McHenry Times

Awake Illinois is taunting Gov. J.B. Pritzker over having GOP gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey headline their Aug. 16 caravan event.

“Look at his desperate campaign email. Can’t cancel us - or our ballot, JB!” Awake Illinois said in a tweet linking to a press release by Pritzker’s re-election campaign.

The Pritzker campaign went full blast against Awake Illinois and Bailey in its press release.  

“Awake IL posted about an upcoming drag show at UpRising Bakery and Cafe and days before the event, the business was vandalized by a man with connections to the Proud Boys," the Pritzker campaign said in a press release. Awake IL proudly admitted they “blasted” the event on social media in the days leading up to the attack, claiming the bakery was “coming for your kids,” and calling the event “perverted.” The owners received threats and endured harassment, ultimately forcing them to cancel the event."

“Even after the attacks, Bailey is still proudly headlining Awake IL’s latest divisive protest on August 16. Bailey recently attended their first-anniversary celebration and was the first candidate to take their “Parents Bill of Rights'’ pledge.”

The Aug. 16 event referred to in the Pritzker campaign communication is part of Awake Illinois’s Common Sense Caravan, discussing the sexualization of children. The caravan will meet at the Lincoln Statue located on 2nd Street in Springfield. It will then march and return to the statue at 3 p.m. for remarks before a planned departure at 4:45 p.m.

The tweet came after several outspoken opponents of “family-friendly” drag shows held at UpRising Bakery and Cafe in Lake in the Hills.

“Kid-friendly drag show is right up there with kid-friendly strip club, kid-friendly porn and kid-friendly cigarette — it’s self-evident that all of this is harmful to children unless you’ve been brainwashed to believe that kids should be sexualized,” Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, told McHenry Times.

Lake in the Hills cited the bakery for zoning violations following the drag shows.

After harassment and vandalism in late July stemming from publicity over the events the UpRising Bakery and Cafe’s owner Corinna Sac has canceled future drag shows and other events.