Arlington bar receives bomb, death threats over drag story time

Families seeking fun at a popular LGBTQ+ bar in Northern Virginia last weekend became the latest victims in a wave of hateful threats happening across the country when a bomb threat was called in over a drag story time.

Drag queen Tara Hoot’s Family Fun Story Time performance at Freddie’s Beach Bar & Restaurant in Arlington was delayed Saturday because of an emailed bomb threat that forced a temporary evacuation.

“It’s a little unsettling to get an email like that and, more recently, a threat on my life,” owner Freddie Lutz said.

Police searched but found nothing, and the show went on.

Lutz said there was also a threat to his home and his bar in Rehoboth as well as the death threat.

“It said, ‘We don’t care that you’re gay. We don’t care about your gay bar. We don’t care that you gay people get together. But we want you to stay away from our children,’” Lutz said.

He describes his business as a straight-friendly gay bar that’s been there for more than two decades. The drag story time was the first one ever held there.

“This was a drag queen singing songs, reciting children’s books to little kids with rainbows and bubbles,” Lutz said. “There’s nothing sexual in this show.”

Arlington police and the FBI are investigating the threats.

“Somebody gave permission to these people to crawl out of the woodwork, and the vitriol and the hatred is just something — I never,” Lutz said.

Alexa Rodriguez of The TransLatin@ Coalition, which has also received bomb threats and hate mail, calls it a dangerous escalation in communities across the country.

“I won’t be afraid anymore,” Rodriguez said. “They won’t erase us or do anything to us, because we will fight back.”

Lutz plans to have another drag story time on May 4, which will focus on love and peace.