Bakery was attacked for hosting a show featuring drag performers

A Chicago bakery has closed its doors in a spate of extreme harassment and violent attacks for simply hosting a drag show.

The anti-drag climate in the US has reached new heights, with one bakery now a target for hosting a drag show.

Chicago bakery and cafe UpRising will close at the end of March due to frequent attacks and harassment on the premises.

The bakery-cafe owner revealed the closure was due to backlash from a recent drag show hosted at the venue.

“The closing of our doors is a direct result of the horrific attacks, endless harassment, and unrelenting negative misinformation about our home over the past eight months,” owner Corinna Sac said in a press release reported by the Chicago Sun Times.

“From an award-winning bakery that donates to local organizations and supports diversity and inclusion, we’ve been rebranded as ‘gay only’ and ‘paedophile’ through misinformation.

“Local customers no longer come here for the perceived threat that tarnishes our good name and fear their license plates are photographed and they are harassed.”

The first attack on the business came in July 2022 when a family-friendly show was organized that happened to feature some drag acts.

In response to the inclusion of drag performers, protesters smashed the venue’s doors and windows and daubed the store with hateful messages.

Worryingly, customers and staff were attacked upon entering the venue, while protesters camped outside and harassed people for days.

Sac also emphasized that the UpRising bakery and cafe are important to the local community they serve, with a mission to provide sweet treats for a variety of needs.

“It made me sad to see gluten-free and vegan products selling at a 350 percent premium,” she continued. “I was heartbroken to read emails from same-sex couples looking for a bakery to make their wedding cake. The people of this community need us.”

Drag bans in the US are causing major problems

Elsewhere in the US, Tennessee drag queens are “fearful” and “angry” after the state enacted a ban on their art form.

Tennessee became the first U.S. state to enact a ban on public drag performances that minors could potentially see, on March 2. It comes as a number of red states are pursuing similar efforts to criminalize drag performers, coinciding with bigoted, baseless rhetoric vilifying LGBTQ+ people as a threat to child safety.

Memphis-based drag queen Bella DuBalle says the message to the LGBTQ+ community is clear: “We don’t want you here.”

“It’s a movement coming from the religious right, and [it’s] I feel like I’ve somehow been taken back to Stonewall 54 years in the past,” she says. |The pendulum swing is so crazy.”

The bill categorizes drag as “adult cabaret” or “lustful interest” — a word that state law literally defines as “shameful or morbid interest in sex.” Bella says this is a clear attempt by lawmakers to cover up anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination – one that she fears could lead to further violence against the community.