The Backlash Abates? Stories of LGBTQ Love and Cheer

Ohio Church Hosting Drag Event Firebombed, Resists Police Pressure

The anti-LGBTQ backlash is powerful right now. We need some good news, and little Chesterland just gave us some.

That kind of violence is pitiful. There are people who say, “Think of the children, think of the children.” Well, children go here. We have a preschool here.

— Jess Peacock, Pastor of Community Church of Chesterland, in Ohio

I’ve been on pins and needles for more than a week since I started writing this story. I meant to immediately write up a short piece about a church not far from where I grew up, a church attacked with molotov cocktails and then besieged with threats over a drag-queen fundraising and story event.

But, every time I sat down to write, something about the story grew even more alarming. I decided to sit back and observe before sharing my thoughts.

And then … something truly special and cool happened.

First, let me explain that this story is super personal for me. Chesterland is a name that trips off my tongue, part of the ordinary language of my childhood. Little Chesterland feels and tastes like home. I didn’t grow up there, but I was raised in a deeply religious family very nearby in terms of miles, demographics, and community values. (White, working class, rust belt, largely conservative Christian.)

When Google first pushed the story into my newsfeed, I was horrified. A small Chesterland church got literally firebombed. Some unknown person lobbed molotov cocktails, scorching the door of the church’s community daycare center, which I later learned operates at an intentional loss to serve low-income families.

Somebody took a sledgehammer to the church’s sign, the white kind of sign with block letters you see outside most churches, the kind that broadcasts an uplifting message and tells you when services are held.

What was the damage all about? Drag Queens!

Community Church of Chesterland describes itself as, “a small faith community of the United Church of Christ who lives our faith by welcoming and serving all those in need. This is not just a place to worship, it’s a home for friendships, support, and community, a place to find God on your own terms with an amazing group of supportive, friendly people.”

The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant denomination that pioneered progressive Christian ideals of radical welcome and LGBTQ affirmation, saying they are emulating Jesus’s own teachings and practices. As part of those practices, Community Church of Chesterland is a haven for local LGBTQ Christians who feel unwelcome or despised elsewhere.

Here’s Chesterland’s statement of values, from their website:

Since caring for the poor requires money, Chesterland (like many churches) sometimes gets creative with fundraising. That community daycare for low-income parents? It doesn’t pay for itself.

So, a few weeks ago, somebody in the congregation suggested a drag-brunch fundraiser. Why not? Play to your strengths. A small nucleus of LGBTQ folks in the congregation included a couple semi-professional drag queens.

They said, let’s head out to the barn (as it were) and put on a show!

In the meantime we implore police officials to turn their attention away from [trying to cancel] our private events and focus on keeping the hate groups away.

Church organizers approached Paul Mendolera, owner of the popular Element 41 restaurant in nearby Chardon Square, who agreed to host a drag-brunch benefit on April 1 with proceeds to go to the church. The brunch, advertised for people over 18 years old, quickly sold out two seatings. Mendolera told reporters this is the first time he’s hosted a drag event:

One of my employees always wanted me to do like a drag show night or something like that, drag brunch. My daughter and people in our family, some of our staff, some of our customers, they’re all part of the LGBTQ community, and we put a pride flag in the window.

A separate drag-queen story hour appropriate for children would follow the brunch, at the Chesterland church itself. That event also booked out right away.

Then, all hell broke loose.

Element 41 workers received dozens of threatening phone calls and messages

Mendolera says the restaurant phone started ringing off the hook, callers threatening violence and/or arson if he didn’t cancel the adults-only brunch. His personal phone started to ring too, and so did the personal phones of family members and employees:

They’re calling us pedophiles and it’s getting really crazy where I have to turn my phone off at night. It’s taking it to the next level where we’re having people saying that they’re coming to protest, hundred people strong with concealed carry permits, and they want to save the children… [They’re] telling me that we’re grooming the children and we’re a pedophile restaurant and they’re not going to support us and they hope that we burn down.

In the middle of March, Mendolera told TV reporters that he would not back down despite threats over the adults-only event. “The one thing that we won’t shy away from is our ties with the LGBTQ community,” he said.

Then the church started getting threats too, staff taking calls accusing them of pedophilia. They never considered backing down either, but I don’t think anybody expected that the threats of “burning down” weren’t just talk.

In the early morning hours of March 25, somebody threw at least two flaming molotov cocktails (glass bottles containing gasoline) at doors of the church and at one church sign. Somebody destroyed another church sign with what police say was probably a sledgehammer.

Church staff discovered the charred fragments of at least one beer bottle and one vodka bottle used in the attack. The church suffered only minor damage, but it could easily have caught fire and burned down. More on the identity of the attacker in a moment.

The attack drew headlines but not help from local police, who tried to strongarm the church into cancelling both events

To write that local law enforcement reacted poorly is to badly understate what happened next. Instead of rallying to protect the restaurant and the church — to protect and serve their community— police officials complained that protection would be too costly, claimed they wanted no part in “controversy,” and advised the church (in what reads like an order) to shut the events down.

They essentially mirrored the behavior of police in multiple recent incidents by appearing to sympathize with the aims of white supremacist hate groups like the Proud Boys and Patriot Front.

Chester Township police issued a public statement citing safety concerns in calling for cancellation. Church organizers tell reporters police approached them privately with even stronger “advice,” citing a lack of willingness to spend police funds to protect the church.

Pastor Jess Peacock refused to back down, telling Fox 8 Cleveland, “We believe this is sacred work. We believe this is important work, and we won’t be deterred from doing it.”

Church leaders and other organizers posted the following response to police demands, part of a statement you can read in full on Facebook.

… Our organizers were asked how police officials could justify to their trustees such a large expenditure to keep the LGBTQ community safe. We ask, how can you justify denying an expenditure keeping the LGBTQ community safe? We understand these hate groups use financial terrorism as a tactic to force police agencies to take sides in situations like these; but choosing the side of the outside hate groups instead of members of this community they are sworn to protect sets a dangerous precedent for future targeted acts like these.

We are confident in our plan to keep our events safe. We have a fully developed security plan with seasoned experts. We are constantly monitoring threats as they develop and are prepared to take necessary steps — up to and including cancelling our event — if it becomes apparent that the police are unable or unwilling to fulfill their obligation to keep the peace. We will be in direct contact with ticketholders should plans for the event change.

In the meantime we implore police officials to turn their attention away from [trying to cancel] our private events and focus on keeping the hate groups away. Instead of asking us to hide, perhaps they could tell the hate groups not to come.

Signed,

Community Church of Chesterland Moderator Dan Craig, Community Church of Chesterland Reverend Jess Peacock, Community Church of Chesterland Social Justice Co-Chair Meg Carver, Element 41 Owner and Head Chef Paul Mendolera, The Fairmount Group President Mallory McMaster

Then last Friday, the FBI arrested a Nazi

According to CNN, “Aimenn D. Penny, 20, of Alliance, Ohio, has been charged in the US District Court in Cleveland with one count of malicious use of explosive materials and one count of possessing a destructive device, according to a criminal complaint.”

Alliance is another one of those names that triggers childhood memories. It’s another little rust-belt town very near where I grew up. To my nieces and nephews, Alliance is a high school sports rival. It also is home to a “White Lives Matter” group that describes itself as pro-Nazi and anti-LGBTQ.

According to the criminal complaint, a tip sent the FBI knocking on Penny’s door late last week. Confronted with evidence, he confessed to trying to burn down the Chesterland Community Church, “to protect the children and stop the drag show event.”

If his aim had been better or if the church were more combustible, he might well have succeeded.

While searching Penny’s home, FBI agents found a Nazi flag, other Nazi memorabilia, a White Lives Matter of Ohio T-shirt, a gas mask, multiple rolls of blue painter’s tape, and gas cans.

Then something truly special and cool happened

According to Cleveland.com, the Community Church of Chesterland held its sold-out drag-queen story hour as scheduled, and only one lonely protester showed up. The photo (which I can’t show you for copyright reasons) is almost hilarious. One lone person dressed all in black, wearing a black facemask, sits on the side of the road near the church looking lonely and dejected.

They probably should have gone inside for a little radical acceptance and love.

A larger protest did take place at the Element 41 restaurant earlier in the day, but news sources report that protesters were mostly outsiders, members of the white-supremacist group Patriot Front. Their calls for support from the local community fell mostly on deaf ears.

Or maybe locals, some of them people I grew up with, came to their senses?

I mean, seriously, Nazis? White supremacists? Molotov cocktails? Arson targeting a church?

Are those really Ohio Christian values?

Evidently, lots of people found those values shocking and unacceptable.

Meanwhile, the Chesterland church seem to be practicing their values of forgiveness. It seems the police decided to protect and serve after all, and church leaders are heaping them with praise:

A huge THANK YOU is due to the Chardon and Chester Police Departments, as well as the Geauga County Sheriff’s office for their incredible and overwhelming support and protection of the local citizens attending the Drag Story Hour at the church today.

The number of cruisers we hear were present, the ‘swat-style’ vans, the Chagrin Falls ‘tactical mobile unit’ which we were told was parked nearby…this overwhelming presence would have put caution in the mind of any group hoping to make an opportunistic threat…

And the only memory resulting from the day’s event at the church was Joy and Love! So much Love!

So much love

They say love conquers hate. Does it? Not always, but maybe it did this time. Maybe LGBTQ Christians in rust-belt Ohio near where I grew up feel just a little more loved, a little more joyful, a little more protected today. Maybe queer people in general feel like more valuable members of their community — people who deserve police protection, who deserve to live openly and without undue fear.

I hope so.

Mostly, I want to thank Pastor Jess Peacock and everyone at the Community Church of Chesterland for standing firm and giving love a chance to win.

The anti-LGBTQ backlash is powerful right now. We need some good news, and little Chesterland just gave us some.

This story is a response to the Prism & Pen writing prompt, The Backlash Abates? Stories of LGBTQ Love and Cheer.

All Prompt responses so far:

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