UpRising Bakery owner says she's not deterred, despite threats and vandalism over drag brunch

Before Uprising Bakery and Cafe in Lake in the Hills was vandalized for hosting a drag show, owner Corinna Sac faced threats - against her, her family and her business - and wondered if it was all worth it.

In a conversation with her mother, Carisa Bendel, Sac was looking for guidance and didn't know if she should continue with the event or others like it. She was "teetering," her mother said.

"She's always been a humanitarian and stood up for what's right, but I don't think she sought this out," Bendel said. "She feels she has every right to do what she's doing, and she feels like she's supporting a community who's being attacked."

While Sac began her bakery business in part to provide goods to everyone at the same price, regardless of dietary restrictions, it has grown to advocate for the LGTBQ community, and, as Sac puts it, everyone in and out of that umbrella.

"It just stems from who I am and what I believe in," Sac said. "When I see injustices or a void in the community, I just feel like I have to fill it."

Growing up in Crystal Lake, Sac, 31, said she's stubborn - her mother prefers the term tenacious - and doesn't take anything lying down. Sac, who said she's always been openly bisexual, said she lacks a true coming out story because she never felt the urge to hide herself, despite reservations from some family members.

"I was always open and out and in your face," said Sac, who is married with children.

That attitude has carried over into her business. Through UpRising, which began out of her home as Desserts by Corinna in 2017, Sac has pushed for awareness and progress in a number of areas.

Sporting almost 0% food waste and being animal cruelty free, Sac has used her business to draw attention to issues such as climate change.

Another pillar, and perhaps the first one of UpRising, was to offer the same products at the same price to everyone no matter their food allergies or diets - be it vegan, gluten-free, traditional, keto or sugar-free.

"That's where our core belief of equality stems from," she said. "I have always felt ... everybody should have the same options and pay the same price."

It wasn't initially that activism, though, that brought Sac and UpRising an inordinate amount of attention in recent months.

To help her bakery's revenue streams, Sac in December 2021 began hosting different events, including live music, poetry and cake-decorating classes. One event was a ticketed drag show brunch to which children were invited. Sac said she's always loved drag shows and wanted to host one at her bakery to get more community involvement.

"She didn't get into drag shows for her politics," Bendel said of her daughter. "She wasn't trying to be a hero for the LGBTQ community."

After announcing the event in early July, she received backlash almost immediately. Sac said she woke up the morning after to almost 150 fake reviews across her bakery's social media pages. She also received numerous negative emails and phone calls, she said.

Much of the criticism was that children should not be invited to drag shows due to being innately sexual and not meant for kids.

Within the next three weeks, this escalated to bags of feces and signs saying pedophiles work here left outside the bakery, Sac said.

The harassment culminated in the shop being vandalized the night before the show was supposed to take place. Its windows were broken, and its exterior brick was spray-painted with anti-gay slurs.

Sac was inundated with overwhelming harassment and support, and she worried about her and her family's safety. She had multiple conversations about whether to cancel the event completely, she said.

Sac decided to stand her ground and "fight for myself, my employees and my customers."

"I felt like that was giving into bullies and bigotry, and that's something I don't like or tolerate in my life," she said. "You're basically saying these people are lesser. They're lying about them saying they're pedophiles or groomers. And I wasn't going to stand for that."

The ordeal also brought many customers out to back the bakery. The plywood that covered the windows after the vandalism now are on the shop's wall, filled with messages of support for the bakery.

Many people, particularly in the LGBTQ community, have sought out the bakery as a place they can go to feel safe.

Other events also have become controversial for the bakery, said Sac, who protested at her children's school for better remote learning and made cookies promoting women's rights following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

The bakery in recent months served as a distribution site for the monkeypox vaccine. McHenry County Department of Health spokeswoman Lindsey Salvatelli said the department approached UpRising after several community partners recommended it as a place close to those at high risk for the virus.

The decision to hold a clinic led to more scrutiny. While the event happened without a hitch, a lot of anti-gay and anti-vaccine reaction was part of the lead up to it, Sac said.

This time, an employee quit over the backlash.

The threat is always there, Sac said. She said some have tried to target her children as well.

In response, Sac has taken self-defense classes, active shooter training, installed security cameras and made sure people are always with her children.

"I've kind of become a little numb to it," Sac's mother said. "But sometimes the weight of it all comes back to you."

The bakery continues to be a target of protesters who stand outside. A recent Lake in the Hills Village Board meeting drew more than 80 people to either support or condemn Sac's business.

"We're going to keep doing what we're doing," she said. "[The protesters outside] are eventually going to get cold, or bored, or broke, and they're going to have to go home."