Dozens of people have been arrested in Los Angeles following a chaotic and at times violent demonstration by anti-transgender protesters who targeted a Koreatown spa that has a trans-inclusive policy allowing trans women to use women’s facilities.

Saturday marked the second weekend of violent protests this month in the streets around Wi Spa, a neighborhood business that has found itself at the heart of a right-wing media storm over an alleged incident in which a customer filmed herself complaining about a trans woman in the women’s area of the spa.

The far-right protesters called for a boycott of Wi Spa and chanted baseless claims about paedophilia, as women carrying signs reading “protect female spaces” and “It’s worse in women’s shelters” marched alongside men wearing helmets and masks that covered their faces.

Calls to defend “female spaces” and “women’s shelters” have become rallying cries of anti-trans groups, who have falsely suggested that trans-inclusive policies endanger cis women. California has for years had laws in place that allow trans people to use facilities that match their gender.

The chants and signs in Los Angeles on Saturday highlighted the convergence of anti-trans activism with other strains of far-right activism. Many demonstrators chanted “Save our children,” a slogan taken up by QAnon conspiracy theorists, whose ideology is centered on an elaborate narrative about a cabal of influential paedophiles. Other demonstrators wore shirts pledging to murder leftwing activists, with reference to rightwing death squads in Chile in the 1970s. According to multiple protesters, Arthur Schaper, the leader of the California chapter of an anti-LGBT hate group, arrived early to the protest outside Wi Spa and took refuge behind a line of police officers as trans rights protesters heckled him.