ACT UP Protested Outside the GLAAD Media Awards in Support of Palestine
Alexa Wilkinson
A crowd of protestors gathered outside of the GLAAD Media Awards on Saturday, calling attention to the fact that the LGBTQ+ organization has not called for a ceasefire in Gaza, and criticizing its ties to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which they say “villainizes students and peaceful protestors who stand in support of Palestine.”
The protest was organized by the New York Chapter of ACT UP, according to a press release from the grassroots political group, and took place directly outside the entrance to the Midtown Hilton, effectively requiring most attendees to walk past the demonstrators in order to enter.
Speakers at the protest included organizers with ACT UP, queer Palestinian artists and activists, healthcare workers, and organizers working to aid Gazan refugees. Organizers with ACT UP also draped a 40-foot long banner, which read “NY ❤️ GAZA,” from the 42nd floor of the hotel.
After about an hour of demonstrating, the drag artists Chiquitita and DiDi Opulence were able to enter the ceremony when ACT UP obtained two wristbands for entry, as Entertainment Weekly reported. During Drag Race judge Ross Matthews’ opening speech, Chiquitita stood up and repeatedly yelled, “GLAAD is complicit in genocide.”
Both drag artists were escorted out of the venue. Chiquitita additionally told EW that a GLAAD representative tried to have a conversation with her about why the protest was misguided. In response, the drag artist told the entertainment outlet, “I don’t believe in neutrality, and I don’t think queer people are granted the privilege of neutrality ever, in any situation, in any country.”
When asked for comment on the action, a spokesperson for GLAAD told Them, “GLAAD does not support genocides or any murders of innocent people. We do support free speech.” The spokesperson added that the organization “tried to meet with ACT UP NY before Saturday, but they were not available until this week.”
In a statement included in ACT UP’s original press release, Noor, a queer Palestinian-Syrian artist and writer, said that “it goes without question to me that there’s no such thing as Queer liberation without the liberation of Palestine.”
“We fight for Palestine in honor of our Queer history and ancestors, for those Queer Palestinian siblings of ours living in Palestine, and for all those generations to come,” Noor said. “This violent, unjust oppression — apartheid, bombs, weapons, mass destruction, disabling and displacement of indigenous humans — does not discriminate.”
Although GLAAD issued a statement on October 16 of last year referencing “all those impacted by terrorism” and “the loss of civilian lives in Gaza and Israel,” the organization has not made a statement calling for a ceasefire. In addition to demanding that GLAAD call for an “immediate and lasting ceasefire,” ACT UP is also urging the organization — and the media in general — to platform queer and trans Palestinian stories and “oppose genocide, occupation, and apartheid,” per the press release.
ACT UP is also demanding that GLAAD cut ties with the ADL, which they say has mischaracterized the wave of student encampments and campus protests in support of Palestine. In April, the ADL issued a statement criticizing campus encampments, saying that “several protestors ... have expressed explicit support for Hamas terrorism and urged Hamas to commit further violence against Israel.” (The ADL’s characterization of anti-Zionist activism as antisemitism has led to internal tension within its staff, as the Guardian detailed earlier this year, leading to at least two resignations.) GLAAD and the ADL partnered in 2022 in order to better track anti-LGBTQ+ extremist incidents, and have jointly produced multiple reports since then.
Emmaia Gelman, a director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism and an ACT UP member since 1996, said via a statement in the press release that GLAAD’s partnership with the ADL represents a “betrayal of queer communities.”
“GLAAD can call attention to anti-LGBTQ violence without legitimating the ADL’s Center on Extremism, which smears Palestinian-, Jewish-, BIPOC-, and Queer-led social justice movements as ‘terror’ supporters,” Gelman said.
ACT UP New York previously demonstrated outside the Hilton Midtown in February, protesting against the Human Rights Campaign’s Greater New York Dinner. In that action, ACT UP demanded that HRC call for a ceasefire, and called attention to the group’s ties with weapons manufacturer Northrop Grumman, which is is listed as a “Platinum Partner” on the LGBTQ+ rights organization’s website.
The organization Queers for Liberation also began circulating a petition in December calling on LGBTQ+ organizations, including HRC and GLAAD, to call for a ceasefire in Gaza; at the time of publication, it has over 28,000 signatures. In January, ACT UP New York issued a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and endorsing the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign, which broadly encourages people and institutions to withdraw support from companies that financially support Israel.
Update 5/14/2024 6 P.M.: In an emailed statement, an ADL spokesperson said that the organization “is proud of its 111-year history of fighting all forms of hate including antisemitism and anti-LGBTQ+ hate.”
“It’s deeply troubling, especially as antisemitic incidents are skyrocketing, and when ADL is working to expose extremists amidst a surge in anti-LGBTQ+ hate, that such baseless claims would be made solely on ADL's belief in the right of Jewish self-determination and for the existence of the democratic state of Israel in its ancestral homeland,” the spokesperson said.
Separately, ACT UP organizer Ariel Friedlander disputed GLAAD’s timeline for the meeting the organization sought ahead of the awards ceremony.
In an email to Them, Friedlander said, “I think it is important to note that while GLAAD claims to have asked for a meeting with us before the event, one ACT UP member, Jason Rosenberg, was only reached out to the morning before on Friday around 10AM. Myself/ACT UP did not get an email invitation to meet until 3:50 P.M. on Friday.”
Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for Them’s weekly newsletter here.
Originally Appeared on them.
More Stories From Them on Queer Solidarity With Palestine
ACT UP Protested Outside the GLAAD Media Awards in Support of Palestine
6 LGBTQ+ Students on Queer Kinship at Pro-Palestine University Encampments
60+ LGBTQ+ Organizations Worldwide Call for Eurovision Boycott Over Its Inclusion of Israel
Sarah Schulman on ACT UP, Direct Action, and the Movement to Free Palestine
Protestors Demanding a Ceasefire in Gaza Interrupt Jill Biden Speech at HRC Dinner
Over 240 LGBTQ+ Artists Sign Open Letter Calling for Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza
Pro-Palestine Drag Race Queens Outraged By Viral Image of Their Names On An IDF Missile
Why Queer Solidarity With Palestine Is Not “Chickens for KFC”
LGBTQ+ Protestors Call Out Human Rights Campaign’s Ties to Weapons Manufacturer
