NEW YORK — More than 300 people who protested outside an Outright International gala on Monday criticized the organization for its “silence and refusal to use” its network “and advocacy to provide immediate relief to Palestinians” who remain in the Gaza Strip.

Members of ACT UP, the Audre Lorde Project and other groups who were outside Pier 60 in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood handed out flyers that read “Israel bombs queers” and “no Pride in genocide” as gala attendees arrived. A press release notes upwards of 100 people held a “die-in” for 241 seconds “to signify the 241 days of Israel’s bombardment of Palestine.”

Actor Billy Porter is among those who Outright International honored at the gala.

Protest organizers in their press release noted Porter “signed onto a statement in support of the Zionist state of Israel” after Hamas, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization, launched its surprise attack against southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The press release also criticized Porter over his “problematic comments in which he rebuffed James Baldwin’s anti-Zionist, pro-Palestinian stance while claiming to be the best person to direct and star in Baldwin’s biopic.”

ACT UP further reiterated its demands for Outright International, which advocates for LGBTQ and intersex rights around the world.

• Amplify the struggle to decolonize Palestine

• Support local LGBTIQ Palestinian orgs with funding

• Advocate at the United Nations to stop US-supported human rights violations

• Disclose and divest from funders with links to Israel

Outright International on Oct. 27 publicly called for a ceasefire in Gaza. Maria Sjödin, the group’s executive director, on Monday noted the protest during their speech at the gala.

“Activism for a better world takes many forms, and that is a great thing,” said Sjödin. “One of those forms is to protest and some of you saw this action on the way in.”

The Washington Blade attended the gala, and saw some attendees wearing keffiyahs and watermelon patches that have emerged as symbols of Palestinian solidarity since the war between Israel and Hamas began after Oct. 7. Gala attendees cheered when Sjödin said Outright International “supports a peaceful protest without any reservation.” 

“Outright supports the spirit of the protest to bring attention to the loss of human lives,” they said.

The Israeli government says Hamas militants killed roughly 1,200 people on Oct. 7, including at least 260 partygoers and others at the Nova Music Festival. The Israeli government on Tuesday said roughly 80 people who were taken hostage on Oct. 7 remain alive in the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says more than 35,000 people have died in the enclave since the war began.

The International Criminal Court on May 20 announced it plans to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders — Yehya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh. Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, said the five men have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and Israel. 

“The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous,” said President Joe Biden in a May 20 statement. “Let me be clear: Whatever this prosecutor (Khan) might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday by a 247-155 vote margin approved a bill that would sanction the ICC. Forty-two Democrats supported the measure.

U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), who is a vocal supporter of Israel, on Sunday in an X post said “anti-Israel activists tore down the flag honoring me” on Fire Island as the first gay Afro-Latino person elected to Congress and “instead put up a flag honoring queer Palestinians.” The New York Democrat in another message wrote that ACT UP New York “proudly admits to illegally vandalizing the flag honoring me.”

Pro-Palestine protesters on Sunday disrupted the Philadelphia Pride March.

The annual D.C. Dyke March, which will be called Dykes Against Ge(NO)cide this year, will take place in Lafayette Park on Friday. A “Stop the Genocide” protest is scheduled to occur in front of the White House on Saturday at noon.

The Capital Pride Parade will begin three hours later at 14th and T Streets, N.W. Porter is among those who are scheduled to perform at the Capital Pride Festival that will take place on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., on Sunday.

The Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity and the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights are among the groups on Tuesday that demanded Pride parade and national LGBTQ rights groups “immediately ban the corporations responsible for fueling the genocide in Gaza and worldwide colonial violence from sponsoring or participating in Pride events.” The organizations also released a set of demands that include:

• Ban weapons manufacturers from both participation in and sponsorship of Pride events.  
• Support Palestinians and their resistance efforts. 
• Condemn and work to dismantle pinkwashing and homonationalism. 
• Call for an immediate, permanent ceasefire and an end to arming Israel. 
• Cut ties with all organizations that profit from war, detention, and incarceration, environmental destruction, and displacement. 
• Ban police from marching and participating in Pride, and denounce state violence. 

“Over the past eight months, queer and trans people have been at the forefront of mobilizing for a liberated Palestine,” said Firas Nasr, a nonbinary activist and organizer who is based in D.C., in a press release. “Yet Pride organizations — and national LGBTQIA+ orgs that claim to represent our community — have largely remained silent while championing corporations behind the genocide.”

Nasir is among the upwards of 200 people who marched from Dupont Circle to the Human Rights Campaign in February and called upon it and other LGBTQ rights organizations to “demand an end to genocide and occupation of Palestine.” No Pride in Genocide organized the protest.