Moore County, N.C.-- On Saturday, December 3rd, a shooting attack was carried out on two power substations located in Moore County, NC. Residents were without power for nearly 5 days. This power grid attack happened about 3 weeks after a gunman entered Club Q in Colorado Springs and killed 5 people while injuring over 20 others and during a time when white supremacist protests of drag events have popped up in places like Boston and Ohio. 

According to CNN, the power outage caused by the attack had real harm on Moore County's community. Residents in nursing homes who rely on electrical medical equipment were forced to go without electricity, some falling ill because of the lack of power. Homes lacked heat as the temperature dipped. One person was even found dead; details of their death have yet to be confirmed by investigators. 

While the motivation behind the attacks is still under investigation, the same day Moore County lost power from the attack, a group of permitted protesters and counter protesters gathered outside of the Southern Theatre in Southern Pines to protest The Downtown Divas Drag Show that Naomi Dix was headlining.  

The drag show was a fundraiser for Sandhills Pride, a local nonprofit supporting the LGBTQ+ community and was headlined by Durham-based drag artist and House of Cox (H.O.C.) house member Naomi Dix. Naomi tells us her story of the events that night and Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD, joins to give some context around the alarming rate of violent backlash to drag performances and drag artists we've been seeing all over the country.