Fort Worth witchcraft shop Higher Purpose Emporium will host a Pride Costume Party on October 26.
“Join us in your best costume to celebrate the LGBTQ+ members of the witchy & pagan community! With free admission you can enjoy,” the Pride event flyer states.
The Higher Purpose Emporium (HPE) costume party will be for families of all ages between 12 and 5 p.m. and for adults only between 6 and 9 p.m.
“Higher Purpose Emporium is the premiere and critically-acclaimed store in DFW for all things spiritual and holistic. Looking for an ethical and genuine place to help you make some changes to your life and spirituality?” their website states.
The store is ” Queer-owned” and offers services such as Spell Workings, Seeress Reading, and Cleansing, per its website.
An individual called “Ivy” on the HPE website is reportedly a “genuine Volva, Seeress, Shaman, ordained minister for The Hall of Hekate, Herbalist, blood-oathed Priestess to Hekate.”
According to the Greek Gods and Goddesses website, Hekate is the “Goddess of Witchcraft ” in Greek mythology.
The event has garnered criticism from local leaders.
“It’s concerning that this particular “family-friendly” pride event is geared towards witchcraft. These people clearly have a disturbing agenda and they are going out of their way to target children. Kids should be protected from this inappropriate, evil content,” Texas Coalition for Kids President leader Kelly Neidert told DX.
Neidert’s group will be protesting the pride event.
Tarrant County Republican Chairman Bo French also condemned the event.
“The freak left has stated over and over, ‘Hey, are coming for the kids.’ It shouldn’t surprise anyone that these demented demons are inviting children to a sexualized event,” French told DX.
HPE posted on social media that their event is not sexualizing children.
“Having rainbows and letting queer youth exist is not sexualizing them. Read a book. Go outside. Something because WOW,” Higher Purpose Emporium posted on Instagram.
DX asked the owner of HPE questions via email, to which we received the following response:
“All of these questions can be easily found by reading the article in the Fort Worth weekly or via a quick Google. As I’m not going to assist your biased arguments or participate in your smear campaign and it isn’t my fault if you can’t read my website and the information about the event and comprehend it properly. Thanks so much,” stated Ivy G.