How to plan and hold a safer drag story hour or LGBTQI+ event
Glitterpill offers this advice for event organizers, performers, activists, and community members to help you plan safer and more resilient events for the LGBTQI+ community.
A rainbow flag flown in celebration of Pride.
For event organizers in the planning stages of your event:
Physical safety
There are physical safety considerations for individual spaces that only you can know, but we suggest consulting about safety and security arrangements for your event. Some people in your community can think through these physical safety considerations with you, like activists and veterans.
Plan to keep children away from windows.
Nonviolent Peaceforce has some helpful tools for situational awareness.
Make a plan with performers for them to enter and exit the venue and get home safely.
Frontline staff training
Your frontline staff (like receptionists) and anyone whose name is on the event will bear the brunt of harassment and threats. Expect a barrage of phone calls and e-mails. Calls to action by the far-right take place online, mobilizing followers (including those outside the local area, state, or even from overseas) to e-mail and call libraries and other venues and threaten violence, including towards events for children.
Give your frontline staff a script and training, and support to deal with harassment, both over the phone, online, and in person. Ensure there is a safety plan for staff if they are the first person someone sees when they walk through the door.
Make free counseling available to staff impacted by abuse and threats. Take advantage of counseling from your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) if this is made available at your place of work.
Registrations
We recommend you set up a new e-mail address solely for this event. Through this e-mail address, pre-filter e-mails into a separate folder (it is a good idea to retain e-mails in case of threats, but you don’t have to be inundated with them in real-time) based on keywords: include all the slurs you can think of in these filters, including “groomer,” “paedophile/pedophile” and homophobic and transphobic slurs. Set a time once a day to skim through these e-mails for any concerning threats.
Have ticketing for events wherever possible so it’s clear who is attending. If your event is held at a library, we recommend having attendees register their library card number against their booking. There have been instances of the far-right “selling out” events by submitting false registrations.
Your event details and ticket confirmations should include instructions on safely arriving and leaving with others.
If story time events are forced to move online, plan for disruption and heavily moderate the Zoom meeting. Be mindful of the privacy of participants (caregivers and children) in how Zoom is moderated. One easy step you can take is creating a waiting room to prevent Zoom bombing and other unwanted behaviors or guests.
See: Limiting Access and Reducing Disruptive Behavior in Zoom - IS&T Contributions - Hermes
Don’t organize story hours in secret even if you are afraid of abuse or threats: the far-right will inevitably become aware of this, and it will only fuel conspiracies. Pride Month and story hours are about celebrating and overcoming internalized shame surrounding who you are and teaching diversity, inclusion, and respect. Even if it is out of concern for your safety, holding an event in secret will still be interpreted as shameful.
Community liaison to support your event in case of threats
We suggest working with local activists and Rainbow Community members to plan your event. Reach out to them early because they may have already anticipated and discussed some of the threats you may receive. Our activist and Rainbow Communities are often on the frontline of harassment and threats from the far-right and have experience dealing with them. We have repeatedly seen that communities are prepared to show up in numbers to defend events peacefully. Bring them into the organizing, liaise with them, and welcome them. Identify the activist and community groups you want to liaise with early in case your event is threatened. The earlier they can organize and plan, the safer it will be for everyone.
Your local antifascists may have a “spotters guide” to offer you information about and photos of local far-right agitators. They may be able to offer you an assessment of who they deem a threat.
If you’re unsure who to approach, it may depend on your area and community. In some places, it might be local LGBTQI+ activists and groups, Dykes on Bikes, environmental activists, antifascist activists and networks, progressive faith communities or political organizations, or workers' unions.
Online privacy and security
Before your event goes live, frontline staff, event organizers, and performers should do an audit of their personal social media accounts. You can take basic steps, like limiting all past posts, making your Facebook “Likes” and friends list private, or locking your Facebook profile. Instagram also has steps you can take to make your account private and limit your visibility. Gender Minorities Aotearoa has an understanding doxxing guide.
Ensure your children or pets are not featured in your profile picture on your personal social media accounts.
Managing online comments and responding to threats
Your social media managers can also secure the accounts linked to your event by limiting comments on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter posts, blocking custom words, and filtering profanity on your Facebook Page.
Have a protocol for dealing with threats made in person, and after taking immediate security precautions, film the threatening person if you can. Often video taken on your phone is better quality than photos, making it easier to identify individuals.
After any threats in person or on the phone, immediately document the phone number (if available), time of threat, what was said, a physical description of the individual (if relevant), and any other details you can remember.
Don’t delete threatening Facebook comments or messages; take a screenshot, note the profile URL, and then block them. Blocking will stop the person from commenting and hide their comments on your Page, but it means the Page Admin can still access the comment if it becomes necessary to report threats.
Screenshot threatening comments on other platforms and screenshot the profile making the threats.
For defenders of events
Drag Story Hour ‘defenders’ are a tried and tested strategy to deal with counter-protestors targeting your event. Local community members, including activists, form a “welcoming committee” for event attendees. They can act as a privacy shield for parents bringing children and are a bright and joyous presence that can distract from far-right agitators. Check out these brilliant flyers from Drag Story Hour NYC explaining their initiative that was passed out on the street outside an event. Drag story hour “welcoming committees” can bring colorful chalk, banners, and umbrellas (which can also act as privacy barriers), bubble machines, masks (for health and safety), and music. A bright, colorful, joyous, and peaceful “welcoming committee” can disarm in the face of hate and help attendees feel comfortable walking into your venue.
Melbourne, Australia, has seen the founding of the Rainbow Community Angels, a group of volunteers who dress as angels with large wings to defend events targeted by far-right groups. The Rainbow Community Angels run briefing sessions and marshall training for volunteers wanting to assist them. This is a wonderful initiative anyone can use as a template for their own community.
Before the event, reach out to event organizers (including local politicians where applicable), and let them know you support it and look forward to it going ahead. Drop into your local library with a card or some chocolates for local librarians if you know they’re facing threats. They are everyday heroes. If you can’t attend a defense or protest, even something as simple as an encouraging e-mail is a way to show support.
You don’t need to be a group member to show up to defend a drag story hour or LGBTQI+ event. Go (and leave) with a buddy and make an effort to meet others there. The relationships we form now will help us build community, resilience, safety, and trust as we face the rise of fascism together.
Nonviolent Peaceforce has this excellent guide on Safety Before, During, and After an Action (USA) for activists. This can also be adapted to countries outside the United States. We recommend you familiarise yourself with it and run through it with your buddy.
How should event organizers and performers respond to threats?
Organizers buckling under pressure and canceling events when faced with protest threats from the far-right shows the far-right that they only need to threaten violence to get their way. This is then amplified by the media and is taken as a “win” by the far-right. This is a way of psychologically conditioning society to submit to their fascism. Corporations should not hold events they are unprepared to stand up for and will only cancel. This serves to demoralize and isolate the LGBTQI+ community.
Reach out to your community, including local activists: they want your event to go ahead and will happily show up to defend it.
For activists
We must act now, to address the ongoing violence, intimidation, and harassment against marginalized communities. Remember, there is always something you can do, no matter how small. Stand up against hate and bigotry. Speak out against injustice. And if you witness or experience discrimination, report it. Together, we can make a difference.
Reports of violence, intimidation, and coordinated harassment are still being documented. If you would like to submit an incident anonymously and contribute to our global far-right hate map, please get in touch with us here and include that your message is about Pride 2023. If you would like additional training or insights, reach out here.
Knowledge is power.