Even New York City, the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement, is not immune to the surge of anti-drag protests that has swept across the U.S. this year.
This month alone, there have been at least two such protests in the country’s most populous city. The latest occurred Thursday outside a public library in the borough of Queens, where a Drag Story Hour event for children was scheduled. Drag Story Hour is a national program started in 2015 in which drag performers read books to children in libraries, schools and bookstores to celebrate diversity and encourage kids to read, according to the program’s website.
Shekar Krishnan, a New York City Council member who represents parts of the borough, estimated there were 500 protesters, with counterprotesters far outnumbering their anti-drag counterparts.
“We outnumbered the haters (400 to 100) and drowned them out with chanting, drumming, dancing, and ABBA sing-alongs,” Krishnan, who was there to support the Drag Story Hour event, which went on as planned, wrote on Twitter.
The protesters carried signs that said “Leave the Kids Aalone” and “Stop Drag Queen Story Hour,” while counterprotesters carried signs that read “Drive Homophobia Away” and “Libraries Are for Everyone,” according to local news outlets PIX11 and Gothamist.
Videos and photos shared on social media show the protest at times becoming tense, with participants shouting at each other and at police. Some photos show an attendee carrying a Proud Boys flag, and another captured by a photographer for Getty Images shows a protester giving a Nazi salute.
A spokesperson for the New York City Police Department said one person was arrested in connection with Thursday’s protest. The NYPD also received two arson complaints in which an unidentified individual allegedly poured a substance on two unoccupied vehicles and set them on fire, but those cases are still under investigation, the spokesperson said.
