A Drag Queen Story Hour at the public library in Somerville, Massachusetts was canceled last weekend after someone called in a bomb threat.
While police had been prepared for anti-LGBTQ+ protesters, they didn’t anticipate a bomb threat, which reportedly came through right as the event was about to begin. As such, officials had to evacuate and sweep the building, the Boston Globe reported.
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The right-wing group Super Happy Fun America — which has thrown “straight pride parades” in the past — appears to have taken credit for the protest, though not the bomb threat.
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“I am thrilled to announce that the Drag Queen Story Hour for Children ages 4-8 event at the Somerville Public Library was CANCELLED!! VICTORY!!” the group’s director of operations Christine H. Doherty reportedly wrote on Facebook. “Thank you to my three Super Happy Fun America sisters and one surprise guest for actually showing up to protest with me.”
Doherty also released a statement denouncing the bomb threat and stating the group was not connected to it in any way.
WCVB described a “handful” of anti-LGBTQ+ protestors compared to the approximately 100 counter-protestors who showed up to support the LGBTQ+ community.
“Whenever hate arrives in Somerville or Medford or Boston, love and joy always come out 10-fold to kind of drown it out, and that’s what happened here,” counterprotestor Christian Krenek told the network.
Somerville City Council President Ben Ewen-Campen called the protest and subsequent cancellation of the event “completely outrageous.”
“We can’t let things like this take away our ability to just live our lives and be the people we are,” he told the Boston Globe. “It’s incredibly infuriating for people to go out of their way just to ruin a bunch of families’ Saturday.”
Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne. also condemned the anti-LGBTQ+ protestors in a statement to WCVB: “Hate has no place here in Somerville. When any one of us is hurt, we’re all hurt, so it’s just not acceptable.”
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