A man in a red hat attacked a Tulsa donut shop with a Molotov cocktail on Monday, the second time in the past two weeks the shop has been targeted after hosting an art installation that features drag queens as servers.
The Donut Hole collaborated with Tulsa artist Daniel Gulick on an art installation titled “The Queens Dirty Dozens,” drawing more than 500 people to its Oct. 15 opening, the shop said. Shortly after, the shop reported its front door and window had been smashed and the register and other equipment were stolen.
The shop announced another attack Monday, posting a video to Facebook of a masked man violently smashing windows with a baseball bat. In the video, he then sets a Molotov cocktail bomb on fire and throws it in the store, before running off.
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The Donut Hole canceled Thursday’s planned show after the attack.
“Love will always win but enough is enough,” the shop wrote on Facebook. “Due to the windows being smashed out again and a fire, we are forced to cancel our event. We tried. And we’re sorry.”
The attack comes as violent rhetoric against drag queens has become a dominant right-wing talking point. In Illinois, suburban bakery UpRising Bakery and Cafe was attacked, with vandals smashing the store’s windows and spray painting anti-LGBTQ messages on the walls.
Tulsa Fire Department spokesperson Andy Little said they have a person of interest in the case and the crime could be charged as a felony that endangered human life, Tulsa World reported.
Investigators said they found flyers in the door of a nearby business with Bible verses and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, according to FOX23.
A GoFundMe started by community members in the wake of the first attack has raised more than $13,000, well over the $2,500 goal listed. The shop owners said the extra money raised will be given to Oklahomans for Equality’s Dennis R. Neill Equality Center.
