The Southeast Alaska State Fair board canceled a meeting scheduled for Wednesday to take public input about the scheduling of Juneau Drag for this summer’s fair citing perceived threats from some residents.
The scheduling of the event prompted opposition from some who expressed concerns that drag was inherently sexual and inappropriate for a public setting. About 100 people wrote emails to the fair board and staff both in support and in opposition to the act.
“We received several concerns from community members about people using this meeting to pick a fight with the opposition instead of expressing their feelings to the board,” wrote interim fair director Amanda Randles. “We have been hearing angry and threatening language online and in some of our emails.”
Rumors circulated among some residents this week that death threats were aimed at the fair board and staff members. But fair director Bev Kryder, who resigned shortly after the controversy, told the CVN there were no death threats made toward fair staff or board members. Sherri Loomis, the administrator of the Haines Chatters page, also told the CVN there were no threats of violence. She paused the ability to comment on the page.
“There were no threats of violence on the thread of Haines Chatters,” Loomis said. “I monitor that closely. I let it go because there was so much interaction going on, but then it just started spiraling out of control, going off topic so I closed the comments.”
One letter, written by a 13-year-old and directed to the fair board last week, made reference to drag queens being hanged in “colonial times” and that if they performed in a “Christian society, where the policemen are part-time pastors, they had better be ready to get shot.” The letter writer later wrote an apology to the board.
“I am sorry about this letter causing offense, and I retract my statement about having these people shot by the police,” he wrote. “I am sorry that this has caused disturbance in some people, and I sincerely regret having sent this unedited, and will try to make amends. I will also try to be more careful with the words I use in the future.”
Police chief Heath Scott told the CVN that police “have not received, nor are we aware of, any acts of threats of violence related to this subject. I hope that this dialogue will continue to remain within the confines of civil discourse.”
Dan Hauser initially opposed the drag act and told the CVN he was “ready to fight this event to the very end.” But he has since changed his mind. He planned to speak at the fair’s meeting Wednesday night and urge calm. He said since the controversy began, he’s questioned his own motivations and asked himself why he felt so angry.
“And as I think back on it now, I remember thinking about all those horrible images I had been served up on the news and the internet of the drag shows with kids being treated unspeakably,” Hauser wrote to the CVN. “That is when I realized I have been trained to judge a person before I have evidence to prove that judgment right, and while this is not the kind of show that is right for me or my family I don’t see any evidence it is the horrible event I first thought it was.”
Hauser said that instead of letting external forces divide residents, “let’s treat each other with grace.”
“Your neighbor that was so accepting of the drag show was not advocating for ‘grooming,’ and your neighbor that was so strongly against the drag show is not a militia member ready to do harm,” he wrote.
Fair board chair Spencer Douthit said the board is considering rescheduling the meeting.
Haines Mayor Douglas Olerud told the CVN Wednesday that he hopes residents will engage on this topic “with grace and understanding.”
“Disrespectful comments only serve to marginalize not only the subject of the comment but also the speaker,” Olerud said. “We can disagree yet also treat our neighbors with respect. I have faith that with time and consideration a compromise will be reached that meets the community’s expectations.”