Downers Grove Public Library announced earlier this month it was canceling a drag bingo event for teens after numerous threats.
Now, the village mayor has revealed details of one of those threats: an anonymous letter that contained a single bullet.
“It’s hard to believe someone thinks this is acceptable behavior,” Downers Grove Mayor Bob Barnett said in a Facebook post. “If you find sympathy with the message, look long and hard in the mirror and consider getting help.”
Accompanying Barnett’s Facebook post were two photos of a single manila envelope mailed to DuPage County. A handwritten return address on the envelope said, “Your Friends at MAGA.” A Confederate flag sticker is on the other side of the envelope.
Inside, along with the rifle round, was a letter using a homophobic slur and a threat to “commies” that there was “more to come.” A single rifle round was included in the letter.
Barnett said it was hard to believe the threat came from his community, since it wasn’t sent directly to the library. Still, he urged anyone with information to contact police.
A spokeswoman for the library declined to comment about the unfolding situation. Downers Grove Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Downers Grove Commissioner Greg Hosé said he regretted not speaking out during a Village Council meeting earlier this month where the drag event had been discussed. The chambers, he said, had been filled with “hateful, anti inclusive rhetoric” that day.
“We have seen more and more anger and extreme rhetoric in politics even, in recent months, in Downers Grove,” Hosé said in a Facebook post. “This is the most abhorrent, vile, disgusting display I’ve seen in my community in nearly a decade of public life.”
Hosé said violence is never an answer to public policy disputes and called for the denunciation of the threat — especially from those who consider themselves “MAGA.”
“Inclusive programming belongs in our library and elsewhere in our community,” Hosé said in his post. “If you don’t think LGBTQ+ youth can be among the most at-risk in our community, you need to talk to a teenager.”
The Downers Grove library had faced intense backlash from extreme conservative groups over plans for the drag event. Among the more outspoken was Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau, the Republican nominee facing incumbent Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., in the 6th Congressional District.
Pekau called the event “inappropriate” and “an unacceptable use of taxpayer funds.” He also said he denounced the event just as he would if a library were “introducing kids to straight sex by holding a burlesque show.”
Awake Illinois, a far-right group with a history of anti-LGBTQ comments online, also issued a “public service announcement and a call of action” against the library show.
The Downers Grove library originally had taken the criticism in stride, insisting the event would go on as scheduled. As for parents who objected, they said that was “totally OK — they can choose not to come. ... Other taxpaying parents in the community do want programming like this.”
The event — planned for National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11 — was to feature a short lip-sync performance from Aurora Divine, along with bingo.
