Amid the national showdown over drag performances and transgender rights, a storytelling event in a city park in northern Ohio became the latest flashpoint, fueled by demonstrators who waved swastika flags and shouted “Seig heil” before a melee that led to two arrests.

Hundreds of protesters, including armed white supremacists, members of several extremist groups and LGBTQ community supporters descended on Wadsworth, Ohio, a small town outside Akron, for a drag queen storytelling show that had been moved from a private venue.

White supremacist protestors shouted “Heil Hitler” and made Nazi salutes outside the event while pro-LGBTQ counterprotesters chanted, confronted the far-right agitators and wielded rainbow-colored parasols as a sort of shield for attendees.

Toward the end of the four-hour event, two people charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct were arrested after a series of melees involving pepper spray, the violent use of a flag pole as a weapon and a protester who unnerved witnesses who said he pointed a gun at a crowd. (Police said Monday that […]