Canceled Perry drag show will go on, but moves venues. Bar owner not pursuing charges

A group of local drag queens and a bar owner in Perry received gun threats, but their show will still go on somewhere else, they said.

After Main St. Bar announced on Facebook Thursday morning they canceled the show because of threats and safety concerns, two other bars – Friends on the Hill in Warner Robins and Pub 96 in Bonaire – stepped up to offer their venues.

Pynk Univers, a performer who organized the event and grew up in Warner Robins, said she trusts the new venue at Friends on the Hill “will do whatever to get the show going.” The show will take place at 6 p.m. Sunday.

Since the bar hosts LGBTQ+ events regularly and is “queer friendly,” she said it will be safe to hold it there. However, the verbal threats left her feeling “very overwhelmed and very overstimulated.”

“While getting ready, while being there, all we would think about is, ‘Is somebody going to come in here and shoot us down,’” Univers said.

The Perry resident recalled when a shooter killed 49 people and injured 53 others in 2016 at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

“It’s a scary thought but at the same time that also shows how dedicated we are to it,” Univers said. “Whenever I heard what was going on with (the owner), I was like I understand your decision, but as soon as people were reaching out, I literally messaged girls and I was like, ‘We’re still doing it.’”

She said the backlash was typical for a small town like Perry.

“It’s such an almost Bible Belt type of town, because it’s big on religion. Since they can have it, why can’t we have something?” Univers said.

Police presence after threats

A few days after Main St. Bar posted event fliers on social media, users from a Facebook group called Perry Free Speech posted homophobic comments and questions about the identities of the bar owner, landlord and its location.

The bar owner reported comments made by their neighbor to police, and told the Perry Police Department that her neighbor said he “wouldn’t be surprised if someone didn’t show up with a 45 and shoot some of these people, that he may even be one of them,” according to a police report obtained by The Telegraph.

She also told police that the man said to her, “maybe she should contact (the building owner), he could surely help her get out of the contract with the event promoter,” the report said.

A threat of this nature could be classified as a terroristic threat, but under Georgia law, the owner would likely need a third party to witness the verbal exchange between the owner and her neighbor, Perry Police Chief Alan Everidge said.

The owner did not have a witness to the conversation, and she did not provide police with evidence such as an audio or video recording, which could have been used in court to pursue terroristic threat charges.

Police units will check up on Main St. Bar and the owner’s house throughout the weekend, but officers will not remain on scene 24/7, Everidge told The Telegraph.

“We just kind of keep an eye out to see if there’s anything that raises suspicion that something’s going on that shouldn’t be going on,” Everidge said.

While the neighbor posed a significant threat to show up with guns, officers would only be present 24/7 if the owner had requested to investigate further, or if a protest permit was filed.

“Repeatedly she said no. I don’t have to make the decision for them and I can’t tell them what they have to do, because if they’re not willing to testify, you can’t prosecute a case,” Everidge said. “Especially these kind of cases, you got a lot of physical evidence to do.”

There were no protest permits filed, and the owner told officers “she did not want to press charges nor did she want anyone to go to jail for this, and that she mainly wanted to be notated in case something did happen.”

The updated event venue at Friends on the Hill will have its regular armed security, but no police presence, Univers said.

But she was shocked to learn the gun threat in itself was not enough to prompt 24/7 police presence if Main St. Bar would have held the event.

“They were just like, ‘Well since we don’t have any permits for people saying they’re going to protest, we’re just going to patrol as usual,” the performer said. “So that doesn’t give anyone any security because if no one is patrolling you and something does happen, what can happen?”