Conservatives furious as armed men turn up to protect drag performers at Texas brunch event

Protesters who answered anti-trans activist’s call were stunned by display of support for drag event

A group of armed conservatives appeared shaken by pro-LGBT+ protesters guarding a “drag brunch” event in Roanoke, Texas, at the weekend, video has shown.

The two groups stood off against one another on Sunday outside Anderson Distillery and Grill, when an inaugural “Barrel Babes Brunch” event was held with local drag queens.

At least one conservative group had planned to protest against the brunch ahead of Sunday, including  Protect Texas Kids, who, according to its website, aims to “take a stand in protecting kids from the toxic, indoctrinating agenda of the left” — supposedly in reference to support for LGBT+ people.

The event, which the restaurant said was fully booked and attended by families, went ahead with a sustained police presence despite those earlier threats made by alleged members of the far right on social media.

In fact, conservative protesters appeared taken aback by the presence of armed supporters outside the venue who were masked, dressed mostly all in black, and were holding AR-15 style weapons in defence of the venue and drag performers. Video and images also showed them displaying Pride and trans flags.

Footage captured by Steven Monacelli, a Dallas-area journalist, captured the verbal confrontation that unfolded involving police, who ordered the conservative protesters to the other side of the street. About half-a-dozen people were pictured holding placards with slogans such as “Drag the queens out of them”.

One man wearing a Texas-embroidered t-shirt told Mr Monacelli in the video, “She just spat on me, she just spat on me,” while pointing to the group protecting the drag brunch.

The freelance reporter replied: “What did you call them earlier when you were talking to them? Didn’t you call them a bunch of f***ing p*****s?”

The protester shot-back, “No I called them p*****s (pointing to the armed drag supporters) ... just the ones that are wielding AR47s”, before explaining that he was at the drag brunch event “to support people that don’t indoctrinate and groom little eight-year-old kids”.

One LGBT+ journalist based in Texas afterwards tweeted of the video: “Look at these MAGA dudes, they’re absolutely stunned that the people who showed up with guns are not on their side. They don’t even know how to process it.”

While it remains unclear if the conservative protesters were associated with far-right groups, Kelly Neidert, a reportedly well-known anti-trans activist and founder of Protect Texas Kids, was singled out by Mr Monacelli at the protest, which served as the latest example of armed groups disrupting LGBT+ events involving drag queens.

Anderson Distillery and Grill thanked everyone who supported its drag brunch and said “love won today” in a statement shared to Facebook following the brunch event, adding: “Yes, every table was full before we officially opened. Yes, we reached maximum capacity and had a wait list to get inside. Yes, we ran out of food. Yes, we passed the ‘no sexual content’ inspection from the Texas Comptroller’s Office.”

Trisha Delish, one of the drag queens who performed, meanwhile added on Twitter: “Roanoke TURNED OUT to support our show!! We hit capacity and our kitchen is completely sold out of food from our amazing patrons. I can’t stop tearing up everytime I think about how packed the audience was.”

Although at least one person was seen with a baseball bat with razor wire wrapped around it, Dallas police said no arrests were made after the confrontation with and between protesters, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Earlier this year, far-right groups including the Proud Boys militia members interuppted several drag queen story time events in libraries across the US, in acts of intimidation against LGBT+ people and others.

Many on the right have falsely accused LGBT+ people of radicalising children with slurs such as “groomer” — a phrase even hurled at Disney earlier this year for its opposition to a Florida law dubbed “Don’t Say Gay”, which critics say has helped fuel conspiracies and attacks on LGBT+ people and their supporters.