A Provo bookstore known for its support of the LGBTQ+ community was the target of a bomb threat Saturday morning, prompting a search by police with bomb-sniffing dogs, though no explosives ultimately were discovered.

According to a press release from Provo police, the KSL news desk reported the threat just after 9 a.m. The Daily Herald also received the threat, which came in an email, and reported it to law enforcement.

The profane email was sent with the subject line “We will blow up the bookstore” and was directed at Mosaics Community Bookstore & Venue. The message called operators of the bookstore “degenerates” and “groomers,” who the sender claimed are “acting out your sexual (fantasies) upon our children sheathed under the false guise of tolerance and inclusivity.”

“We will not stand idly by as the next generation of children are preyed upon and corrupted, we will stop you and we will kill you,” the message continued, concluding with a statement that “bombs will go off” at Mosaics, then listing the business’s address.

“No bombs or suspicious packages were found,” police stated in the release, which added that there are no suspects at this time and an investigation is active.

Mosaics has been in operation since September 2023. On its website, the business is referred to as a bookstore, gathering place and “safe space.” A mission statement says Mosaics aims “to cultivate a culture of acceptance, creativity, and authentic self-expression for marginalized communities in Utah … by being a visible queer owned and operated business in a part of the state that currently does not have many.”

The bookstore regularly hosts events such as drag story hour and “Gayme Night.”

Tara Lipsyncki, a transgender drag queen activist, and her husband own Mosaics. She explained how Saturday’s incident threw a monkey wrench in her day.

“I work another job and I was on my way to that job, and I was like, ‘Now I guess I’m calling out today because I have a bomb threat in my business,'” Lipsyncki told the Daily Herald. “I need to make sure that my family — both my biological family and physical family, and my chosen family of my employees and the community that I’ve built in the store — I need to make sure they’re safe.”

Daily Herald reporter Curtis Booker contributed to this report.

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