Attack on Brewmaster’s Taproom Won’t Stop Drag Storytime

Around noon on December 5, a masked shooter driving a silver Chevrolet Cruze with no license plate drove to a bar in Renton, WA and fired at the window with either a BB or a pellet gun. The bar in question, Brewmaster’s Taproom, has been the venue for a monthly Drag Queen Storytime hosted by Sylvia O’Stayformore.

Prior to the attack, a far-right organization calling themselves Wake Up WA State had been gaining attention for their sudden outrage over this event that has been going on since the summer of 2020. Marley Rall, owner of Brewmaster’s Taproom, says that this event, for reasons unknown, has attracted far more angry emails and Facebook messages than previous ones. One Reddit user, according to Rall, even suggested shooting local transformers to leave the bar without power during the event. This might be in reference to a similar shooting in North Carolina that left residents without power for days.

This uptick in attention coincided with a planned protest of the event, calling for participants to bring “signs, bullhorns, and noisemakers” to disrupt the story time, and the oft-repeated refrain of the far right for queer, especially trans and gender non-conforming, people to “stop grooming kids” by reading them stories like If You Give a Dog a Donut and C is for Camping. After the attack, Wake Up WA State “pulled the plug” on the protest and outwardly condemned the vandal.

Renton’s first openly queer City Councilmember, Carmen Rivera, affirmed her commitment to “show up and be the allies, be the supporters, be the warriors our ancestors who came before us were.” She organized a counter-protest that would have taken place had the right-wing protestors shown their faces.

Despite all this, Sylvia O’Stayformore and Brewmaster’s Taproom held Drag Queen Storytime on December 10, though the event was held inside for obvious safety concerns. Though the initial protest held to their word and never showed up, queer rights advocates stood outside the bar to make sure everything went smoothly, as well as a few uniformed police officers. These events will continue in Renton, no matter who disapproves.