Who is the oppressed and the oppressor?

“There’s no pride in genocide,” read an LGBTQ flag at a Philadelphia gay pride parade early this month. An anti-Israel group called Queers for Palestine blocked the parade’s progression, their throng of members carrying pro-Palestinian propaganda and chanting “Palestine will live forever” into megaphones. 

In a statement on Instagram, the group called on those in attendance at the parade to “denounce Capitalism Colonialism and Empire as anti-queer” and accused Israel of committing a “Holocaust” in Gaza. Supporting LGTBQ rights, none of which are lacking in the United States today, isn’t good enough for the perpetually outraged.   

Anti-Israel protestors like these are often hateful and seemingly incapable of reason, refusing to engage in dialogue and shouting the same exact phrases repeatedly. Pro-Palestine keyboard warriors flood influencer posts with watermelon and flag emojis if Palestine isn't mentioned. They terrorize those who don’t align with their activism, bullying people out of their spaces as they did TikTok star Elyse Myers. 

In person, it’s worse. In the clips from Philly, they can be seen wearing keffiyahs and holding LGBTQ flags stained with artificial blood, insinuating the movement is guilty of condoning “genocide.” Their boldness increases by the day.

At a New York City parade last week, a man held a sign that read, “Kill the hostages now.” Earlier this year, a woman told the Bakersfield City Council, “We’ll see you at your house, we’ll murder you.” College students proudly declare alliance with Hamas, and 3 of 4 Palestinians believe the Oct. 7 attack on Israel was right. In the United States, they shout “From the river to the sea,” knowing that such a reality would eliminate Israel entirely. They even walked out on Jewish actor Jerry Seinfeld just for signing an open letter denouncing Hamas’ attack on innocent Israelis.

On Oct. 7, Hamas slaughtered parents in front of their children, rape-tortured women, decapitated and pulled lifeless Israeli bodies through the streets to cheers. If members of Queers for Palestine had been on the ground, they would be dead (or worse) just for being gay. If Hamas knew of this group, they would end them without a second thought. 

And that’s the real genocide. Israel defending itself after being brutally attacked by Hamas is survival. In Palestine and other Middle Eastern countries, it’s illegal to be gay and may end in death. That is not true in Israel. How does that fit the progressivist worldview?

Arab-Israeli citizens have had the right to vote in Israel since 1949. They sit on the Supreme Court and over 130,000 Palestinians worked in the country until the war began. Apartheid and genocide are not words that describe Israel. 

But being part of the Free Palestine movement offers another identity layer for the ideologues. People have achieved LGBTQ rights and lost faith in God, so they place that energy into false political and identity movements. With each new marginalized identity claimed or “powerless” group championed, they believe they prove their worth. One more sacrifice to the gods of social justice. Progressivism is such a works-based religion. 

The progressivist message to the intersectional queens who disrupted the Philly parade: You can’t support LGTBQ rights if you don’t also want to end capitalism, fight the patriarchy, and free Palestine. Like a priest with no parish, your “queer bona fides” aren’t any good here without it. 

Being pro-LGBTQ is no longer rough in America. After all, now that gay people and their behavior have been fully accepted into mainstream culture, they have little need for the pride parades of yesteryear. Those parades served their purpose. Gay marriage is legal. You’re now more demonized if you adhere to a Christian sexual ethic than if you don’t. 

You would think that reaching the pinnacle of secular acceptance would be grounds for celebration on the left, but much of progressivism is a movement without a cause. That’s why we’ve seen transgender activism surge and overlapping social justice causes spilling into Pride month. These desperate attempts at relevance and meaning have left some members of the LGBTQ community fighting for the very people who would simply erase them altogether. Do they even pause to notice that fact?