When Hate Knocked… and Community Answered

It started like any regular Friday evening.

I had been at Bounce Salon when my phone started lighting up. Emails. Messages. Screenshots. People were reaching out to give me a heads up.

There was a post circulating on Facebook about an upcoming event at Coterie Lounge and Cafe.

Not just any post. A hateful one.

My stomach dropped. The kind of drop that makes everything go quiet for a second while your brain tries to catch up.

As a small business owner, it was scary.

How could someone think I was doing something so terrible?

At first, I assumed there had to be a misunderstanding. Maybe something got twisted. Maybe the event wasn’t explained clearly. Maybe a quick conversation could fix it.

But there was no misunderstanding.

This was someone who had already decided who we were.

Someone who had stepped foot into my business one time and somehow felt qualified to define everything we stand for. Someone who didn’t agree with people who live differently than she does, and instead of simply choosing not to attend, she chose to be loud. Disrespectful. Full of malice.

The target was our Drag Story Hour featuring Roxie D. Mocracy.

Something designed to be joyful. Inclusive. Community-driven.

And suddenly, it was being twisted into something harmful.

That’s the part that hits the hardest, the way your intentions get rewritten by someone who never took the time to understand them in the first place.

For a moment, I won’t pretend I wasn’t shaken. Not just for the event, but for everything we’ve built. Coterie isn’t just a café. It’s a risk I took on a dream that didn’t even feel possible at one point. It’s long days, hard lessons, and showing up over and over again.

And in a single Facebook thread, it felt like all of that could be threatened.

But then something shifted.

The community answered.

Messages started pouring in. Real ones. People checking in. People reminding me what this space means to them. People saying, “We’ve got you.”

And they didn’t stop at words.

They showed up.

They walked into Coterie with intention. They brought friends. They stayed. They supported. They filled the room with the exact energy this place was built for.

And in that moment, everything became very clear.

A coterie is a group of people who share a common interest or purpose.

Ours is rooted in connection, acceptance, and creating space for people to exist fully as themselves.

That Friday could have been the beginning of the end.

Instead, it became proof.

Proof that one loud voice doesn’t define us.Proof that misunderstanding doesn’t outweigh experience.Proof that community, real community, always shows up.

To everyone who reached out, who came in, who stood beside us, whether loudly or quietly, thank you.

You didn’t just support a business.

You protected a space.

And because of you, we didn’t just get through it.

We grew stronger because of it.

—Coterie Lounge & Cafe

Where coffee is just the bait… and community is the heartbeat.