Around the country, drag queen story hour events hosted at bookstores, libraries and other community hubs have increasingly become targeted by right-wing protesters. And over the weekend, Loyalty Bookstores became the focal point for protest and intimidation. But anti-LGBTQ protests at the bookstore’s Silver Spring location appeared to have escalated and became physically violent, according to community members who attended.

Loyalty Bookstores said on Twitter that families did successfully participate in drag queen story hour, doing the Hokey Pokey and hearing books read aloud, despite the protests just outside the storefront. The bookstore credited a group of volunteers called Parasol Patrol that shows up to LGBTQ events, particularly for young people, to ensure safety.

TW: hate speech/ anti LGBTQ

Yesterday afternoon Loyalty came under attack from hate groups who tried to force their way into our store during a Drag Queen Story Hour with physical violence. The incredible @parasolpatrol and the MoCo chapter of @DragStoryHour did wonders 1/?

— Loyalty Bookstores (@Loyaltybooks) February 19, 2023

Montgomery County Councilmember Kristin Mink of District 5 was among the individuals who gathered outside the bookstore to welcome families and protect them in event of protests. She tells DCist/WAMU that over a dozen protesters, including members of the Proud Boys (a hate group that has ties to white nationalists), arrived Saturday afternoon. So she and other community members formed a human barricade outside the store to prevent disruption to the event. Proud Boys members carried derogatory and transphobic signs, according to images of the protests that circulated on social media. The signs repeated false and malicious rhetoric surrounding anti-LGBTQ bills that have been echoed across the country.

Parasol Patrol and other community members carried rainbow umbrellas to prevent the children at the event from seeing those signs, as well as played music and sang songs to overpower protesters’ jeering, Mink says. But she says things escalated when Proud Boys began to push, shove, kick, and punch people who were there to defend the drag queen story hour. Mink says she herself was kicked. Her side declined to engage in that kind of violence, she adds.

2/ Here’s what was happening on the inside, that the PBs said they were there to “protect children” from. Meanwhile, see what they were trying (failing) to force children to look at. pic.twitter.com/fggUTxUQ6G

— Kristin Mink (@KristinMink_) February 18, 2023

“This was certainly the most physical and the most violent that it’s been so far,” says Mink. She says she has attended over a handful of drag queen story hour events since last summer. “The violence could have been prevented if there was more separation between the Proud Boys and those of us who are with the event and welcoming families to the event. There needs to be more space there. And so my hope is to be working in collaboration with the police to make sure that that happens. So hopefully we’ll have an update on that sometime soon, so families know what’s going to be in place next weekend.”

Montgomery County Police says that they dispersed the protests. However, one of the protesters disputes that claim, according to Source of the Spring. “They did not disperse the [Proud Boys],” said volunteer John Zittrauer. “I’m the guy with the bloody nose.”

Mink says police arrived shortly after the Proud Boys did. “The Proud Boys were able to continue approaching us throughout the entire event. So I think that there needs to be a change in protocol,” she says. Specifically, she is asking for a designated protest area across the street, in order to prevent any further violence and trauma. (The strategy is reminiscent of those deployed by abortion clinics; some have buffer zones in order to prevent harassment from anti-abortion protesters.)

The Montgomery County Police Department did not respond to request for comment.

Mink says she spoke to families who attended the drag queen story hour afterwards and they told her they ultimately had a wonderful time. She credits community members who always show up in greater numbers than anti-LGBTQ protestors. Mink says she suspects many of the protestors are not local.

“The more we see this kind of hatred showing itself in the Montgomery County area, the more critical it is for us to keep showing up louder and prouder,” says Mink, “and moving very clearly in the right direction and demonstrating our very clear support on the ground in the community as well as on the legislative and policy side for the LGBTQ community.”