As LGBTQ+ Pride’s crescendo approaches, tensions over war in Gaza expose rifts
NEW YORK — Before New York City annual LGBTQ+ Pride march, Organizers typically spend weeks determining the order of the floats, determining placement based on factors such as seniority and the volume of the music.
This year they are grappling with an even more difficult question: how do you organize a parade in which participants accuse each other of war crimes and supporting terrorism?
At Pride events in the US there were internal tensions over the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza have spilled over into festivities, led to boycotts and demonstrations during marches, and deepened divisions within a movement that is firmly rooted in protest.
In New York, members of the Israeli consulate say they will march this year, despite several other participating groups and at least two of the four grand marshals accusing the country of genocide against Palestinians.
Their usual float, decorated with rainbow-colored flowers and a Star of David, will be flanked by an extra layer of private security when the march begins next Sunday.
“Unfortunately, there are many people in the LGBT community who would rather stand with the enemies, with the side that is homophobic, and not with Israel,” said Itay Milner, a spokesman for the consulate. “We are aware of that sentiment, but we will not be deterred by it.”
Elsewhere in the line of hundreds of parading groups, members of Tarab NYC, an advocacy group representing gay Middle Easterners and North Africans, say they will try to “center Palestine” during the march, raising Palestinian flags as they singing: “No pride in genocide.”
Those marching with the group recently underwent de-escalation training after being harassed and chased by counter-protesters at a Pride event in Brooklyn this month, according to the group’s founder, Bashar Makhay.
Similar confrontations have erupted in many areas of public life as the war in Gaza has dragged on demonstrations and clashes on college campuses and more typically neutral environments, including some recent Memorial Day parades.
But the conflict has created an unusual dynamic for some Pride participants, who are now bracing for protests, not just from far-right agitators and other external groupsbut also from activists within their own communities. In recent weeks, pro-Palestinian LGBTQ+ groups have disrupted marches in Boston, Denver, Philadelphia and elsewhere to protest sponsors’ ties to Israel.
Several groups boycotted the Queens Pride Parade this month after the president of the LGBT Network, which organizes the event, expressed strong support for Israel and criticized Palestinian activists in an online article.
In San Francisco, Jewish groups expressed outrage after Pride organizers announced that there would be no Israeli float at Sunday’s parade, one of the world’s largest. Organizers issued a follow-up statement clarifying that no one who had registered for the event had been turned away.
The big annual Pride parade in Tel Aviv, Israel, was canceled last month out of respect for the hostages Hamas still holds in Gaza.
Sandra Perez, the executive director of NYC Pride, says the organization approaches its march with a “free speech mentality” and does not restrict reporting from registered participants (although police officers do). forbidden to march in uniform). But she hoped the issue of war “would not silence other members of the community,” she said.
“Our concern with people who choose to speak out or protest the issues they want to protest is that it doesn’t overshadow the issues that the LGBTQ community faces,” Perez said.
Advocates of the Palestinian cause see Pride events as a natural opportunity to show solidarity with those facing oppression. The first march was held to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall uprising, a riot that began with a police raid on a Manhattan gay bar.
In recent years, Black Lives Matter activists have briefly disrupted Pride events to draw attention to more promotion inclusion of people of color.
Some say the recent war protests have further exposed the growing divide between traditional queer institutions, including those that organize the parades, and the younger and more diverse segments of the community who are increasingly vocal about the plight of Palestinians.
“It’s safe to say that everyone across the board is thinking about the genocide that’s happening in Gaza and Palestine,” says Raquel Willis, a transgender writer who will serve as one of the NYC Pride Parade’s grand marshals. “The difference is whether people are open about it or not.”
The reactions to the war in Gaza have fueled existing tensions within the community and also created new rifts between the former allies.
Since 2019, left-wing activists fed up with the growing corporate presence at NYC Pride have been organizing their own event, known as the Queer Liberation March. The group has long been skeptical of outside funding and previously counted Housing Works, a nonprofit focused on fighting AIDS and homelessness, as its sole financial sponsor.
But this year, after organizers announced that the march’s theme would include people affected by “war and genocide,” as well as young people of color, Housing Works declined to participate.
In an email to employees, Housing Works CEO Charles King said the organization has not taken a position on the war in Gaza and would not do so during Sunday’s march.
“After much deliberation, we have decided that Housing Works should join the march under the banner of the first issue only: fighting for our Black and Brown youth,” he wrote.
In response, organizers of the Queer Liberation March posted a defiant message on Instagram: Those who “remain silent in the face of wars and genocides,” they wrote, “do not represent the values of the Queer Liberation March.”