Clintonville school cancels drag-themed holiday event following planned Proud Boys

A fundraiser for a local, independent community school was canceled after a planned protest from a group known for hateful rhetoric against the LGBTQ community.

The event, a family-friendly story hour featuring performances from drag queens, was scheduled for Saturday morning at the Red Oak Community School.

This year, the event gained attention from a group with a presence in central Ohio that’s classified as extremist by the FBI and as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Known as the Proud Boys, the group made a post on social media indicating they were planning to protest at the event. The Proud Boys’ post stated they expected the event to be “wild.” Columbus police also indicated they would have a presence at the event.

The school had planned to hold the event despite these rumblings, until, Saturday morning when they shared a message on social media announcing the event had been canceled.

School manager Cheryl Ryan said she had tried for a week to contact the Columbus Division of Police, leaving multiple voicemails about the threats they were receiving.

“After a week, I was told we could hire a special duty officer who may or may not show up because they’re understaffed,” she said.

Ryan also talked about what she called the “long documented and lived history of law enforcement doing harm to the LGBTQ community.”

“In the end, our performers felt unsafe without a police presence. While our safety team felt unsafe with a police presence, we decided it was not safe to proceed and our read out planning group made the call to cancel,” Ryan said.

WOSU has reached out to the Columbus Division of Police to request comment.

More than 500 people bought in-person or live-streaming tickets to the event, which was scheduled to take place at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Clintonville.