Drag show in Southern Pines ramps up security after backlash
A drag show planned next weekend in Southern Pines is prompting big reaction from critics.
WRAL News obtained a letter sent by Calvary Christian School in Southern Pines to businesses in the town sponsoring the event.
“The LGBTQ forces are coming to Southern Pines and they are after our children,” the letter reads in part. “This is their target audience to peddle their abomination.”
A drag show entitled Downtown Divas is scheduled for Dec. 3 at the Sunrise Theater. Organizers planned the event before the deadly mass shooting last week at Club Q, a gay nightclub in Colorado. They said rhetoric often leads to violence.
“I’m constantly baffled by the level of vitriolic rhetoric that comes the direction of the LGBTQ community,” said Sandhills Pride Executive Director Lauren Mathers. “I just feel like everyone has gotten much louder and much angrier.”
Mathers said the response they have gotten on social media to the Dec. 3 drag show is heartbreaking, even though this is the fourth time they have helped host one.
“They don’t know what it is they think it’s a sex show,” Mathers said. “It’s not.”
Sandhills was already valuating safety concerns for the Downtown Divas show, due to the fact they could face opposition from the far-right militia group known as the Proud Boys, whose members disrupted an October drag event in nearby Sanford.
This past weekend, members of the far-right militia group known as the Proud Boys showed up to a drag brunch in Raleigh.
“Why we are being attacked in this way, I truly don’t know,” Mathers said.
Drag artist Naomi Dix is headliner of the Dec. 3 show.
“They’re depriving children of just safe space,” Dix said.
Dix said her intent for the event is to create an inclusive environment.
“Bringing that to a smaller area like Southern Pines is why I do what I do, and creating that safe space for future generations,” Dix said.
Mathers said she is aware of a permit for a demonstration that was filed with the Southern Pines Police Department.
Organizers says even with the threats and attacks they will not be canceling the Dec. 3 event.
