There’s no need to ruin it for everyone else
There are few things more disheartening than seeing hatred and bigotry win.
And, unfortunately, hatred and bigotry did win in Preston County last week when the Bruceton-Brandonville Volunteer Fire Department had to cancel its Drag Queen Bingo fundraiser due to threats against the organizers and the scheduled performers.
Perhaps most discouraging about the whole thing was how so many people responded with rancor and rage to an event that was supposed to be fun and that was supposed to fund an essential part of the county’s first-response services.
This harkens back to the Drag Queen Storytime that had been planned for the Morgantown Public Library in November 2019. That event, too, was canceled due to threats that made the performers feel unsafe. (In January 2020, though, WVU’s LGBTQ+ Center hosted the storytime instead, and a handful of dads patrolled outside the Gluck Theater because of the fear of potentially violent protests.)
But most of all, we don’t understand why people feel the need to threaten the organizers and participants of events like Drag Queen Bingo or Drag Queen Storytime — either with the intent to shut down the event or with the intent to cause actual harm.
It comes down to one very simple principle: If you don’t agree with it, don’t participate in it.
You may disagree with their choices.
You may be morally outraged.
You may not want to see such things in your community.
Guess what?
Their choices aren’t your choices, and their choices aren’t hurting you.
Their morals aren’t your morals, and their morals aren’t hurting you.
But your community is their community. No one says you have to be in the same space at the same time. If you don’t want to see it, then don’t look.
This whole incident is a microcosm of a much larger battle between people who are fighting for the right to express hatred and bigotry without consequence and people who are fighting for the right to express the truest parts of themselves without being harmed.
In light of what happened, we ask our readers to consider one final thing: Be careful before you speak hateful words, because you never know who is listening — which of your loved ones hear you say homophobic, transphobic or even xenophobic things and now know that you are not someone they can trust, that your love and acceptance are conditional. You may mean your hurtful words for some stranger you have never met or will never see again, but you may hurt someone close to you instead.
