Molalla Pride organizers cancel event due to safety concerns

Organizers of a Pride event in Clackamas County canceled this year’s event after receiving multiple threats online.

Molalla Pride was set to take place Sept. 8 in Clark Park in Molalla, a city home to more than 10,000 people situated around 26 miles south of downtown Portland.

Organizer Hendy Appleton said the threats were becoming increasingly violent and worrisome. Over last weekend, she said she learned words of the event had quickly spread across the county, sparking outrage online among several far-right conservative forums.

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Concerned over people’s safety, Appleton decided to cancel this year’s celebration.

“This is supposed to be a family event,” Appleton said. “Coming in with the intent to disrupt, coming in with intent to be angry, coming in with the intent to be violent is exactly the opposite of what this event was intended to be.”

This would have been the event’s fourth year in Molalla. In the past, Appleton said the event received threats previously, but no one showed up to disrupt or protest them being there.

This year, she said she was looking to add onto the celebration with new family-friendly activities such as field races and carnival games with prizes. She also planned new entertainment including a drag queen story hour.

“Drag is an iconic part of gay culture,” Appleton said. “[The story hour] is an accessible way to show kids that being gay is OK and expressing yourself is OK.”

In an email response to OPB, Molalla Police Department spokesperson Nicole Ricker said Appleton and numerous community members, both local and non-local residents, made police aware of the threats.

“The Molalla Police Department and event organizers discussed comments made via social media regarding this event,” Ricker said. “Based on the number and nature of comments made on social media, [police] determined it would be necessary to increase staffing to patrol the event.”

Kate Bitz is a program manager and trainer with the Western States Center, a Portland-based nonprofit welfare organization that monitors extremist groups.

According to Bitz, recent data over the past few years shows that community events and venues celebrating the LGBTQ+ communities have faced increased targeting, including online threats.

“This has a lot to do with the cultural and political climate,” Bitz said. “As bigoted groups and politicians are seeking to exploit transphobia and homophobia in order to build political power, that hateful rhetoric has real consequences for our communities.”

Related: A new network of hate groups in the Pacific Northwest targets smaller Pride festivals

In addition to being a watchdog group, Bitz said the Western States Center also provides guidance and support to organizers looking to host events in their cities.

In 2022, Bitz said the nonprofit partnered with organizers of Pride in the Park in North Idaho. Organizers she said also received violent threats online ahead of the event.

Over 30 members with the white nationalist group Patriot Front made their way to the event, Bitz said. The group was stopped by police, and many were charged on suspicion of conspiracy to riot.

Bitz also recalled a neo-Nazi group, the Northwest Nationalist Network, traveling across state lines last year targeting local Pride events.

One of those stops included Oregon City’s first-ever Pride event last June. Organizers changed locations after they received threats from several hate groups, but ultimately chose to keep the event on.

“I really respect everyone who’s doing that work to have that visibility in their town and to show that LGBTQ+ people really are everywhere,” Bitz said. “I do think it’s important to look at this organizing work as an act of courage and love for the community.”

Members of the Northwest Nationalist Network attempted to disrupt the event but ended up clashing with another hate group, the Proud Boys. Their protest happened a few blocks away from the main Pride event.

Appleton, who’s lived in Molalla for about 18 years, said despite seeing hurtful messages from some of her neighbors, she’s still proud to live there.

“Molalla is a tight community that takes care of each other,” Appleton said. “We have the annual ‘Share the Love’ event where we raise tens of thousands of dollars for local families in need. We fought the 2020 fires as a community.”

Related: How neo-Nazi groups are coordinating to disrupt Pride events in rural PNW communities

Last week, Appleton consulted with Molalla police on finding best ways to allow people who disagreed with the event to exercise their First and Second Amendments rights in a safe way should they attend.

“The people who were outraged were motivated by a desire to protect children from what they perceived as an active threat,” said Appleton. “I organize the Molalla Pride event for the same reason — to protect rural LGBTQ+ kids from feeling alone and hopeless.”

For now, Appleton said she is looking to secure a private venue to be able to celebrate the LGBTQ+ communities later this fall. When that event comes together, it will still feature several carnival-style games and family-friendly activities but no drag queen story hour.

“We may be down, we have had to cancel this event, but we are not done,” Appleton said. “Molalla Pride will be back.”