Bakery cancels ‘Drag Story Hour’ fundraiser following ‘threatening’ messages, calls to boycott

By Hannah Hilyard

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    MENOMONEE FALLS, Wisconsin (WISN) — The owners of Batter and Mac in Menomonee Falls have canceled a “Drag Story Hour” fundraiser after receiving messages they called “threatening in a violent nature.”

Ahead of June’s Pride Month, the sisters who own the village’s downtown bakery were hoping to host several fundraisers for Courage MKE, a local nonprofit that assists and houses LGBTQ children and young adults.

“Our main goal is to be advocates for these kids,” Courage MKE Executive Director Brad Schlaikowski said. “To teach our neighbors that we need to be helping our kids no matter who they are or who they love.”

Among the fundraising events was a child-friend story time with a Milwaukee-area drag queen.

“An age-appropriate book about acceptance and inclusivity would have been read, and then they were going to decorate cupcakes,” Batter and Mac co-owner Brittany Wohlfeil said.

“It was almost immediately after we had first posted about our first drag event. I’d say within an hour, comments started happening,” co-owner Kasey Gusho added. “There was a lot of supportive comments, but there were also comments that were very negative, calling to cancel the event, boycott, quite a bit of name-calling and insulting us.”

Menomonee Falls Village Trustee Ann Lessila appeared to jump into the conversation on social media to encourage a boycott of the business commenting, “Spread the word” to someone who said they will no longer be supporting the bakery.

WISN 12 News attempted to reach Lessila Monday. She only responded via email, saying in part, “I believe the community deserves to know the details of the event.

When asked to respond to her specific calls for a boycott, she sent the same message.

The bakery owners said some of the negative comments and phone calls turned into threats, which forced them to cancel the story hour.

“We have a duty to the kids who would be coming, the performer, to our staff, to our neighboring businesses to keep everybody safe,” Wohlfeil said. “It just got to a point where we felt like the safety had become a concern and that we would need to cancel it for that reason.”

Other Pride Month fundraisers remain on the schedule including an adults-only Drag Bingo Night. That is sold out, so they are looking to add a second night. The bakery will also sell pride-themed baked goods with proceeds going to Courage MKE, as well.

“Our whole thing is we want to be inclusive and inviting, and we want to put smiles on people’s faces, and I don’t think we’re going to stop wanting to do that,” Gusho said.

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