Michael Rodriguez - Yesterday
A Calgary petting zoo and theme park has received hateful and threatening messages online after advertising its planned drag night on social media.
Mike Sheppard, owner of Cobb's Adventure Park in Calgary, poses at the attraction on Wednesday, August 10, 2022. The park will be hosting an adults-only drag night and has received threats.
Cobb’s Adventure Park owner and president Mike Sheppard says the adults-only drag event, planned for Saturday evening, has prompted multiple emails and comments from people accusing the business of “sexualizing children” and claiming they will no longer visit the park — some inferring violence in their messages.
One comment on the event on Facebook reads: “Only way anyone should go is if they get to bring guns to the show.” Others called the event “disgusting” and “woke stupidity,” among multiple other negative comments.
© Provided by Calgary HeraldPlanned drag night at Calgary kangaroo petting zoo spurs hateful messages, threats
Sheppard noted his business has long supported the LGBTQ community and this is the third year he’s hosted a drag night, but this is the first time it’s been met with such severe disdain. Typically, he said the annual event would feature other entertainers such as contortionists or hula-hoopers alongside the drag queens, but this year they had to turf some acts to bolster safety. He also filed a police report.
“Those other performers we had to cancel. We had a budget of $1,000 for that, but we’re putting that $1,000 into security guards now because of that message,” he said.
One of the performers, Jesse Postma , who goes by the drag name Angelina Starchild on stage, said the rhetoric is unfortunately nothing out of the ordinary.
“It’s not really anything new. It’s just something that’s always been there and kind of festering,” said Postma, who also hosts a weekly drag brunch at local gay bar Twisted Element every weekend.
“But with the end of the (peak of the) pandemic and kind of the restrictions all loosening up, I feel like everyone just started to feel really brave. So I feel like it’s gotten a lot worse.”
Postma said the messages do make him slightly uncomfortable, but said he thinks the threats are empty and Sheppard’s promise of additional security put him more at ease.
“We shouldn’t have to be going through this; it’s 2022,” he said. “Part of me is a little nervous. But the other part of me is — I just want to go out there and do what I’ve been doing for the past almost decade.”
Both Sheppard and Postma said it seems people have been emboldened to more brazenly showcase their bigotry as of late, especially under the veil of online anonymity.
“Everybody just needs to chill out a bit. The intolerance has gotten to level 11 out of 10,” said Sheppard.
“With everything going on in the world — from inflation to jobs; we just got over two years of COVID — I think people are afraid. I don’t know why that gives them power for hate, but it does.”
Despite the vitriol and threats of lost business, Sheppard said he’s not reconsidering hosting the drag night, saying it’s important for him, his staff and the roughly 300 people that will attend the show that they don’t back down.
“Personally, it’s very important for us,” he said. “I also think publicly, people have to stand up to it.
“If we’re gonna lose a few customers over that, I’m OK with that.”
For more information on Cobbs Adventure Park and the drag night this weekend, visit cobbsadventurepark.com .
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