A drag show in the Lebanese capital Beirut was cut short late on Wednesday by an angry crowd of conservative Christians screaming homophobic chants.
The show was hosted at a bar in the Beirut neighborhood of Mar Mikhael.
Footage posted online from outside the same venue on Wednesday showed men identifying themselves as the "Soldiers of God," an anti-LGBT Christian movement in Lebanon.
They said that the venue is known to be a safe space for LGPT individuals.
Videos of the event show members of the Soldiers of God trapping people inside the bar while shouting that they were "disgusted" at the event.
It was the latest episode showing rising hate speech against Lebanon's LGBT community, including from conservatives with various religious backgrounds.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, head of the armed group Hezbollah, has said homosexuality posed an "imminent danger" to Lebanon and should be "confronted".
“The Soldiers of God” movement is a Christian extremist group in Lebanon that started to surface recently. Its members wear black shirts and claim to be protectors of the Christian areas in Lebanon.
Outgoing Minister of Culture, Mohammad Wissam Mortada commented on the incident and said that the security forces should have taken the matter in their own hands instead of leaving it to irregular sides to handle.
“The security forces should have closed down the bar if it was proven that it was running a play encouraging anomaly” he said in remarks on X platform, previously Twitter.
Other MPs and politicians denounced the assault, rejecting any form of violence and hate speeches.
