File this one under bizarre but disturbing stories: Yesterday, Jan. 12, LGBTQ Nation reported on “a group of sad white men,” members of the Nationalist Social Club, marching in protest from Maine to New Hampshire against Portsmouth’s Seacoast Repertory Theatre production of “Honey Punch and Pals,” performed virtually (due to pandemic precautions). The show featured a drag-queen, dressed as a 1950s housewife, reading stories to puppets.
Reports LGBTQ Nation:
When the pandemic started [back in 2020], the theater moved shows online, with actors performing in front of empty seats. One of the productions, Honey Punch and Pals, includes a drag queen dressed as a 50s homemaker who reads books to puppets.
Cue the rage police.
“It is for everyone,” co-director Brandon James said. “It really is for everyone. It is for kids. It is family-friendly. It’s silly. It’s fun. It’s puppets.”
The actor who portrays Honey Punch will continue in the role for season three, but admits that he has faced death threats since the group targeted him.
“What we weren’t expecting was a militant line of aggression,” he said.
“I stood inside our lobby in our theater and watched these men hurling hate outside the theater,” James said. “And I had to ask myself and look inside: ‘What are we going to do? What are we, as humans, going to do? What are we, as an organization, going to do?’ The answer is not [to] stay silent. We’re not going to close up our shutters, and we’re not going to roll over and let these men repeat history.”
Members of the neo-Nazi group, who were too afraid to show their faces, held a banner that read “Drag queens are pedophiles.” The big word was spelled correctly.
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