Suspicious online threats meant to deter a drag show at the New Brookland Tavern Friday, June 16 turned out to be unfounded.

The threats made their way around the LGBTQ community with no immediate explanation for who initially started circulating them. The drag show sponsored by the local drag group Columbia Kings n’ Things continued on at the West Columbia rock club with a few allies standing outside the entrance door.

“This won’t stop us from having drag shows. We aren’t going anywhere,” said Han D. Mann, a drag king with Columbia Kings n’ Things. 

Mann wasn’t at the drag show Friday night, but he said he and others heard of the suspected protest.

New Brookland Tavern’s owner Mike Lyons said, “One guy called and said what we’re doing was wrong and he’s going to sit outside and protest. We’ve had people say they’re going to protest and not done anything.”

“We’ve been thinking it was bound to happen because of the political climate,” said Han. D Mann. “It’s crazy because it’s a harmless drag show meant for adults.”

June is Pride month, dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community, which Mann pointed to as a possible explanation for the timing of the threats.

Drag performances have been thrown into the national spotlight as Tennessee became the first state to explicitly band drag spaces in public spaces back in April.

In South Carolina, House and Senate bills that would prohibit drag shows on public property and other places where it could be viewed by minors were introduced in March and remain in committee. The bills also stipulate that spaces that allow drag shows could be deemed sexually oriented businesses.

“It’s concerning for them because being a sexually oriented business comes with statute and also a stigma and that’s not what these businesses are,” Mann told the Chronicle in March, speaking to the position the bills could put places the Kings n’ Things perform if they take effect. “It puts them in a difficult decision.”