PRIDE ‘24: No pride in genocide
There is no pride in genocide and I want to keep that front and center in this first set of photos taken from Baltimore, New York City, and Harlem Pride. Even through the celebration and festivities and rainbows and corporate sponsorships and employee affinity groups - there’s still a genocide of Palestinian people and many of these people/organizations that call themselves seeing the humanity of a discriminated people participate in an even worse form of discrimination and alienation by making Palestinians invisible. That means you Joe Biden. Kathy Hochul. Wes Moore. Eric Adams. Kamala Harris. Google. Apple. Amazon.
Not much surprises me any more, but it does take a remarkable amount of cognitive dissonance to celebrate Pride at the same White House that is (and has) sent billions in aid annually to that rogue apartheid state.
Pride doesn’t have to be pinkwashed. Genocide apologists don’t have to be welcomed into any spaces nor should they be. Fuck their money and offerings. My favorite picture in the set is of Eric Adams being ran out of Harlem Pride as he should’ve.
When I went to Trade Bar in DC to see Doechii (there wasn’t really any trade there), my friend Daniel and I encountered a Jewish girl wearing a watermelon yarmulke. We spent a good few minutes, amongst the loud music, bright colorful lights, and people dancing sharing how odd and uneasy it was to be celebrating Pride at the same time people across the world were being slaughtered.
Shoutout to the queers in keffiyehs. The Palestinian flag waving. Watermelon symbol wearing. Pride started as a rebellion. And what better reason to rebel than a genocide.
