Kelly Estrella has been performing drag in the South for nearly four decades. But it wasn’t until her performance was canceled on June 9 due to a bomb threat at the Brewtorium, a local brewery in Austin, Texas, that she felt her life was at risk.
“I’m used to being aware of my surroundings and always being vigilant,” says 54-year-old Estrella, who goes by the stage moniker Kelly Kline. “But this action that happened, it really makes me nervous about other events.”
Local and federal authorities determined that the establishment likely fell victim to a hoax they’ve seen across multiple U.S. cities, especially during Pride, in an effort to force the cancellation of drag events, Brewtorium CEO Whitney Roberts told TIME in a Friday statement. (The Austin Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.) At least three other drag events in Alaska, Massachusetts and New York received bomb threats during that same weekend, and two more events in Arizona and Minnesota reported similar attacks the following weekend. It’s part of an alarming uptick in protests and threats against drag events since Pride season 2022, which performers are hoping to combat through the formation of: Qommittee, a burgeoning coalition of drag artists across the U.S.
The D.C.-based group launched in June with the intention of connecting individual drag artists, especially those living in more isolated places in the country and who hold marginalized identities, with one another. During its first year, the coalition has been focused on recruitment, but leaders aim to eventually provide additional support, such as legal aid, and helping drag artists’ secure compensation for their work.
Blaq Dinamyte, a D.C.-based drag performer and president of Qommittee, says the group also aims to serve as a sort-of liaison between drag artists and law enforcement—a relationship which he says is often strained—to better combat and respond to hate crimes and threats in their line of work….
