Bay Area group hosts cabaret event to support drag queens boycotting San Francisco Pride ‘in solidarity with Palestine’

This comes in response to a boycott effort of this year's Bay Area Pride celebration by pro-Palestinian LGBTQ activists and community members, saying that there's "No pride in genocide."

The "Cabaret Palestina" fundraising event was hosted in Oakland by anti-Israel activist Mama Ganuush, a Palestinian African transgender drag artist. All proceeds went to the BAD Fund, which is a mutual aid fund for San Francisco drag artists. The BAD Fund was created to provide financial assistance to drag performers who "withdraw their labor in solidarity with Palestine, providing more financial security for those who are not aligning themselves with oppressors," according to Queer In Oakland.

The event included drag artists such as King LOTUS BOY and Papi Churro, per KQED. The BAD Fund stated that SF Pride's list of sponsors for 2024 includes those from the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) list.

The Cabaret Palestina joins a long list of alternative options for this year's Pride festivities that show solidarity with Palestinian activism. During the annual San Francisco Pride Parade, there will be a pro-Palestinian queer and trans march hosted by controversial radical leftist groups such as Jewish Voices for Peace, Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism, and the Brass Liberation Orchestra, according to the outlet.

However, not all Bay Area LGBTQ community members are on board with the Pride boycott.

San Francisco Pride released a statement and wrote: "While we encourage resistance against oppressive systems and governments that fail to recognize our humanity as queer people, we cannot achieve liberation by fighting other queer and trans people."

Mama Celeste, the executive director of Oaklash, a drag festival based in Oakland, pushed back on SF Pride and said that the organizers "should be listening rather than resisting these voices who are telling them that they're doing something wrong."