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Sharon Hirst bears the brunt of the culture wars.
A Bartlesville restaurant owner is harassed by an anti-gay, conservative pastor.
And last week, a one-minute video of her drag queen performance at a Bartlesville restaurant was posted to Twitter by Libs of TikTok and has been viewed more than 1.2 million times. The tweet described a drag queen dance and said the show was performed in front of children and was billed as family friendly.
Libs on TikTok, with 1.8 million followers, posts videos exposing the so-called left to fight the culture wars. Its founder remained anonymous until exposed by the Washington Post last year. Posts inform right-wing media, influence politicians, and shape anti-LGBTQ public policy.
Hurst says the post mischaracterizes performance. It was an adult event behind the Crossing 2nd restaurant in Bartlesville.
“What they’re trying to do is connect us to our children,” she said.
In a phone interview Tuesday, Hirst described herself as conservative. director “These are not Oklahoma values,” he wrote from his campaign account on January 22.
Prior to opening Crossing 2nd, he worked in the oil and gas industry as a petroleum engineer for 20 years. She is also a veteran of the Air Force where she served seven years.
She is Jewish and her husband is Christian, and they respect each other’s differences.
“I opened this place so it could be an inclusive place,” she said. plug.”
She opened Crossing 2nd in February 2020, two weeks before restaurants and bars were closed when the coronavirus pandemic began. He ran his first drag show later that year and had over 100 customers, which led him to do his two shows a month.
“They’re not weird,” Hurst said of her clientele. “They’re normal people. It’s entertainment.”
The drag show made Crossing 2nd the target of a Tennessee-based ministry leader called Warriors for Christ. Members of the group travel the country to protest drag queen storytime and pride events.
Warriors for Christ has been named one of Tennessee’s anti-LGBTQ hate groups in 2021. The Southern Poverty Law Center is an Alabama-based non-profit organization whose work includes tracking and exposing hate groups and extremists in the United States.
Hirst said Warriors for Christ’s Rich Penkosky has been harassing her and her customers on social media. Calling her a liar, it writes, “Don’t give them your business until they publicly repent of this abomination.”
Equality Bartlesville Oklahoma leaders also say Penkosky harassed them. A temporary protection order was issued against Penkosky for creating a threatening Facebook page, shouting “vulgar and obscene” while holding up a sign that read “There is.” He has since deleted the post, according to court records.
Penkosky, who spoke at a public Bartlesville City Council meeting in support of an ordinance banning “adult entertainment” in public parks, does not appear to live in Bartlesville. According to an article in the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, the city council on January 3rd said that despite warnings from city officials that limiting performance in public parks could have legal and unintended consequences. We proceeded with the ordinance.
Hirst, owner of Crossing 2nd, said she was also targeted, but there’s a difference between a pride event and a drag show at her restaurant.
Crossing 2nd held its final drag show in December, but Hurst said it would no longer be held due to the potential for hate, division and violence. A donut shop in Tulsa was twice vandalized after hosting an Art He event featuring a drag queen. According to a Washington Post article, the assailant smashed the store with his second Molotov cocktail and left behind an envelope containing anti-LGBTQ messages and scriptures.
“It’s getting out of hand,” Hurst said.
Jennifer Palmer has been an educator and reporter for Oklahoma Watch since 2016. Please contact her at (405) 761-0093 or her jpalmer@oklahomawatch.org. follow her on her twitter @jpalmerOKC.
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