“You got a fat head!” screams a anti-drag activist in Jackson Heights in New York. “You got an Italian meatball with a fuckin’ piece of proscuitto on your face!”

Ford Fischer’s News2Share crew assembles a montage of 2022 drag protests, which were many, varied, usually provocative, sometimes violent, and often incoherent. The News2Share cameras take no position on events and in fact appear to be taken as antagonists by both sides at times. Protesters offer Nazi salutes but also threaten to shove pride flags “up your fuckin’ ass, bitch boy.” Police in each jurisdiction seem to have trouble deciding which group of protesters they dislike more. It’s a compelling portrait of America during a particularly confused period of its history, when furious arguments are the norm and dialogue is nearly non-existent.

A former version of this piece incorrectly identified the first activist as pro-drag. He was on the other side.

Activism, Uncensored: Drag Event Protests in…