SC event venue draws threats, calls for a boycott over planned drag show. Here’s what to know
KC Chen and Beth Velmer bought a 5,000 square-foot rundown mansion in the heart of Pickens, renovated it and opened a venue for weddings, luncheons and the like.
They rocked along for a year and a half, gaining flowing reviews for the house and their hospitality. Then came word last week of a drag show luau to be held there during Pride Month, the second LGBTQ event at the Historic Hampton House 1908.
Now they are being pelted with angry emails, a couple of cancellations and social media posts suggesting they are encouraging perversion, grooming children and bringing filth into town.
Some are calling for a boycott of the business and a petition is circulating calling for banning drag shows in the town of 3,300 in northwestern South Carolina.
The city released a statement saying, “The City of Pickens cannot regulate or ban a drag show at a private event facility due to several key legal principles that protect such activities under the United States Constitution.”
Chen and Velmer have had to take extra precautions for security. They once had all 5-star reviews on Google. Now people who have not staged an event there are leaving 1 star.
“It’s shocking,” Chen said. “It’s difficult.”
Among the most outspoken has been Justin Kelley, a Pickens resident who has called for the ban on drag shows. He could not be reached for comment, but he said on Facebook he thinks the venue owners were duplicitous in opening a wedding venue and then changing “their business model and go a different direction of hosting drag shows which are NOT beneficial to our city.”
“I do not hate the Hampton house nor the lgbtq,” he wrote. “I actually love them which is where my concern draws from.”
The drag queens invited to perform are from Spartanburg, a fact Kelley described as bringing strangers with an agenda to the town.
“These are not upstanding people with an agenda to better the city of Pickens. I do not believe that our small city can afford to have these radical groups come into our city.,” he said.
“I believe the majority of Pickens citizens would appreciate if the Hampton House would stop the drag shows and go back to conducting the original business services that they were approved to do by the City of Pickens.”
The house was designed by a former Pickens mayor, Waddie McFall, whose family lived there after he died for 50 years. A doctor owned it next, then a woman described on the Hampton House website as “spirited” and “a legend,” Margaret Gilstrap.
An entrepreneur, real estate investor, and owner of the Pickens Flower Shop, she hosted elaborate Christmas celebrations and gave tours of the house. After she died in 2016, the house fell into disrepair.
Roof leaks, ancient electricity and plumbing fell to Chen and Velmer to repair.
But they had the original blueprints and any number of early 1900s details like ornate banisters to help.
Chen said she’s been told Gilstrap had felt the house was perfect for a wedding venue.
As renovation continued, people would stop by and say the same.
They finished the house and designed the Carriage House with indoor/outdoor space for up to 120 guests and added The Pavilion tent for events of up to 200 guests. The property covers 3.5 acres.
Earlier this year, people approached them about having an LGBTQ community party.
“They didn’t want to go to a bar,” Chen said.
It was such a success, they asked for another. That’s when the luau was planned.
It is a ticketed event, 21 and older, on June 8. Advance sale is $15, $20 at the door.
Scheduled to perform are — Sincere L’etoile, Amelia Chanel, Big Poppah Cherry and Xinaja. Chef Nicci Hughes at Graze Daze is catering.
Chen said an event venue is for everyone from all backgrounds.
“We are not backing down,” Chen said.
