"No Pride in Genocide" Launched by Palestinian, SWANA, Jewish Queer & Trans People
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Contact: info@noprideingenocide.org
Washington, DC -- Today, a coalition of queer and trans Palestinians, Jews, SWANA people, and allies launched No Pride in Genocide [link to landing page] to further mobilize the queer community to fight the U.S. backed genocide being carried out by the Israeli occupation in Gaza.
The coalition is being formed to further uplift the belief that queer liberation is inextricably tied to Palestinian liberation, to fight for the queer and trans people being killed by the Israeli occupation, and to center the queer and trans Arab/SWANA experience as one that is critical to collective liberation. While No Pride in Genocide will be rooted in DC -- where organizers have a unique access to the halls of power -- it will be the umbrella housing a network of queer and trans people organizing towards a free Palestine.
"Our collective grief, horror, and outrage around the ever escalating genocide of the Palestinian people has been further deepened by the pinkwashing narratives used by Israel and its cronies to fuel derogatory stereotypes against Arab and Muslim communities," said the organizers of No Pride in Genocide [link to landing page]. "Our existence as queer Arabs, Muslims, and SWANA peoples rejects the racist narratives spread by the Israeli occupation about Palestine's relationship to queerness. We continue to celebrate our culture and our existence alike as sites of resistance and liberation. Our queer and trans lives, which hold the legacies of our ancestors and cultural traditions, are the very embodiment of the future we are fighting for.
"We are here to shake queer and trans people and institutions with privilege and power awake, reminding them of our community's history of fighting for justice and liberation. We are here to reject the Israeli occupation's lies about being the pinnacle of progressive values and acceptance. We are here to say that that staying silent and complicit endangers the lives of queer and trans people. We are here to urge people to tap into their grief and humanity, to join us in fighting for a future in which we are all free."
No Pride in Genocide is demanding that queer organizations, like the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, the Trevor Project, etc; queer elected officials; and queer celebrities:
Publicly denounce the use of pinkwashing to justify the occupation and genocide of Palestinians;
Immediately BOYCOTT, DIVEST, AND SANCTION the systems and entities that enable the genocide, including severing ties with weapon manufacturers and donors profiteering off genocide;
Call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, to lift the siege and for all food, clean water, supplies, and medical support be allowed into Gaza; - Publicly denounce the increased surveillance the Israeli Occupation Forces use against Palestinian queers;
Call for the release of all political prisoners being held by the Israeli occupation;
Use their platforms to call for an end to all imperialism and occupation, from the river to the sea, from Turtle Island to Palestine.
Over the coming months, "No Pride in Genocide" will mobilize queer and trans people in the nation's capital and across the U.S. to put pressure on LGBTQ+ organizations and politicians who have remained silent in the face of the genocide.
The coalition also plans to create healing spaces, particularly for Arab and SWANA queer people, and has plans for cultural work to strengthen and deepen communities. Organizers will center the fact that sustaining the work of liberation requires space to grieve, revive, create, vision, and connect with one another.
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