The Community Church of Chesterland has recently become a target of vandalization and attacks in response to its scheduled drag-themed events.
Last weekend, the church’s sign and outdoor light fixtures were destroyed and a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the church, according to Jess Peacock, the church’s minister. The destruction followed an uptick in hateful texts and messages directed toward the church for its private, ticketed 18+ drag brunch events and a family-focused drag story hour event, both slated for April 1.
An investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Chesterland police detectives led to identifying an individual for the attack, says Chesterland’s police chief Craig Young. On Friday, March 31, Aimenn D. Penny of Alliance was arrested and charged with arson.
“That was extremely good news for us. We were very concerned, and myself, being the chief, was just concerned about this investigation and what it could mean for tomorrow,” says Young. “I guess that’s a really big reason — not the whole reason, but definitely a part of why I was so apprehensive and why I actually did recommend to the church to cancel that event. Having this resolution the day before the event is extremely good news for us.”
Last weekend’s vandalization landed in the midst of anti-drag legislation enactments and conversations across the country. A handful of bills specifically reference drag story hours and propose age limits that would prevent minors from attending. In early March, Tennessee became the first state in the U.S. to pass a bill that limits drag performances.
However, despite the police department’s recommendation to cancel and last weekend’s events, both of the Church of Chesterland’s drag brunches — taking place at nearby bar Element 41 — and the drag story hour, set to take place at the church, are still scheduled to take place, Peacock says.
Security will be ramped up at all events, Peacock and Young both say.
“For us, (safety) always, always takes precedence,” Young says. “Even though it’s so important for this church to have events like this and have the ability to do that, we always look at it from a broader context and what the safety issues are for everybody.”
We caught up with Peacock to hear more about the church’s response to recent events.
Cleveland Magazine: Could you tell me about the events taking place this weekend? What do you have slated?
Jess Peacock: There are basically three events. Tomorrow starting at 11 a.m., at Element 41 in Chardon, there are two drag brunches that are scheduled; both of those shows are 18 and above. Both shows sold out very quickly. The first one sold out in something like a day and a half. Then Element 41 was like, “Could we do another one?” We talked to the talent and they said they were cool with it, so we added the second one, and that actually sold out quicker than the first one. We have a total of 120 people coming to the drag brunch tomorrow. Then, after the brunches are over, we move to our church, where we currently have scheduled a drag story hour for families and kids.
CM: Could you tell me more about the Community Church of Chesterland?
JP: We are part of the UCC denomination, which is the United Church of Christ, whose national offices are actually based here in Cleveland. We are a progressive denomination, we tend to be both politically and theologically. UCC churches are often very much involved in social justice issues, whether that's environmental, racial justice, queer justice; we are very active in those arenas.
This church in particular, the one that I currently serve here, has been open and affirming to queer people for the last 30 years. So LGBTQ rights, equality issues, have always been, I would say, at the forefront for this church. We actually sponsored the first Pride in Geauga County last year on Chardon Square; we didn't get nearly as much pushback as we're getting now. It kind of goes to our shock and dismay at all this because at Chardon Pride we had a drag show, it was family-friendly, kids were there. I mean, we got hate calls and voicemails and stuff, but that's not new for our church, it just ramped up a little bit before Pride, and then after Pride, it all went away. So when we were planning these events, we figured we're gonna get the same thing. We're gonna hate mail, hate voicemails, that kind of thing. And what it's turned into… we were a little surprised and shocked by that.
CM: Could you walk me through what happened last weekend?
JP: It's been a little convoluted. Up until this last weekend, there was a ramp-up in hate texts, voicemails. I don't think, up until the last two days, that there wasn't a day that I didn't wake up that I didn't have a personal message on my phone telling me I'm a piece of sh**; that I'm going to hell, I'm an abomination. Whatever. It went to another level this last weekend when we had property destroyed at our church. Our sign out front was destroyed, lighting fixtures that shined on that sign were destroyed, and someone threw a Molotov cocktail at our church.
It was this past weekend, when it happened, and it was raining all night. So we were very, very fortunate; I think the rain kept us from not having a church building. It went to another level this last weekend.
CM: Are you getting extra security or other precautions for the weekend?
JP: Yeah, obviously I can’t go into details of those plans or anything like that. But I mean, it's robust. We have a security team. We have former police officers, current police officers who are off duty, who are taking part in the security detail. It's (their) right to protest — as long as people are sticking to protesting, we feel very secure about our security plans that we have in place. We are constantly monitoring chatter, and we hope that we're getting full details from law enforcement. If anything needs to change, if we have to keep people safe, we won't hesitate to cancel. But it won't be due to fear, it will be due to tangible threats to people's physical health here.
We're constantly monitoring that and staying on top of that, and we have a plan B, we have a plan C; we're just waiting to see what kind of chatter comes in today, and what it looks like as far as how many people are coming in and if the police are seeing people wandering around the town tonight or something like that. We're keeping up on that stuff.
CM: If anything were to change, where would people be able to find updates about that?
JP: Our church Facebook page; we post everything there as far as updates. And then of course, if anything were to change, that was a radical change, we would send out press releases, of course, to try to disseminate that information as fast as possible.
CM: Why are events like this important to your congregation?
JP: I can answer that on, on a couple levels. One: These events are important because we want to send a message to the community around us — allies, LGBTQ people — that within a county that, let's be honest, traditionally doesn't necessarily support that kind of programming, we want to provide those options for people. We didn't see planning these events as a social justice issue. We didn't see planning these events initially as a cause, or anything like that. We wanted to just create an opportunity for people in this community who don't normally get this kind of entertainment, to just have that opportunity to enjoy themselves with an art form that has been around forever.
But because of the pushback, because of the hate, because of the threats, it has become a social justice issue, and we're having to respond to it that way. For the congregation, it was twofold. Yeah, we want to provide programming for LGBTQ people. But now it's become an issue of, “Well, now we're trying to protect LGBTQ people.” Because of the response, that tone has changed.
I think no matter how you approach it, whether it was the initial thought of just fun events, or now at a point where it's sort of a social justice issue or cause; either way, both of those are important to this congregation, because social justice runs through the veins of this congregation and the history of this church.
CM: Could you tell us more about your own background?
JP: I've been doing clergy work for four years now. I was born and raised in central Ohio, but I was out of town a little bit before I came here. I was in Chicago working on my PhD, and then I was in Washington state to take up my first clergy position. There we dealt with some similar stuff. I worked in eastern Washington, which, if you know anything about Washington state, the west side is Seattle, Tacoma, it's deep blue, and if you cross over the Cascade Mountains to the east side… red is an understatement. It's red with a swastika branded on top. A lot of white supremacists, self-professed Nazis out there, and our church was doing racial justice work in the middle of that. So, death threats on the door; again, nasty calls to the church and emails and all sorts of stuff. I'm not unused to this, but the level or the intensity, it's certainly concerning and eye-opening. I mean, when someone tries to burn down your church home, it's been taken to another level.
Before that, I spent time working for the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless, while I was not only going to seminary, but after I got out of seminary, I continued that work for a few more years before moving to Chicago. I personally try to have in my work, and in my life, I just tried to do my best to work with marginalized communities, try to give them a voice. I identify on the LGBTQ spectrum, so I'm part of this audience, I am part of this group of people that is being marginalized and attacked.
CM: Is there anything else you’d like to mention here?
JP: I can speak for myself, I think I'm also speaking for the church as well, after talking to quite a few people in the church: at this point, nobody wants to be in danger. No one wants to feel like their lives are being threatened simply for loving people. But that's where we're at.
If we have to cancel, we absolutely will. Safety is number one. But for us, we're really concerned about the message canceling sends. There are elements within our society, that I think are actually the minority, who are willing to use violence, weapons, fear, to advance their agenda, to get what they want. And the agenda, for me, I how I see it, it's Christian nationalism, it's Christian fascism. It's a desire to control, and for a minority of people to have the power to tell everyone else what they can or can't do, or what is right or wrong. And if we have to cancel this event, I shudder to think what the ramifications will be for not just Geauga County, but other events moving forward elsewhere. Does this empower these people? Does it embolden these people? And I absolutely think it will.
I'm kind of walking a weird tightrope here because there's the activist side of me and the activist side of me is like, “Go forth.” But there's also the pastoral role that I have as well, and there's some activism wrapped up in that, but there's also the spiritual, emotional and physical health of the people who come to this church. Balancing that over the last couple of weeks has been incredibly stressful.
I'm doing the best I can with that, and working to try to find a path forward that answers both of those responsibilities I have. For me right now, though, the idea of canceling this event, I just feel like we'll have serious ramifications as we move into the future.
