Proud Boys Catch A Proper Fade At NYC Drag Queen Protest
Written by djfrosty on March 20, 2023
Source: Stephanie Keith / Getty
Members of the Proud Boys met with fierce resistance at a drag event held in New York City, with one going viral after a video of them sustaining an injury was released.
On Sunday (March 19th), the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in Greenwich Village in Manhattan held the Drag Story Hour Read-A-Thon with New York Attorney General Letitia James. It took place from 11 A.M. to 3 P.M.
and was met with protests from right-wingers and the far-right Proud Boys group members. James shared a tweet of her attending and supporting the event later in the afternoon.
Counter-protesters clashed with the Proud Boys, with one group member storming away after having his face bloodied though it was unclear if it was due to fighting a counter-protester. That moment was captured on video, where he said to the cameramen, “I came here to help people, not to get the s*** beaten out of me.” The video currently has over two million views on social media.
Other members of the group were chased away by counter-protesters who yelled at them to leave. One person was jailed after breaking through NYPD-mandated boundaries throwing punches and yelling “Antifa” while trying to grab press cameras. James’ office offered no comment on the clash outside of the center when contacted by the press. But her support didn’t go unnoticed. “The LGBT Center is incredibly important to me personally, and to our community. The fact that there is a drag story hour and that the Attorney General of the State of New York is attending and is in support of this means something, to me,” activist Jay W. Walker said to the press. “We knew these evil, disturbed people were going to show up here and try to cause trauma for kids and their parents and we just want to be here to block that.”
The right-wingers are part of a larger movement that has sprung up in recent months across the country targeting drag performers and other members of the LGBTQ community. They’ve zeroed in specifically on events that are accessible to children such as drag story hour events where performers read at libraries. Tennessee’s Governor Bill Lee recently signed SB003 into law, which criminalizes any drag event held within 1,000 feet of a school or park or any time a day a minor might be near. 18 other states are looking to adopt similar legislation.