Drag Queen Story Time weekend Louisville event ups security over reported potential protest

A Drag Queen Story Time event planned in Louisville this weekend is still on, with heightened security, despite concerns over a potential protest tied to a white supremacist group.

The Sunday gathering is expected to bring a crowd of about 200 people out to the nonprofit No Kill Louisville, according to Julian Adam, the organization's executive director. But on Monday, six days before the scheduled event, Drag Queen Story Time Kentucky posted on Facebook it had been informed a neo-Nazi group was "planning to travel to Kentucky and protest in hopes of scaring away our guests."

Screenshots posted by the organizers in the group show messages on a Telegram channel from March 11 between two people using anti-LGBTQ slurs who said they hope to convince white supremacist group members from Ohio to attend the event in Louisville.

Op-ed:I'm a student in Catholic school. It isn’t a safe place for my LGBTQ+ classmates.

Making attendees feel safe is a priority to the group, and Adam said members of the community with security experience have stepped up to help. Members of the Parasol Patrol, who create a visual barrier with umbrellas to shield kids from protesters, have also volunteered to participate so guests won't have to see the "hateful rhetoric" and "negative language that's used by some of these hate groups," Adam said.

Adam said the local chapter has been in touch with the national Drag Queen Story Time organization, which deemed the threat to be low risk since no active planning took place. Adam said they take all threats seriously, but continuing to host the event – at a gated venue on private property – is important given the current political climate.

"More than ever, our programming is ... important to give these safe spaces to these trans youth to come and meet each other and create friendships and bonds with other individuals that share like-minded worlds," Adam said.

For subscribers:Gerth: Abuse allegations, leaked emails and how Jamie Comer undid his own bid for governor

The group briefly suspended operations late last year when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a terrorism bulletin warning several minority groups that actors with "adherence to violent extremist ideologies" were attempting to incite attacks against them. The bulletin was issued, in part, because several acts of hate occurred toward the LGBTQ+ community, including a mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado that killed five people.

The move to heighten security at Sunday's event also comes less than a week after Kentucky's Republican-led legislature passed Senate Bill 150, which will ban gender-affirming medical care for queer youth, among several other provisions, if signed into law by Gov. Andy Beshear (though the legislature would have an opportunity to override that veto). The legislation was among several anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ bills that were proposed this year in Kentucky and one of the hundreds put forward across the country, according to the ACLU.

Louisville's Drag Queen Story Time is still happening, but another organization in Kentucky said it canceled similar plans over threats. In a Tuesday Twitter post, Pikeville Pride said a drag event called "Come As You Are” to be held by Open Doors Counseling Center in Prestonsburg was called off "due to extreme threats of violence against our group, the organizers, and the venue." Pikeville Pride said safety of the community was of "upmost importance."

"The increase of this extremist behavior is directly tied to anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and legislation across the country. As evidence from this latest legislative session, many of our own representatives here in the Commonwealth want to silence us and erase our existence," the group wrote.

Senate Bill 150: Anti-trans bill draws pushback and calls to action around Kentucky

Contact reporter Rae Johnson at RNJohnson@gannett.com. Follow them on Twitter at @RaeJ_33.

If you go

What: Drag Queen Story Time Kentucky event

When: March 26, 2 p.m.

Where: No Kill Louisville, 2012 Northwestern Parkway

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Drag Queen Story Time ups Louisville event security for protest threat