Ottawa Pride calls out Islamophobia, 'pink-washing' in 'solidarity' with Gaza ahead of parade

Ahead of Ottawa’s annual pride parade, the parade’s organizer, Capital Pride, has issued a "Statement in Solidarity with Palestine"—including accusing Israel of “ongoing genocide against Palestinians.”

This comes in the wake of numerous Canadian pride parades and festivals being disrupted, re-routed—and even ground to a halt—because of pro-Palestinian groups staging protests in the path of the celebrations. For instance, 30 protestors managed to end the Toronto Pride parade entirely by sitting in the middle of the parade route, with signs that included “Pride partners with genocide.” In Victoria, BC, Pride was re-routed when anti-Israel activists used the same tactics. And just last week, Vancouver’s parade, too, ended early because of pro-Palestinian protests. In Halifax, the disruptions ended with parade goers and protestors shoving one another.

Capital Pride will run its annual Ottawa Pride festivities beginning August 17, with their main parade ending the festival on August 25.

The group insists that their statement is necessary because “the violence and instability we are witnessing around the globe have had far-reaching impacts on many members of local communities.” They have not issued statements on any other current global geopolitical conflicts.

“[W]e cannot stay silent in the face of Israel’s endless and brutal campaign in Gaza and mounting violence in the West Bank,” reads their statement. The group names four actions they promise to take, including reviewing sponsors against the Palestinian BDS National Committee’s boycott list (a group that insists “virtually all” Israeli companies are “complicit”); holding a “Queer Arab Showcase”; accusing Israel of genocide in the festival’s opening remarks; and making demands for a ceasefire and “the immediate release of all hostages.” 

The group wrote: “Part of the growing Islamophobic sentiment we are witnessing is fuelled by the pink-washing of the war in Gaza and racist notions that all Palestinians are homophobic and transphobic. By portraying itself as a protector of the rights of queer and trans people in the Middle East, Israel seeks to draw attention away from its abhorrent human rights abuses against Palestinians.” A 2019 poll by Arab Barometer, meanwhile, revealed that only five percent of Palestinians living in the West Bank considered homosexuality “acceptable”—meaning that 95 percent of Palestinians would likely disapprove of pride parades. Homosexual sex is currently illegal in Gaza, and Hamas has referred to United Nations attempts to change attitudes towards the LGBT community in the country as “deviance and moral decay.”

Capital Pride’s move to cater to pro-Palestinian activists ahead of their parade is being met with backlash both by Jewish communities and by critics who see it as an obvious attempt to forestall disruptions to their events. 

B’nai Brith Canada, a Canadian Jewish advocacy group, has accused Capital Pride of “glaring hypocrisy between their professed commitment to inclusivity and their divisive practices” in a post on X. “Despite claiming to stand in solidarity, Capital Pride’s actions have further marginalized Jewish LGBTQ+ members, who are already deeply affected by the rising tide of anti-Jewish hate in society,” they posted.

Similarly, Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs condemned Capital Pride and has urged the group to issue an apology to the Jewish community. On X, the group posted: “Claims of 'pink-washing' and accusing Jews and Israelis of insidiously feigning queer rights in order to divert attention from the conflict between Hamas and Israel is morally reprehensible and employs some of the oldest antisemitic tropes in the book. Gender and sexually diverse Jews and Israelis have been isolated from the global queer community for too long as they fight for recognition, marriage equality, trans-affirming healthcare, societal support and more – like other queer people around the world.”