Drag performer Panda Dulce was doing one of the things she loved most: reading a picture book to children at the East Bay Public Library. But on that day in June 2022, as she was participating in the Drag Story Hour program, members of the far-right militia group the Proud Boys stormed the room in their signature black-and-yellow shirts, at least one emblazoned with a gun and the phrase “Kill your local pedophile.”
Terrified, Panda Dulce ran for cover in a wig and heels. But the aftermath was even scarier, says the performer, the alter ego of San Francisco resident Kyle Casey Chu.
Almost immediately, Chu became the subject of international headlines. She was inundated with criticism over the perceived inappropriateness of a trans woman and drag performer reading to children. She was doxxed. Although the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office said it would investigate the incident as a hate crime, nothing came of it. The bombardment of messages — an overwhelming torrent from haters and supporters alike — sent her into a state of near-total collapse.
“My executive functioning was shot,” said Chu, 36. “I couldn’t really think. I was in bed for a while.”
Having become a “dark celebrity,” as she put it, Chu put performing largely on hold. “Drag queens love attention,” she said. But not this type of attention.
Three years later, she’s back and ready to grapple with the episode on her own terms. “After What Happened at the Library,” a short film written by Chu and Roisin Isner and directed by Syra McCarthy, will screen Friday at the Kabuki Theater as part of the Asian American film festival CAAMFest. The 15-minute film dramatizes the incident and underscores the psychological toll it took on Chu.
The film is as much about helplessly staring at a phone that’s blowing up as it is about processing trauma. Tension abounds. Flashbacks were shot at the very library where the anti-drag extremists — referred to in the film as the “Patriot Boys” — swarmed Chu’s reading.
In portraying the episode, Chu and Isner took a few creative liberties, such as having Chu take refuge in a restroom stall after the incident, when in reality she fled to a small room. “I wanted to re-create it not exactly as it happened, but exactly as it felt,” she said.
Since 2022, the political climate has turned even more strongly against queer and trans visibility, hardening Chu’s determination to take a stand. What still bothers her most is the way law enforcement handled the incident. Because she was a drag queen in heels, she believes, they dragged their heels.
“They didn’t take any action, and then they told me that they’d done everything they could,” she said. “I checked — and no, they didn’t.” The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Although she plans to resume drag performances, Chu has taken a breather from Panda Dulce. The founding member of the Drag Story Hour project now makes art about queerness. In addition to “Library,” Chu has written a coming-of-age novel, “The Queen Bees of Tybee County,” which was released in April.
At a time when anyone can go viral at any moment, for any reason, Chu hopes viewers of “After What Happened at the Library” come away with a renewed sense of the humanity behind dark celebrity. “We catch a blip of public victims, and they’re flattened for mass consumption,” she said, adding that whoever these suddenly famous people are, they’re likely receiving an onslaught of the same treatment she suffered through. Think of it as a corollary to the Golden Rule: Treat others online as you wish to be treated IRL.
- Date and time
- CAAMFest screening, May 9, 9 p.m.