Did Drag Show Prompt Attack on North Carolina Power Supply?

Armed protestors have terrorized recent drag-themed events such as story hours. Did a drag show in Moore County, North Carolina prompt "intentional" and "malicious" damage to two electrical substations, caused by gunfire, that plunged thousands of the county's residents into darkness?

Law enforcement are taking the question seriously. Area newspaper The News & Observer said that sheriff's deputies had visited the home of a woman who posted anti-LGBTQ+ messages on her Facebook page, including "an invitation to the protest at the theater" where the drag event took place on the evening of Dec. 3.

The show was interrupted midway through when the power failed due to two electrical substations being damaged by perpetrators with firearms. The News & Observer reported that after the power went out, the woman who had called for protestors to show up at the theater, Emily Grace Rainey, went back on Facebook to declare, "The power is out in Moore County and I know why."

Subsequently, Rainey suggested that all she meant was that God was punishing the county for the drag show.

"I told them that God works in mysterious ways and is responsible for the outage," Rainey posted after the deputies showed up at her home to question her. "I used the opportunity to tell them about the immoral drag show and the blasphemies screamed by its supporters."

"Lauren Mathers, the executive director of Sandhills PRIDE, the L.G.B.T.Q. organization that produced the show, said that while the group had received violent threats leading up to the event, none indicated any kind of planned attack on the region's power grid," The New York Times reported.

Mathers said that the group "did not receive any specific threats that would lead me to be able to say to you, there's a correlation."

But Mathers also took note of the increasingly virulent opposition that has greeted drag events in the county, saying that "it was the fourth time the group had put on the show," but that "they had never received such pushback" as they had now, the NYT detailed.

"Drag shows in general have come under attack recently," Mathers pointed out.

Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields told the press that the damage to the substations was "targeted" and added, "the persons who did this knew exactly what they were doing." Fields added that the "extensive" investigation into the vandalism would have "more teeth, more bite" due to the nature of the property damage and the extensive disruption it had caused.

Fields added that as of yet, however, there is no reason to draw a direct link between the drag show and the damage done to the electrical substations, which are not expected to be operating again until late in the week.

"Is it possible?" Fields responded when asked if the damage could have been spurred by animus toward the drag show. "Anything's possible. But we've not been able to tie anything back to the drag show."

The power outage has affected "about 38,000 residences and businesses," the News & Observer noted. Whoever the perpetrators may be, and whatever their motives, Sheriff Fields had strong words for them, calling them out as "cowards."

Mike Cameron, the assistant town manager of Southern Pines, where the drag show took place at a movie theater, said that the power outage had caused traffic accidents, "including a four-vehicle wreck," The News & Observer relayed.

"The car wreck was totally because the stop lights were out," Cameron said.