Close to 1,000 LGBTQ+ activist and allies boycotted the official San Francico Pride Parade, hosting an alternative march in solidarity with Palestinians on Sunday afternoon.
Organizers of the march, dubbed “No Pride in Genocide, accused local politicians and SF Pride organizers of being complicit with Israel as war continues in Gaza. March leaders also accused SF Pride of accepting corporate sponsorship from enterprises that are “actively involved in the genocide of the people of Gaza.”
“This march will gather queer and trans people who reject the cooption of queerness in genocide and refuse to engage in a corporate, performative state sponsored pride that it is fundamentally unaligned with queerness as a liberatory act,” said the organizers in a news release.
SF Pride is currently sponsored by 41 companies and organizations, including Amazon. The Seattle, Washington-based company has received pushback from pro-Palestinian groups and activists for Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud computing contracted with the Israeli government.
The “No Pride in Genocide” march also sought to gather allies who believe “queerness as an ongoing engagement in the liberation of all people — including and especially the Palestinian people, who are experiencing genocide and settler colonial state oppression.”
Organizers, which include Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism and Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area, also called on Bay Area political leaders to call and support for permanent cease-fire in Gaza. Marchers specially called on Mayor London Breed, Supervisors Rafael Mandelman and Matt Dorsey, and state Sen. Scott Wiener to “stop inciting anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab racism in the Bay Area.”
“They have been silent on the suffering in Gaza at both the local and national level,” read the release. “Finally, SF Pride has convened a performative ‘resistance contingent’ of the parade that makes mention of a variety of social issues but not the genocide in Gaza. A Pride celebration that does business with companies and individuals actively engaging in the oppression of the Palestinian people cannot and will not represent a queerness rooted in liberation for all.”
Sunday’s march follows the events of a same-named event in March. That event called on “millions” globally to protest the ongoing war.
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