Friday, January 20, 2023

After "countless hateful calls" and more, Des Plaines Theatre cancels event booked by conservative group

The "hate" below is brought to you by the people who have "Hate Has No Home Here" signs on their front lawns and "coexist" stickers on their car bumpers.

From the Daily Herald:

The CEO of the company that operates the Des Plaines Theatre has canceled a Feb. 8 event booked at the city-owned venue by conservative groups after LGBTQ advocates encouraged the city to stop it.
Ron Onesti did not explicitly give a reason for the cancellation in a statement Thursday night, but he referred to the controversy and suggested he and the theater received threats. "What saddens me was the amount of hate that surfaced during all of this," he wrote.
"People mailing bullets to me, asking their neighbors to fill my garbage cans with dog feces, countless hateful calls and outwardly targeting the Des Plaines Theatre, wishing its demise. And how would that have been good for the community?"
On Wednesday he had defended leasing the venue to the group that's been criticized for making queerphobic social media posts and other controversial statements. That came after LGBTQ advocates criticized the groups behind the Feb. 8 event -- especially DuPage County-based Awake Illinois -- and some of the scheduled speakers.

Among the speakers scheduled by Awake Illinois was Stephanie Trussell, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor in 2022.

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