Cork drag queens believe attackers wanted to send 'ripple of fear’ through community

The men who attacked drag queens Lucina Schynning and Krystal Queer in Cork city last weekend “wanted to send a ripple of fear” throughout the queer community, Lucina says. The duo protested against the attack by performing a show on Thursday night.

The two performers were filming a video during jazz weekend when they were assaulted unawares, with Krystal being hit shortly afterwards by another man.

Lucina told The Echo: “There’s always been a very loud minority that hates the queer community.

“We’d like to think that minority is not growing, but, unfortunately, the reaction we’ve seen from our video says otherwise.

“The comments on the video we posted were so supportive, so loving, but then you get onto the likes of Facebook and there’s people leaving hateful comments, trying to incite violence.

“It’s alarming to see so many people commenting from accounts with their full names, faces, employers — it shows they’re not ashamed.

“As queer people, we can become desensitised. It’s a survival instinct. If we want to be happy and colourful, then we can’t pay them heed, but there comes a point when you can’t ignore it.”

The attack was proof of the importance of queer spaces: “One of the most painful parts of what happened was we had put together a full jazz-themed drag show, which is really unique. We were really proud of it.

“We got such an incredible response from everyone in the venue. It was truly one of our favourite crowds ever; they treated us like superstars.

“Then, we walked 20 steps and, all of a sudden, we’re dirt and we deserve violence.”

The street was full of people, but nobody stepped in to help them, Lucina said, explaining: “I cannot fault anybody for not putting themselves in harm’s way for us.

“You never know if someone is concealing a weapon, if they have a mental- health problem, or what sort of violence they are capable of.

“But in the immediate aftermath, nobody came to ask us were we OK, to help us into a safe venue.

“There were so many cameras pointed at us and we haven’t received that footage, which shows us it was not filmed with good intentions, it was filmed to make a mockery of us.”

She added: “We were very clearly making a video — we’d even done another take beforehand — so it was obvious that if we were attacked they would be caught on camera, but people did it anyway.

“To us, that’s indicative that they thought others would be in agreement with them.

“They wanted us to to be afraid to show our faces in public, and they wanted to send a ripple of fear throughout the community.”

However, Lucina said they would not let that happen, explaining they have been told before by young queer people who are still in the closet that “seeing us strutting down the street” has helped them feel comfortable with themselves.

“The community is frightened in light of what happened, and they’re scared about what could happen to them next,” Lucina said, adding that they were thinking of cancelling their show on Thursday night, as they were “physically a little bit tender, and mentally shaken and scared.

“But we realised, that’s exactly what these people want.

“They want less drag shows, less queer events. So our show is how we protest.”