Disturbing threats to NYC teen drag star lead to cancelation of ‘fun-filled’ event at NYPL

It was advertised as a “fun-filled afternoon” in a Bronx library with a “local celebrity/author who encourages you to embrace your own uniqueness.”

Instead, the free event planned at the Morrisania Library starring drag artist Desmond Napoles was canceled after the teenaged celebrity received hate-filled and violent threats — a trend that has led to many other family-oriented LGBTQ events being canceled across the nation.

Known by the stage name Desmond is Amazing, Desmond, 15, is an LGBTQ+ youth advocate, a published author and influencer with nearly 200,000 social media followers. The 15-year-old is also the owner of clothing line Be Amazing NYC.

Desmond was called “disgusting” and a range of slurs by a person using a recently created Instagram account who also threatened to use violence against Desmond and their family.

Desmond is Amazing wearing clothing from their clothing line, Be Amazing NYC. (Wendy Napoles/)

“You need to be locked away in a dog kennel and thrown into the ocean,” read one of the 10 private messages sent to the teen, which were seen by the Daily News.

The nasty attacks on Desmond — a high school sophomore who likes to volunteer at the New York Public Library “because it’s really fun and it gives me something to do during the summer” — came after the Morrisania Library announced that Desmond would present two teen-focused sessions reading from their book, “Be Amazing: A History of Pride.”

The events were originally scheduled for Sept. 17 and 24. Late last week, however, both sessions had to be canceled following the threats, which were reported to NYPL officials and the NYPD.

“I’m going to that library, I’m going with a bucked of dog s--t and I’m pouring it on your parents and rubbing it into their eyes,” the hate-filled Instagram user wrote.

Desmond — who’s no stranger to threats, having performed as a drag artist for the past seven years — showed the messages to their mother, Wendy Napoles, who contacted the library.

Napoles, 45, figured they would be OK and that the person was “just another cyberbully” — something the family has encountered before. “But on Saturday, he called the library to find out if Desmond was still going to be there,” she told The News.

The person, a man with a phone number linked to a business in Louisiana, then went on an angry tirade, saying that such events should not be allowed at the library, calling Desmond “a little f---ot.” The library decided to cancel for the safety of everyone involved.

Amy Geduldig, an NYPL spokesperson, confirmed to The News that “the presenter of the programs has been experiencing harassment online and there were indications that the events would be disrupted by this harassment,” leading the branch to cancel the programs “out of an abundance of caution.”

Desmond was devastated and took the news as a “hit in the heart,” but the scrapping of the event is hardly an isolated incident.

Over the past few months, events involving drag performers in several U.S. states, including Illinois, California, Texas, Idaho and North Carolina, had to be canceled due to “increased threats of violence,” according to local authorities.

Earlier this week, a library in Chicago was forced to cancel a drag queen bingo “due to the severity of the threats made against the library,” while the Cool Beans Bar and Grill in Denton, Texas, pulled the plug on an all-age Disney-themed drag brunch after the host of a conservative program on Blaze TV urged her nearly 250,000 followers to help “shut it down.”

Desmond is Amazing (Wendy Napoles/)

The owner of a bakery in suburban Chicago in July was forced to cancel a drag-hosted “Brunch at Night” event after the building “sustained significant damage” as the result of anti-LGBTQ vandalism. Earlier in the month, a drag performer at a Palm Springs bar faced “escalating threats” after right-wing outlets picked up a video she had shared on TikTok featuring a young girl joining her on stage and dancing to Donna Summer’s classic disco hit “Last Dance.”

In early June, a group of five members of the Proud Boys stormed into a library in San Lorenzo, Calif., to protest a Drag Queen Story Hour event. A few weeks later another protest took place in Woodland, near Sacramento, when police had to use pepper spray to control the situation.

Such cancellations and threats of violence are alarming for Napoles.

“These people are feeling more emboldened. You see them bragging that they’ve had a victory when they close down these events,” she said. Linking “this whole anti-LGBTQ rhetoric” to the 1950s, “where people believe now that gays were pedophiles,” she added, “This is bad.”