Starbucks in Cedar Park cancels coffee with drag queens event after threats

After canceling a coffee with drag queens event at one of its Cedar Park stores because of threats, Starbucks officials said they would "reimagine" the event in August during Austin’s Pride celebration.

The event had been scheduled for June 24 at the Starbucks at 1335 E. Whitestone Blvd.

"Unfortunately, following the promotion of an upcoming event in our store, the store received a number of threatening messages that led the local team to raise concerns for the safety of our partners, customers and the performers involved," Starbucks officials said in a statement.

"This was directly following (the recent) violence in Cedar Park, which had the entire community concerned. Local leaders took a number of precautions, including attempting to bring in enhanced security, but ultimately decided that postponing the event was the best course of action," the statement read.

The violence referred to in the company's statement was the fatal shooting of Akira Ross, 24, who was killed June 2 at a Cedar Park gas station by a man who had yelled a gay slur at her, police have said.

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Maeve Haven, one of the drag queen duo known as "the Beckies" who was supposed to have the coffee event at the Starbucks store in Cedar Park, said it was devastating to have the event canceled. "It's just drag," said Haven. "And it's just coffee. At the end of the day, we were there to have fun, entertain and enjoy coffee. It would be the same thing if Starbucks had hired a musician or poet to hang out at the shop."

Alysha Pretty, the other part of the drag queen duo, said some of the social media posts about the event were "hateful and sad and scary."

"It's wild," Pretty said. "All we wanted to do was enjoy some Starbucks with some fun people and instead we were worrying about our safety."

Pretty also said that the duo considers it "a win" that Starbucks decided to reimagine the event when Austin Pride celebrates in August. "Getting an opportunity to do our Starbucks thing along with Austin Pride is still an exciting idea,' Pretty said.

Kelley Holiday, the secretary of Cedar Park Pride, said she objected to the cancellation.

"I was planning to attend the event," said Holiday. "I was mad that Starbucks backed down and let the bigots win. This type of caving by people with power makes the LGBTQIA+ community feel even more terrorized by the threats and betrayed by the supposed 'allies' who we know will bail at the slightest hint of resistance."

LBGTQIA+ is an abbreviation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual and more.

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Jaci Anderson, a Starbucks spokeswoman, said the company stands behind the gay community.

“Our support of the LGBTQIA2+ community remains unwavering, and we encourage our store leaders to celebrate with their communities throughout June, but also all year long," she said.

"After this store received threatening messages following the posting of this event, we made the safest decision to postpone and reimagine it as part of Austin’s local Pride celebration in August.”

Not all businesses in Cedar Park have faced threats over holding gay events. The Haute Spot, a concert and event venue at 1501 E. New Hope Drive, held a "Queens and Wings" Pride Drag Brunch on Sunday without any problems, said Brandon Pannell, director of the venue. He said the business holds the drag brunch every fourth Sunday of each month.

"We get a couple of hateful things from ignorant people through social media posts, but we've never gotten any threats," Pannell said. The venue hires an off-duty Cedar Park police officer for its events and has its own security, he said. It also hosts rock, country, reggae, heavy metal, hip hop and Latin music concerts.

Taylor Pride faced some protests when it held its annual music and art festival June 24 but was able to deal with it, said Denise Rogers, a member of the organization.

"We had our usual protesters from the Taylor Area Ministerial Alliance make a few posts prior to our event," she said. "They had a prayer vigil in the park the night before the festival, and they attended the event by protesting with signs. We did meet with TAMA as they arrived at the festival, set boundaries and welcomed them in. They even offered to help break down and clean up at the end of the festival."

She also said there was a group of three men with bullhorns who got into a verbal altercation with a festivalgoer across the street from the event and they were removed by police.

The Pride celebration in Round Rock got a lot of help from a Starbucks store near Gattis School Road and A.W. Grimes Boulevard, said Ashley Taylor, a Round Rock Pride board member. The store provided goods and "multiple staff members from that location volunteered at Pride to assist with set up, tear down and support throughout the event," said Taylor.

"To date, Round Rock Pride has not received any substantiated threats that necessitated the relocation of our event," Taylor said. "However, it is important to acknowledge that during this year's Pride celebration, we encountered a minor presence of protesters as well as individuals who expressed their disapproval online by making unfounded allegations regarding Round Rock Pride's endorsement of grooming and pedophilia.

"It is crucial to clarify that these allegations were directly related to our unwavering support for the LGBTQIA+ community and inclusion of drag performers in our events."

Bastrop Pride did not respond to a request for comment about its recent festival. San Marcos Pride has its events in September, and Austin Pride celebrates in August.

Starbucks has a history of supporting the LGBTQ+ community, the company said. In 1988, the company extended full health benefits to eligible full- and part-time partners, including coverage for same-sex domestic partnerships. It also added coverage of gender reassignment surgery to the company’s health benefits in 2013, officials said, and it expanded family benefits in 2019 to better support same-sex couples looking to become parents.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Starbucks cancels coffee with drag queens event after threats