EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Protesters, some of them armed, threw rocks and smoke grenades at each other outside a drag queen story time event at an Oregon pub, but the weekend show that was to have featured a child performer went on as planned.
The 11-year-old did not take part as scheduled but was in the audience of about 50 people as some 200 demonstrators and counter demonstrators — some of them armed — faced off outside the Oregon pub where Sunday’s story time was held.
Authorities said people in the crowd of about 200 protesters on both sides briefly “lobbed projectiles” at each other, prompting authorities to shut down the street. Some in the crowd had semi-automatic rifles, police said. The projectiles were rocks and some smoke bombs, the Register Guard reported.
Police did not make any arrests and said one person was taken to the hospital by ambulance with an unspecified injury. The tense protest made the pub in Eugene the latest target of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric that’s increasingly targeting drag story time events around the U.S.
The Drag Queen Story Hour, a national project conceived as a means to educate and entertain children by appealing to their imaginations, has generated social media backlash from opponents who claim they want to protect children. Organizers said the protests were actually frightening and endangering participants and they vowed to enhance security at the events but not halt their programs.
The pub said Monday in a Facebook post that the event went on safely despite the protests, but the business expects to be “a target for violent extremists for a good while” and said it spent $2,000 on private security Sunday.