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A small group of alleged members of the Proud Boys, a far-right political group, disrupted a drag show being held at a bar in Northern California Thursday night. The members were filmed harassing patrons from outside and attempting to forcefully enter the bar.
NOW | This is Woodland, CA. A drag show was canceled after safety concerns but after enough people turned out, organizers held a scaled down version. Then this group showed up. [Warning: There’s explicit language in this video] @kcranews pic.twitter.com/KA8B0ceg7z
— KCRA Lee Anne Denyer (@KCRALeeAnne) July 1, 2022
Videos and photos circulating on social media show a group of about 10 men, some wearing bandanas and sunglasses that concealed their faces, standing across the street from The Mojo Lounge in Woodland and yelling at patrons inside. Event organizers told local TV stations that Thursday’s show had been canceled initially due to threats circulating online, but after an outpouring of support from the community, organizers decided to have a “scaled down” version of the show.
“There’s just a lot of mixed emotions about how great the night was to begin with and how much fun everyone had. It was so good to see people so happy and then to see the exact opposite. People were scared. People were angry. People were really upset,” Christy Hayes, owner of the bar, told KCRA. “This isn’t what we wanted.”
An exact timeline of events isn’t clear, but at some point one member of the group attempted to enter the bar despite a police presence near the entrance. Officers told KCRA that the man was hit in the face with pepper spray, but it’s unclear who discharged it. No arrests were made.
Woodland Police Department Deputy Chief Anthony Cucchi also told KCRA that officers are still attempting to figure out if the group was affiliated with an official organization, but KXTV’s Luke Cleary said on Twitter that the men were alleged members of the Proud Boys. KRCA reported that the men were yelling homophobic slurs, and videos online show them accusing event organizers of pedophilia.
Hayes told Fox 40 that the event was meant to commemorate the end of Pride Month, and that the bar had been receiving threats since June 8, when flyers advertising the show were posted around Woodland. Hayes said no one inside the bar was seriously injured during the altercation, but did say one patron had an asthma attack following the discharge of pepper spray.
Thursday’s incident capped off a series of LGTBQ events this month that were targeted with by members of far-right groups. A group of Proud Boys stormed a “Drag Queen Story Hour” event at a Bay Area library earlier this month, which occurred the same day that authorities in Idaho arrested 31 members of Patriot Front — a white nationalist group — near a Pride event in Coeur d’Alene.
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