Eastern Kentucky drag show canceled after facing online threats, protest

Rick Childress
·4 min read
78

An all-ages drag show set to take place in Prestonsburg this weekend was canceled after organizers and supporters said they faced threats.

The show, titled “Come as You Are,” was supposed to take place Saturday and raise money for a gender-affirming clothing and resource bank, said Kyle May, a counselor and the owner of the Open Doors Counseling Center, which organized the event.

May said they opted to cancel the event after seeing online posts and comments from people saying that they would come to protest the event and be armed.

“We felt like the level of risk was too great to follow through with the event,” May told the Herald-Leader.

The canceled drag show comes as the Republican-dominated Kentucky legislature has considered a slew of anti-LGBTQ legislation. Senate Bill 150 — which would ban gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth — has passed both chambers and is likely to become law, even if Gov. Andy Beshear vetoes the measure.

May said he believed that the threats against the show are a “direct result” of the recent activity in Frankfort. It’s given those opposed “the courage to make these threats because I feel like they think that it’s going to be allowed and tolerated now.”

Some Facebook commenters on a Mountain Top News story previewing the event mention protesting and arriving armed.

An official protest against the drag show was being organized on Facebook by Brandon Spencer, who last fall ran for a seat in the Kentucky House but was defeated by incumbent Ashley Tackett Laferty, the last remaining Eastern Kentucky Democrat in the House. Spencer’s online event page made no mention of guns but did call on those locally to protest the drag show.

“Please join me in protesting and preserving the mind, body, and spirit of our most vulnerable, our children!” a description of the protest said. “We must make a stand and show those who wish to groom and indoctrinate our youth, that we will not tolerate this madness in these beautiful mountains. Make your signs, raise your voice, hold your ground!”

Open Doors previously hosted a drag show in Prestonsburg in 2021, attracting about 100 people and raising money for a different non-profit. May said the show was a success.

“We didn’t have any threats,” May said. “We didn’t have any protesters. There was no real concern. Everyone loved it. That’s why we were kind of surprised to have this happen. We didn’t really expect this level of seriousness of threats to occur.”

Cara Ellis, the president of Pikeville Pride — an organization promoting inclusion for LGBTQ+ people in Eastern Kentucky — said she was at the 2021 event, which had “zero issues.”

“We’ve been doing events since 2018 and this is the worst as far as like the outrage, the threats that we’ve ever faced,” Ellis said. “And to me, that’s directly in line with what has been happening in Frankfort with the anti-LGBTQ legislation.”

Update: KY rep’s attempt to revive ban on public drag shows falls short

Ellis noted the drag show in Prestonsburg wasn’t hosted by Pikeville Pride event but said they’d worked with May to help put together the event.

“A lot of what happened was initially like on social media, where people that were on the other side that were outraged,” Ellis said. “They were tagging our group, I think, because they probably assumed that we were working closely with Kyle (May) on this. And then it just kind of escalated from there.”

May said friends had contacted local enforcement about the threats. Both the Prestonsburg Police Department and the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office told the Herald-Leader they had not received reports.

May said he wanted those in the LGBTQ+ community to know that they do have support locally.

“There is still a very large community within Kentucky that is affirming and supportive of the LGBTQ community,” May said, adding that they shouldn’t let those making threats “make you believe that you’re not loved or accepted.”

Ellis had a similar message.

“We see you, we hear you, we love you, we’re still gonna press on, we’re still gonna hold events,” Ellis said. “We’re gonna do it in a safe manner, of course, but we’re out here and we’re still gonna do this work. It’s important for us to keep doing this work and show that we’re not going to be silenced and we’re not going to be erased.”