announced on Facebook that he had met with the Apex Festival Commission concerning feedback he’d received about the story hour and that the commission had decided to cancel that part of the fest.
Other activities will go on as planned, including some drag performances, area TV station WNCN reports.He did not offer details about the feedback, but Apex Town Council member Audra Killingsworth included more information in a comment on the post.“We have had many emails sent to us at Council complaining about the drag story hour event,” she wrote. “Multiple members of Apex Pride have been sent nasty emails, messages, etc.
Over the past couple of weeks it has escalated to violent threats against multiple members of the Apex Festival Commission. Because of those threats, the commission decided to pull the drag queen story hour.”The chair of the Apex Festival Commission told WNCN that he’d received two disturbing phone calls, saying harm would come to him and his family if the story hour was held.
That led directly to the cancellation, he said. The station did not include the chair’s name.There were hundreds of comments on Mayor Gilbert’s Facebook post, some of them hateful, so he disabled comments on it Monday. “I will not tolerate disrespectful comments attacking others and hate speech on this page,” he wrote.