Florida Club Gets Threats After Angela Stanton-King Posts Video of Kids With Drag Queens

A gay nightclub in South Beach, Florida is receiving threats after a former GOP congressional candidate shared a video to social media expressing moral outrage over a drag queen interacting with two young girls.

The Palace Bar and Restaurant was reportedly targeted with homophobic and transphobic threats after Angela Stanton-King, who ran a failed Republican campaign for Congress in Georgia last year, visited the club and uploaded an Instagram video showing the girls posing with a drag queen during a performance.

The video was widely shared on social media in some conservative circles, prompting Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-Ga.) to argue that those involved "should be arrested and charged," despite the video not appearing to show anything illegal.

Palace owner Thomas Donall told ABC affiliate WPLG that one message the club received in the wake of the conservative outrage read "I hope y'all end up like Pulse," referring to the 2016 massacre of 49 mostly LGBTQ people at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando.

"It's really difficult for us and heart-wrenching," Donall said of the threats the club has received. "I mean it just makes me ... really sick to my stomach."

The girls in the video were accompanied to the club by their parents, who gave them permission to interact with the drag queen. Donall described the interaction as "innocent fun for the girls," adding "I mean they were posing with a Madonna show."

In a separate Instagram video, an upset Stanton-King can be seen telling a club employee that the interaction made her feel "offended and disrespected by being a survivor of sexual abuse."

Newsweek reached out to the Palace Bar and Restaurant for comment.

Stanton-King maintained that she went to the club because she felt it "looked like a place that would be fun and entertaining." However, her history of anti-LGBTQ opinions and rhetoric made the club, which is well-known for its drag performances, an odd choice for a night out.

Last month, Stanton-King repeatedly misgendered her own daughter and expressed transphobic views while taping an episode of Dr. Phil. After the show aired, she described it on Instagram as "a violation of my civil rights."

Stanton-King was banned from Twitter after threatening to physically assault a trans woman who also appeared on the show. In a tweet last October, she baselessly claimed, "if you support LBGTQ+ Youth, you support Pedophilia."

Stanton-King is an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump and has expressed support for the false pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory. She is the goddaughter of Alveda King, a niece of civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who is also known for her conservative politics.

In 2018, Stanton-King appeared on the BET reality show From the Bottom Up, which focused on women rebuilding their lives after making "bad choices." Stanton-King spent two years in prison after being convicted in 2004 on a federal felony charge for participating in a car theft ring. She was pardoned by Trump last year.

Stanton-King ran for Congress in 20202 as a Republican challenging the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who helped organize the 1963 March on Washington and spoke just before her godmother's uncle delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Lewis died before the election took place but Stanton-King eventually lost to Democratic Rep. Nikema Williams by a margin of more than 70 percent.