Content warning: This article contains multiple uncensored uses of derogatory phrases that some may find highly offensive.
The Saturday book reading for preschoolers started out as many previous readings had before: Drag queen Panda Dulce appeared with elaborate and carefully styled makeup, her swooped eyebrows arching like peaks as she belted out the “welcome song” for a handful of kids and their parents at San Lorenzo Library.
“Hello, children! Hello, grown-ups! Hello, everyone, it’s nice to see you here,” she sang. The children sat in a semi-circle on the library floor, crooning along with Dulce.
As she sang, a line of men entered the library, single-file. Some wore the signature black-and-yellow colors of the far-right Proud Boys group, law enforcement officials said. One of the men’s shirts read “Kill Your Local Pedophile” on it, emblazoned over a gun.
They sat down behind the children. When the singing stopped, the shouting started.
“So who brought the tranny?” they yelled, directed straight at Dulce. They called her an “it,” and a “pedophile.” Dulce, fearing violence, hid in the back office with a security guard.
“I didn’t know if they were armed. I was only acutely aware of the fact that neither myself nor any of the other librarians were,” she told KQED. In an Instagram post, Dulce said the men “totally freaked out the kids. They got right in our faces. They jeered. They attempted to escalate to violence.”
