This month, I (Abby Stein) was invited for the second time to attend the White House Pride Month Celebration. I was surprised to be invited, given that so many queer and Jewish activists I know who have been outspoken in their call for an immediate permanent ceasefire in Gaza and hostage exchange have not been invited back to White House events they were previously invited to.
I considered declining the invite in protest of this administration’s funding and green-lighting the massacre, displacement, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinains in Gaza and the West Bank. Queer Palestinians deserve the right to live and celebrate — but cannot while under siege and bombing by Israel with US weapons. As a queer, trans, Israeli-American rabbi, whose closest openly queer family members live in Israel, I wanted to bring this message to the White House.
I’ve known Lily Greenberg Call since she invited me to speak at UC Berkeley Hillel in 2016. At the time, she was part of the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) student group on campus. I have since watched over the years as she moved away from AIPAC and pro-Israel lobbying to getting involved in anti-occupation organizing and the Palestinian rights movement. She had worked on several political campaigns in her career so far, and was appointed to serve in the Biden administration in January 2023. I was inspired by her resignation from her job as a political appointee in the Biden Administration, becoming the first and only Jewish appointee to publicly resign in protest of the Administration’s policy on Gaza. I invited her to come as my plus one to the White House, a place where her voice as a queer, Jewish person who spoke up against US funding and support for Israel’s occupation and apartheid was silenced.
The Pride Celebration was held on the South Lawn of the White House on a beautiful, if slightly humid evening (but not bad by DC standards). We arrived, went through several security checks, and were granted entrance to the South Lawn. The energy was celebratory and light-hearted. A DJ was mixing sets from the White House balcony, people were drinking, parents with little kids were running around chasing after them. There were stages, several different food and concession stands, and rainbow themed photo areas.
But both of us felt uncomfortable: Lily, returning to the White House campus for the first time since resigning, seeing former coworkers and friends, and Abby, also returning but without so many of her queer friends and fellow leaders who had been at previous White House events but not invited to this one since being outspoken in support of a ceasefire. To be at an event celebrating queer liberation, taking place in the epicenter of power while knowing that this Administration has contributed to the abject suffering of the Palestinian people, was extremely unsettling.
When Dr. Jill Biden spoke about Pride as a celebration and how LGTBQ rights in the US are under attack, we spoke up. We addressed Dr. Biden and our fellow attendees respectfully, introduced ourselves as queer Jews, and chanted our support for a permanent ceasefire, an end to arming Israel, and asserted that there can be no pride in genocide. Almost immediately, Abby was grabbed aggressively by a uniformed Secret Service officer. A White House staffer ran over and angrily informed us that we’d been formally disinvited from the event. We were escorted out and forbidden from returning to White House property that day. Our fellow attendees similarly displayed a surreal and dystopian shift in attitude towards us. As the officer held on to Abby’s arm and back and pushed us both out, some of the attendees started clacking their rainbow fans in our faces and booing us, chanting “four more years”.
After we were unceremoniously dumped outside the White House gates, we went on Instagram Live to share what had just happened. It was surreal to know that the party was continuing inside, business as usual, now that the disruptors had been dealt with. As we were recording, some attendees approached us, saying they’d left in disgust after seeing the reaction to our disruption.
Our identities as queer people and as Jews are constantly exploited by people in power to justify the massacre of Palestinians. Israel’s tolerance towards its LGBTQ community is often used to justify its policies of occupation and discrimination against all Palestinans. And as queer Jews with close LGBTQ family and friends in Israel, we know how precarious their rights are, too. There is no civil marriage, trans rights are consistently attacked and undermined by high-ranking government officials, and Israeli ministers actively spew hate against pride parades, leading to physical violence. LGBTQ Palestinians aren’t being “saved” by Israel. Their identities and their personal lives are exploited by Israeli security services to force them into being informants on their families and communities, putting them at risk.
We believe in queer liberation for all people, Palestinians and Israelis alike. That cannot happen while queer Palestinians are being murdered by Israel’s relentless bombing, starved to death by the deliberate withholding of food, water, and aid, and tortured in Israeli prisons. It is on all of us, especially as queer people, to speak for our queer siblings in Palestine.
This week marked the 55th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. The floodgates of queer liberation in the United States were opened because of a riot – a brick thrown in protest. Pride was not given to us. It came because of a struggle and a fight. Throwing a pride celebration at the White House with the implicit agreement that there would be no discussion of the administration’s complicity in the suffering of Palestinians is counter to queer liberation. There can be no queer liberation under occupation.
What is lost when queer people turn away from the history of pride’s roots in protest and collective liberation for a pinkwashed, corporate “love is love” celebration at the White House amidst a genocide? Queer people in Palestine are being killed every day with American-made bombs in a war supported by American policymakers.
We are American and Israeli-American, white and white-passing, queer Jews. This intersection of identity and privilege that led us to even being invited into the White House in the first place. All systems of oppression are connected and any system that requires subjugation of one people for another is not safe for anyone. As queer Jews we demand a permanent ceasefire, hostage exchange, and for President Biden to listen to the majority of Americans, American Jews, Palestinian-Americans, and the families of Israeli hostages who demand the US to stop the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel. If we want to honor queer history and value queer lives today, we cannot continue to be complicit in the pinkwashing of Israeli war crimes and the dehumanization of Palestinian people.
I can see why they kicked you out, I’m probably not the only one sick of hearing about that crap…
Americans are so incredibly selfish. You are sick about hearing about genocide? Pathetic.
It’s not a genocide dumbass. I don’t know why people listen to Palestinian numbers as if they are actually good numbers, you may as well listen to North Korea about how they have totally zero work labor reeducation camps.
Mods please delete this comment.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-death-toll-how-many-palestinians-has-israels-campaign-killed-2024-05-14/
QUOTE:
The U.N. human rights office and the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health have also said during the conflict that the true figures are likely higher than those published.
HOW CREDIBLE IS THE GAZA DEATH TOLL?
Pre-war Gaza had robust population statistics and better health information systems than in most Middle East countries, public health experts told Reuters.
A spokesperson for the World Health Organisation said the ministry has “good capacity in data collection/analysis and its previous reporting has been considered credible”.
The United Nations regularly cites the ministry’s death toll figures, while naming the ministry as the source.
This comment has been removed as it is in violation of Autostraddle’s Comment Policy. Repeat or egregious offenders will be banned.
Mods please delete this comment.
mods please
You’re perfectly happy to spend time and mental energy discussing “that crap” , you’re reading this on your own time and engaging in the comments! You’re just sick of people calling this horrific genocide what it is instead of minimizing and justifying it.
Thank you for speaking out and sharing it here 💜
Thank you for this.
what are you going to do about the 90% of jews worldwide that identify as zionists?
what’s your solution?
Calling out the dog whistle here of a “solution”. Go on say what you think the solution is
What do you think zionism means?
Here are two important articles I like: https://jewishstudies.washington.edu/israel-hebrew/reimagining-zionism-israeli-reggae-anna-rf/
And the response from their queer sibling: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/hayim-katsman-gaza-ceasefire/
This is confusing. Why does something have to be done about them? What solution? Also I’d love to see where you came up with that statistic.
Sounds very nazi-germany of you Amanda…
Since you were invited, do you think you could have had conversations with your fellow attendees to drum up support for your position? You say people followed you out, which makes me think it was possible.
Do you think disrupting an event makes people more likely to listen to you? If the goal is to increase support for your position, antagonizing an audience doesn’t seem like a good start.
Stonewall was a riot
I don’t think the fellow attendees were the audience, and having polite quiet conversations with fellow citizens will never change systemic government-sponsored violence.
You were not invited to support a terrorist organization who executes LGBTQ on a pride event.
You make it sound like they showed up to a friend’s Pride house party and started screaming at people that Hamas should attack more Jews. They are known, public activists who were invited to a government function by government staff who knew who they were.
How do you think the first amendment should work? It’s ok to protest UNLESS the most powerful government on the planet invites you to a nice party where all the decorations are your favorite color, then you have to forget any problems you have with that government?
“Queer Palestinians deserve the right to live and celebrate — but cannot while under siege and bombing by Israel with US weapons.” No honey, queer Palestinians can’t celebrate pride, because guess what? Homosexuality can lead to death. You are supporting a society that imprisons and executes LGBT people.
You need to educate yourself before trying to educate others in favor of supporting a terrorist, anti western, anti American, anti Jewish entity like Hamas.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63174835.amp
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/2024-04-03/ty-article-magazine/.premium/hamas-files-found-by-israel-in-gaza-detail-execution-of-senior-member-accused-of-being-gay/0000018e-9e6d-d64e-afce-fffd62370000
Do you think people who live under horrific, homophobic governments should be bombed as a general rule?
Do you think the solution for queer Palestinians being unable to celebrate Pride for fear of death is for Israel to bomb their homes, schools, places of worship and hospitals? Why isn’t the solution for queer Palestinians to fight for their rights under an oppressive government, just like we do here in the US? How is the younger generation of Palestinians supposed to move their culture forward like Gen Z is doing for America if they’re all dead, traumatized, maimed and orphaned?
Ok colonizer.
You mean you got kicked out of an official event about queer pride by causing a commotion about something that has literally nothing to do with it, knowing being gay is a crime punishable by death in the country you’re so proudly advocating for? Shocker.
This whole ‘Queers for Palestine’ thing that somehow dominated Pride this year is so obviously nonsense. You wanna advocate for Palestinians, do it on your own time, but don’t bring your fucking Palestinian flags to Pride knowing the country is as homophobic as they come. You wouldn’t bring a Russian flag would you? Does your pro-Hamas braindead squad even understand how ideologically incompatible the two things are? Queer Palestinians often flee to Israel or face death in their own country, but by all means keep donating to Hamas! I’m sure they’ll stick up for you when your Supreme Court decides your existence is illegal again!
Ah, a well reasoned and clearly communicated response to the points outlined in the article.
“Somehow dominated Pride”…has it occurred to you that maybe gays just don’t like genocide.
“You wanna advocate for Palestinians, do it on your own time” These two women are activists who were invited to a government function by people who knew they were activists. What on earth is “their own time” if this isn’t?
This is more of the “You wanna protest? Fine, but not like THAT!” nonsense we’ve heard for decades.
Queer Palestinians are murdered by Hamas full stop. In Israel there is freedom of expression including of your sexual orientation. There is also no genocide or ethnic cleansing going on in Gaza. There is a war against people who recently killed hundreds of Israelis for committing no crime other than living in Israel. The war is taking place in civilian areas by the choice of Hamas, and Israel has done more to reduce civilian casualties than any other significant combatant in recent history, even at the expense of letting some of their military targets escape, at least temporarily. There is also no famine. Approximately 2700 kcal per day of food is accessible to people in Gaza at the moment, which is about the average adult dietary needs. Hamas complicates food delivery by stealing it from civilians and beating or murdering civilians who object to this.
Kudos to you both for speaking up and standing up for those who are more marginalized ❤️
Love seeing that I’m not the only one who thought your idea was pointless!
I am so confused by the concept that I as a lesbian should be ok with the genocide of people ruled by a homophobic government. Would you support bombing Florida? I am so confused. Obviously LGBTQ Palestinians exist even though Hamas doesn’t want them to. An entire generation of Palestinian children who might have grown up to be LGBTQ or help bring in a better government are now dead. Shouldn’t we want Palestinians to be alive so they can create a government that supports queers? Is the solution to a cruel homophobic government truly “bomb their hospitals and universities into oblivion”??? This can’t really be our perspective as American queers!
And a White House event is absolutely the place to protest. Where tf else will we protest and have anyone in power notice? How else would any us have a chance of letting Jill Biden know we didn’t forget about our tax dollars funding the obliteration of Palestinians just because she’s standing in front of a rainbow and a dj?? We have no voice and our votes are a gerrymandered joke. Let alone the fact there’s no way to vote “no” on funding the IDF anyway.
Making people mildly uncomfortable at a party on the lawn of the home of the most powerful man in the most powerful country on the planet is not the end of the world. Why are we more angry at two women chanting at a socially inappropriate time, than at the fact that queer Palestinians are starving let alone not having a chance to create a good government.
Ugh you dont even know the meaning or origin of the word genocide,
But yes, if Florida if would storm its neighboring state and and rape, kill and take kidnap 250 hostages as ransom – yes, fire would rain on them as well from the state that is being attacked – or at least I should hope so.
Also rest easy – Queer Palestinans in Gaza are not starving but are dead – not by the hands of Israelis, but by the filth that is Hamas.
The extreme right and left are shaking hands – its mind-boggling to me that the queer community cannot see through the bullshit the media is feeding you.
Wow, Hamas thanks you for your support – you are all useful idiots that are uneducated on the subject.
But I suppose its not surprising to see autostraddle follow the ultra left sheep herd running off the cliff under the “free palestine” bullshit banner.
The only thing that has and is still standing in the way of Palestinians making a thriving country is themselves. The day they love their children more than hate jews is the day there will be peace.