SAN LORENZO – The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a group of men who on Saturday interrupted a drag queen storytelling event with homophobic and transphobic insults.
Deputies said the incident happened around 1:30 p.m. in the San Lorenzo Library located on the Paseo Gran.
Lieutenant Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department said the group entered the library during an event called Drag Queen Story Time. Kyle Chu, also known as Sweet Panda Drag Queen, organized an hour of storytelling designed for preschoolers in celebration of Pride Month.
“I’ve always received death threats, hate mail to make time for the drag queen story. This time I felt very close to the violence,” Dulce said in an interview with KPIX 5 on Sunday.
Panda Dulce, who appeared at the time of the story in the Public Library of San Lorenzo on June 11, 2022. Panda Dulce
The Sheriff’s Department’s Facebook page said that “the men were described as extremely aggressive with threatening violent behavior that made people fear for their safety. Officers responded to the scene and were able to de-escalate. the situation “.
Dulce said eight to ten men came in to stop the event. There was a small group of children and their parents. Dulce was dressed in the San Francisco Giants team.
“It was extremely loud. It was like a cacophony of voices just shouting at each other, making fun of me, calling me a hairdresser, a pedophile, a transsexual and a ‘this.’ (They were) questioning my parents.” why are you taking your kids to this? I didn’t feel safe because one of them was wearing a T-shirt with an AK-47. And he said, “Kill your local pedophile,” Dulce recalled.
Video on cell phone of one of the men who allegedly interrupted a drag queen story at the San Lorenzo Public Library on June 11, 2022. CBS
Dulce said he finally went to a back room to avoid direct confrontation and hoped the situation would escalate.
“Fear, confusion, alarm. I remember a child looking at his mother and saying, ‘What’s going on?’ Why do they raise their voices? Who are these people? Dulce recalled. There is no agenda here except to be able to accurately reflect the diversity of our world. And just because a person’s worldview can’t tolerate that doesn’t mean we should deprive children of it. “
Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies responded and said the men were probably part of the Proud Boys, a right-wing hate group. In addition to possible charges of hate crimes, authorities said they could be charged with harassing and harassing children.
“They want us to disappear. They want us not to exist so as not to have to deal with their own discomfort with the idea that there are people different from them in the world. But guess what? There are people different from you in the world. World. And “We will stay here. And we will continue to do what we are doing. And we will be visible in that regard,” Dulce said.
After the men were escorted out of the San Lorenzo Library, Dulce finished his book reading act. He said he will not let hatred win.
The Drag Queen Story Hour website describes the show as “what it looks like: drag queens reading stories to children in libraries, schools, and bookstores. “In spaces like this, children can see people who challenge the rigid restrictions of gender and imagine a world where people can present themselves as they want, where dressing up is real.”
Da Lin contributed to the report.