As different individuals have been celebrating Pride throughout the month of June, not everyone seems keen on certain events taking place within their communities. And after this past Saturday in Seward, the message shows.
In a post from Seward Pride Alliance, a bomb threat was called in before the Drag Story Hour was to take place at the Seward Community Library and Museum this past Saturday. As a result, this event was forced to relocate to another location for safety purposes.
Another post on the same day reported that someone stole the organization’s “Welcome to Seward Pride Weekend” banner. The post said, ‘It’s not cool,’ and emphasized that this is a group of volunteers working strictly off donations to make events like this possible.
According to Seward Deputy Chief of Police Karl Schaefermeyer, someone in Anchorage received an email on her work account threatening the library because of the Drag Story Hour event.
“The e-mail was upset about that and stated they’re going to blow up the library and. Damage to surrounding buildings. They included a name in the e-mail that appears to be. A fake name. So the e-mail was received. [I] believe it, 10:30 that morning, we were notified of it about 40 minutes later and we have the evacuations probably within 15 minutes of our notification,” said Schaefermeyer
After everyone was safely evacuated, Drag Story Hour occurred at the Alaska Sealife Center.
The topic of Pride-related events has caused mixed emotions on the Kenai Peninsula over the past few months. Back in January, Soldotna Pride had to cancel its Drag Story Hour event due to public backlash. While the event was to be held at the Soldotna Public Library’s Community Room, misinformation from a different blog caused confusion in the community.
While a police report has been filed for both events, anyone with information is asked to contact the Seward Police Department at (907)-224-3338.