satanic panic is back and it’s coming for queer progress.
Recent threats targeting local LGBTQ+ events are connected to a disturbing national trend.
Queering the Burbs is a regular distillation of pop culture, politics and west suburban Illinois queerness written by Joe Erbentraut. If you like what you see, please consider subscribing (it’s free!), liking or sharing this piece.
The ‘80s were a truly wild time in pop culture and, uh, society in general. Waterbeds were all the rage (representing 20 percent of all mattress sales in 1987), Paula Abdul had a Billboard Hot 100 hit song featuring a cartoon cat named MC Skat Kat, and seemingly all the daytime talk shows wanted to discuss was an alleged underground of Satanic activity threatening the nation’s youth.
A lengthy new NBC News story explores in depth the resurgence of this trend of baseless accusations of Satanism facing various public figures. In one example cited prominently in the story, a Utah Republican known for being a relatively progressive prosecutor was defeated in a primary election after completely fabricated rumors spread online that he and his wife were involved in a “ritual sex abuse cult.”
While supposedly “fringe” groups like QAnon and Libs of TikTok are typically seen as to blame for spreading wild accusations and conspiracy theories like these, NBC News reports that these sorts of broader fears aren’t all that uncommon at the moment. According to a survey of 2,000 U.S. adults conducted this June by University of Miami researchers cited by NBC, one-third of the respondents agreed that “members of Satanic cults secretly abuse thousands of children every year” and a quarter of respondents felt that “Satanic ritual sex abuse is widespread in this country.”
While those percentages are relatively small, they’re much bigger than zero, and the ramifications of these beliefs becoming more widespread and weaponized anew are massive for LGBTQ advocacy efforts as many of these efforts are sickeningly branded as “grooming” or worse, without any evidence. We are already seeing it play out right now in multiple examples in the Chicago suburbs.
Last week, I cataloged a number of examples of LGBTQ+ progress advancing in the ‘burbs, as well as some of the pushback that is also occurring in response to those successes. That pushing back has already ramped up significantly over the past week.
In Lake in the Hills in McHenry County, where a harassment campaign targeting a vegan bakery called UpRising Bakery and Cafe planning to hold a drag brunch first began in July, a small group of demonstrators began stationing themselves directly outside the cafe every day starting last Friday. Their vehicles were adorned in a thin-blue line flag, a Trump flag and a “Jesus: Now and Forever Our Only Hope” flag, among others, and some customers of the bakery reported being harassed while visiting the business.
What exactly prompted these people to take action? According to a screenshot from a private Facebook group posting shared to social media, the cafe was accused of “bringing perverse and demonic sexual acts before our children.” The posting, which also included the name and a photo of the cafe’s owner and two drag artists, encouraged members of the group to “make your voice known” and “protect our children and our community.”
Thankfully, the cafe’s supporters have also turned out to make themselves known. UpRising was so busy on Saturday that, according to a Facebook post from the business, they had sold out almost entirely of food, prompting them to plan to close on Sunday. But the harassment has continued and the post itself noted that the protesters “plan to stick around for ‘as long as it takes.’” Indeed, according to a social media post, at least one protester returned to the business’ parking lot on Monday.
Meanwhile, at least other upcoming LGBTQ+ events in the ‘burbs are currently facing similar threats. At this time, these groups have not spoken publicly about what they are up against so I am not at liberty to share their circumstances, but the attacks have been similar in style to what UpRising has been dealing with almost nonstop for about two months now. The attacks are also similar to the “severe” threats that forced the Downers Grove Public Library last week to cancel its planned drag queen bingo night.
This is, of course, enraging to witness. It’s not easy being openly queer anywhere, much less in the homogeneous, overwhelmingly heterosexual, often isolating suburbs. Efforts like all of the events mentioned and alluded to above all share a noble, simple goal: Visibility in the name of celebration and survival. To paraphrase a viral post I saw going around repeatedly during this ramp up of queer/trans panic: No one is trying to make your kid gay or trans or nonbinary or anything. They’re trying to keep your kid alive.
I went to UpRising this summer, shortly after the initial vandalism and harassment took place. My husband and I drove up to Lake in the Hills on a Saturday, meeting up with a close college friend of mine and her two daughters. Waiting for them to arrive, we sat directly outside one of the large windows that were now boarded up after being destroyed by someone hateful with nothing better to do.
We went inside and proceeded to order some pastries and then some breakfast. To be totally honest, the experience was not fantastic. The bakery was overwhelmed and a bit disorganized. The decor was dated and the service wasn’t amazing. The food was generally OK, but nothing sensational — except for their cinnamon rolls. Those cinnamon rolls were absolutely perfect. But all in all, it was a pretty unremarkable experience.
All of that is to say it’s hard enough to just run an unremarkable bakery in this world. It’s difficult to keep a nonprofit functioning, or a public resource meeting the growing demands of a community. There’s never enough money or time or people or energy. It’s a thankless endeavor, and you just don’t do it for the cash or the recognition.
These people who are facing this ridicule are the ones who are trying to do something good in the world. These are hard-working, under-resourced people who want to do something positive for their community, to help make these suburbs a more accepting, more open, more positive place. They’re trying to save some lives.
So don’t get it twisted: To actively target these individuals by disseminating false information that could result in someone getting seriously hurt isn’t just cruel — it’s truly evil.
On a lighter note, here are a few other things I’ve been enjoying lately:
My hometown of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, was featured prominently in the latest installment of one of my favorite hate-reads, Bon Appetit’s Food Diaries. In this installment, a Lake Geneva resident with a burgeoning parasocial relationship with Vera Farmiga and seemingly a deep dislike for her family confesses a murder. Kidding, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these columns came to that some day.
I just went to the movie theaters to see Pearl, horror director Ti West’s newly released prequel to the ‘70s porn slasher X. All I’ve got to say is the movie completely swept me away. Set in rural Texas in 1918, the movie serves as a technicolor origin story of a serial killer who dreamed of something more, played brilliantly by Mia Goth. The Wizard of Oz meets Psycho. It is chilling, beautiful and I can’t hype it up enough.
One of my favorite escapist watches remains Real Housewives, and one of the biggest-yet-lowest-stakes mysteries of the franchise’s marquee offering is where cast member Dorit Kemsley learned how to order her signature cocktail — Belvedere and soda — with three lemons served “carcass out.” In Gawker, Kelly Conaboy dives bravely into the question in one of the more satisfying things I’ve read online lately.
Finally, if you know me at all you already know I’m forever on a Yeah Yeah Yeahs kick and I’m already loving what I’m hearing off their soon-to-be-released new album, Cool It Down. Scorpio icon Karen O recently spoke with Jia Tolentino in The New Yorker and I loved this quote about grief in particular: “I realized that when people die they continue to live through the people that love them. That I’m a mosaic of all these people I’ve loved.” Here’s one of their new songs, “Burning.”