WEST CHESTER TOWNSHIP, Ohio − Ghiovanna Lora has hosted a few family-friendly drag shows at Coterie Lounge & Cafe since she opened it in May 2024, but April 16 was her first time hosting a drag storytime with her friend and drag queen Roxie D. Mocracy.
The West Chester Township event was sold out with plenty of support from community members both online and in-person at Coterie. There were no protesters outside the shop during the event, but it wasn’t without opposition.
Around 20 people showed up to Coterie’s story time event including around 10 kids. Most of them were under 10 years old and sat on the floor with the family members in front of Roxie while others sat on tables throughout the shop’s main room.
Roxie, known outside of drag as Jacob Welch, read the kids “The Pengrooms,” and “The Day The Crayons Quit” while wearing a voluminous blond wig and a sparkling blue dress. They also played a spelling bee game with the kids, giving them small stuffed lizards or Pokémon cards if they correctly spelled “fabulous” and “Roxie.”
Coterie’s drag events draw support, criticism
Ahead of the event, a few people gave the shop bad reviews on Facebook. Darbi Boddy, former Lakota Local School board member, said the event is heartbreaking because child abuse is heartbreaking.
“When I stated on Facebook that events like this should not take place, I was attacked as a hater and received threatening calls from out of state, but that did not surprise me because that’s who these people are; they are abusers, and they abuse children,” Boddy’s said in her review.
Lora said there’s been an outpouring of community support for the event and Coterie.
“Without this event, I wouldn’t have known the community we have behind us,” she said.
Advertised as family-friendly, Lora has hosted about four drag shows at Coterie in the past. She said they’ve always been successful and she thought hosting the storytime would be a good opportunity for Mocracy.
For the past seven years of their 10-year drag career, Mocracy has been performing at “nontraditional drag shows” hosted at coffee shops, breweries and ice cream shops. They have been invited to these venues less and less in recent years.
When President Donald Trump was elected in 2024, Mocracy said events throughout Greater Cincinnati were canceled due to safety concerns.
“Sadly all throughout the country, we have drag bans in congress, because God forbid Republicans care about working people and actual issues. They got to distract us with drag queens and trans people in sports,” Mocracy said.
Ohio bill could limit drag exposure to children
Ohio’s House Bill 249, which the House passed on March 25, would criminalize performances anywhere but adult facilities if they’re deemed obscene or harmful to children, according to The Columbus Dispatch. It also changes the definition of public indecency, with an exception for women who are breastfeeding.
The bill, also called the Indecent Exposure Modernization Act, is currently in Senate Committee and will need to be passed by the Senate and approved by Gov. DeWine before it can become law.
Proponents say the bill doesn’t completely ban drag and will instead protect kids from explicit content. It’s already a crime in Ohio to disseminate obscene materials or performances to minors.
Critics of the bill believe the measure is an attack on transgender Ohioans. As part of its definition of adult cabaret performances, the bill includes entertainers who “exhibit a gender identity that is different from (their) biological sex.”
“Coterie means a gathering of people with the same likes and interests. My goal is to get people who have the same likes and passions in the same room,” Lora said. “If they wanted to start a group about how much they hate it here, I would allow it.”
State Government Reporter Hailey BeMiller contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio cafe receives support, pushback for drag queen storytime event
Reporting by Gillian Stawiszynski, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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