Storytime as nefarious.”
Despite the threats, the pub — which continuously hosts LGBTQ-friendly events including the drag story time prior to now — said it can proceed its events.
“We love you all a lot, and we is not going to ever back right down to hate,” the pub said in its Monday post. “Thanks for standing with us against this growing trend of violence against queer youth and LGBTQ venues.”
The kid drag queen didn’t perform at Sunday’s event and was as a substitute celebrated because the event’s guest of honor.
With Post wires.
Armed protesters and counter-protesters clashed outside a drag queen storytime event at an Oregon pub over the weekend.
Greater than 300 demonstrators hurled rocks and smoke grenades at one another outside Old Nick’s Pub in Eugene as a bunch gathered inside to read a story.
The pub was the most recent goal of LGBTQ+ hate after right-wing personalities complained about an 11-year-old drag performer called Vanellope who was expected to perform.
Authorities said the gang lobbed rocks and a few smoke bombs at each other before police shut the event down, in accordance with the Register Guard.
Some protestors in the gang got here to the event for young children armed with semi-automatic rifles, officials added.
Drag queen storytime events have recently and increasingly develop into the goal of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric across the country, though the events have been happening since 2015.
Opponents claim that this system during which flamboyant performers wearing vibrant drag outfits read storybooks to children is detrimental to kids.
Organizers, nonetheless, said the protests against the events have been terrifying and endangering the performers in addition to children.
In a Facebook statement Friday, Old Nick’s Pub said the critics and protestors have “twisted what’s a fun and innocent event for teenagers and families into something disgusting and vile.
The pub said it spent $2,000 on private security Sunday and expects to be “a goal for violent extremists for an excellent while.”
Staff members have been receiving “racist and homophobic hate mail, physical threats of violence, and repeated attacks by right wing media outlets framing our Drag Queen Storytime as nefarious.”
Despite the threats, the pub — which continuously hosts LGBTQ-friendly events including the drag story time prior to now — said it can proceed its events.
“We love you all a lot, and we is not going to ever back right down to hate,” the pub said in its Monday post. “Thanks for standing with us against this growing trend of violence against queer youth and LGBTQ venues.”
The kid drag queen didn’t perform at Sunday’s event and was as a substitute celebrated because the event’s guest of honor.
With Post wires.
