Brian Graves, left, and Sobeida Rosa, Lancaster Changemakers Collective is a group of persons of color for persons of color created to engage and educate the POC community in Lancaster to make tangible changes, in Lancaster Thursday July 23, 2020.
Chris Knight / LNP | LancasterOnline
Chris Knight / LNP | LancasterOnline
Brian Graves, left, and Sobeida Rosa, Lancaster Changemakers Collective is a group of persons of color for persons of color created to engage and educate the POC community in Lancaster to make tangible changes, in Lancaster Thursday July 23, 2020.
A local activist group has rallied the support of business owners to demand an apology from two Republican Lancaster County commissioners, who they hold “partially responsible” for a series of threats made against a Drag Queen Story Hour event in March.
Nearly three dozen businesses, many of them from Lancaster city, signed on to a letter released Sunday through social media channels by Lancaster Changemakers Collective, which advocates for the rights of marginalized groups.
The letter assigns partial blame to Commissioners Josh Parson and Ray D’Agostino for the March 23 bomb threats made against Lancaster Public Library and Lancaster Pride, an organization that supports the county’s LGBTQ+ community, over the Drag Queen Story Hour event planned for the downtown library. The commissioners publicly opposed the event, calling it inappropriate for children.
“It was (Parsons’ and D’Agostino’s) willful spread of misinformation and fear mongering that fed the flames and division resulting in these threats to not only our businesses but, more importantly, the lives of our community members,” the letter says.
The letter describes the bomb threats as an “act of terror founded on hate and bigotry” and says they are part of a pattern of hostility toward the county’s LGBTQ+ community.
The bomb threats were “a result of an intolerant and threatening culture that has long existed in Lancaster,” it says. “As local business owners and community leaders, we will not continue to be complacent and complicit in the face of bigotry and violence against marginalized people, especially those most vulnerable — our youth.”
Individuals who signed on to the letter include owners of Lancaster businesses such as Tellus360, Square One Coffee, Madcap & Co., Zoetropolis Cinema Stillhouse and Tread House.
Parsons and D’Agostino did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
Democratic Commissioner Alice Yoder said the events surrounding the canceled Drag Queen Story Hour last month highlighted for her how much the words of community leaders matter.
“Leadership means bringing people together, not contributing to divisions, and so I try to be very mindful of the actual weight my words carry,” Yoder said.
On Monday, Sobeida Rosa, a founder of the Changemakers group, said the letter is part of a broader campaign supporting the local LGBTQ+ community, and she expects the number of businesses signing on to the letter to grow in the coming days.
Rosa declined to discuss any potential plans associated with the letter.
Lancaster Changemakers is not a registered nonprofit organization, Rosa said, but focuses on civic education and organizing. It originally formed to protest police brutality in 2020.
Rosa said Changemakers is not denying the right of anyone to say whatever they want, but the letter is meant to emphasize that statements from elected officials have a particular power to influence others.
“As an elected official, I think that you should not be frivolous or downplay the things you say in a position in power,” Rosa said. “It has a ripple effect in the community you’re serving.”
Regardless of whether the commissioners choose to believe it, Rosa said, their words have made local LGBTQ+ people feel less safe and secure in the Lancaster community.
“We shouldn’t have to hide who we are, and we shouldn’t have to hide in general. We should be able to be open and exist in these spaces because we are part of this community,” Rosa said.
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
