North Carolina tops list for most threats, protests against drag events in U.S.
North Carolina tops a new list of states with the most attacks against drag events this year, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) announced Wednesday.
The report, released In the wake of last week’s mass shooting at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ bar that left five people dead and 18 others injured, shows North Carolina tied with Texas for the most anti-drag protests, threats and attacks in the nation.
Each state has had 10 reported incidents this year.
Although metro areas across the country are often safer for the LGBTQ community, the Triangle area has seen multiple anti-drag incidents this year.
In June, anti-LGBTQ protesters in Apex tried to stop a drag storytime hour, where drag queens were scheduled to read to children. The Apex Festival Commission pulled the event from its Pride month line-up, citing threats of violence. Equality NC, a statewide advocacy group, sponsored the event instead, The News & Observer reported.
Similarly, Fuquay-Varina declined to sponsor Pride events this year, but events were still organized by residents.
Fuquay-Varina and Holly Springs have not adopted a non-discrimination ordinance that would protect people who identify as LGBTQ.
And earlier this month, a drag brunch in Sanford was disrupted by the white supremacist hate group, the Proud Boys. Members of the extremist group showed up in masks, hurling insults at patrons as threats were phoned into the venue.
“Weeks before the horrific tragedy in Colorado Springs, GLAAD began tracking the increasing and relentless targeting of drag events in order to ring the alarm on the expanse of hate and disinformation we are seeing harm our community,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a news release.
GLAAD used news reports to document 124 anti-drag incidents nationwide and said there may have been others that were not reported. The Colorado shooting is not included because the suspect’s motive had not been officially confirmed at the time of the list’s publication, the group said in its release.
The majority of the incidents occurred during Pride events in June and through the fall, GLAAD noted, and included “false rhetoric against performers deployed in campaign ads for the midterm elections.”
“There is a direct line,” Ellis said in the release, “between the coordinated, dangerous anti-LGBTQ campaign driven by lies and fear mongering rhetoric to the real-world violence we’ve seen increase this year.”
GLAAD has partnered with the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs to provide additional protection to the LGBTQ community. Victims of harassment, bullying or threats can contact them to find a local chapter that can assist.
“Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has the facts wrong: The real threat is violent men with guns who show up to public libraries, schools, and LGBTQ venues believing the lies Fox News, LibsOfTikTok, and extremist right-wing politicians are feeding them,” Ellis said.
“This has reached a boiling point, and it needs to be stopped now,” Ellis said. “Not tomorrow, not after the next attack, but now.”
This story was originally published November 23, 2022 at 3:50 PM with the headline "North Carolina tops list for most threats, protests against drag events in U.S.."