Corinna Sack, the owner of UpRising Bakery and Café in Lake in the Hills, a village northwest of Chicago, had advertised the sold-out Saturday night brunch event on Facebook, which was to include performances by three local drag queens and a raffle, along with the standard cafe brunch offerings.
Drag brunch events typically feature performances by drag queens—singing, lip-syncing, and dancing—as live brunch entertainment.
Shortly after midnight Saturday, officers with the Lake in the Hills Police Department were notified of “criminal damage to property in progress,” according to a news release from the department. Upon arrival, police arrested a suspect who has been charged with a hate crime and criminal damage to property. Both charges are Class 4 felonies, according to the police news release.
Sack said she rushed to the cafe and that three windows and a door were broken and “there was graffiti on the side of our building on the brick walls,” which included hate speech.
“When I first saw him, I just started crying. That was my reaction. I just started crying. I was scared, I was hurt, I was angry, I was disgusted and I was a little worried that my staff might have been here or seen it too, so I contacted them and thankfully they had already gone home.”
The police department said the cafe’s owner had previously reported threats in person and online to the business, and that the department had received information about protests and counter-protests in response to the brunch.
“The police department is dismayed that this happened in our village, remains steadfast in its commitment to public safety and has zero tolerance for crimes against all members (of) our community,” the police said in a statement.
The incident comes just weeks after the Proud Boys crashed a Drag Queen Story Hour at a California library. Drag performances have come under fire from conservative politicians and activists in recent months. Family-friendly events such as the Drag Queen Story Hour, in which drag queens read to children at public libraries in an effort to promote literacy and compassion, or the family brunch planned by UpRising, received particular attention.
In June, Florida Republican Rep. Anthony Sabatini proposed legislation to ban children from attending drag shows altogether.
Sack applauded the police response to the incident and the controversy surrounding the event. “They’ve been so amazing, working with us, working with the community, working with the protesters and the counter-protesters,” Sack said. “I can’t trust the police department any more.”
And while Saturday’s show has been postponed, Sac plans to host another event.
“We will not give in to these bullies and harassment,” she said. “What they are doing is unacceptable and we will not back down.
“We will show them that it could have stopped us for a day but we are a force to be reckoned with.
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