LGBTQ Politicians Won’t Save Us

Pride is still a protest, especially when Pride is taking place during a genocide. On the morning of June 2, ACT UP NY continued its work in fighting back against pinkwashing and calling out mainstream LGBTQ organizations’ failures when it comes to Palestine with an action staged at Fire Island’s Trailblazer’s Park.

The Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association (FIPPOA) established the park as a permanent public space meant to honor queer and trans heroes with a display of flags bearing their faces. On June 1, a new flag was installed dedicated to Ritchie Torres, the U.S. representative for New York’s 15th congressional district.

While Torres is openly gay, he’s also a loud and proud Zionist and has bolstered the power of the NYPD in his district even while claiming to be in favor of police reform. FIPPOA’s decision to honor Torres as a “trailblazer” is built on the flawed idea that “representation” and one’s identities are the only markers of progress and radical change. That Torres is technically the  first openly gay public official in the Bronx is seemingly worthy of celebration and heroic honor in the eyes of FIPPOA. Never mind that his alliances with the NYPD in his home district and the IDF abroad go against everything true queer liberation stands for.

ACT UP NY made their voices heard on this matter by raising two flags of their own at the park: one for Cecilia Gentili, the trans activist, artist, and genuine trailblazer who died in February, and one for Queer Palestinians, symbolized by ACT UP NY’s SILENCE = DEATH watermelon insignia. The watermelon flag was hung in front of an existing ACT UP flag, though ACT UP NY notes that they were never contacted by FIPPOA about being honored at the ceremony in the first place. The purpose of installing these two alternate flags was to “rehabilitate the integrity of Trailblazers Park,” according to ACT UP NY.

By placing the watermelon version of the SILENCE = DEATH image in front of the existing ACT UP flag hung by FIPPOA, ACT UP NY pays tribute to the organization’s history while also expanding its legacy to encompass the current fight against Israel’s pinkwashing, occupation, and genocide. This move effectively recontextualizes the park as one that centers Palestinian liberation in its supposed message of LGBTQ+ progress and trailblazing. Members of ACT UP NY removed the flag for Ritchie Torres to replace it with the flag for Cecilia, who was one of the many LGBTQ activists to be arrested at the Grand Central station action organized by Jewish Voice for Peace on October 27, 2023 alongside other ACT UP leaders.

Cecilia Gentili represents the kind of true trailblazing efforts the park is supposedly meant to commemorate. “ACT UP NY is disappointed in FIPPOA for choosing to invoke the name of our organization without consulting or informing us,” reads a press release put out by ACT UP NY. “By not contacting us, they have confined our organization’s work to the past, using our name and image as a shorthand for Queer activism without sharing any of the radical values of present-day activists.”

ACT UP’s fight does not belong in the past. The organization has made it clear that its present fight is against war and genocide worldwide. Torres, meanwhile, has taken to Twitter to double down on his Zionism and make wild and racist claims about queer Palestinians that are easily debunked. “These activists openly align themselves with Hamas,” Torres wrote of ACT UP NY. “Did it ever occur to them that Hamas is a barbaric oppressor of Queer Palestinians? That a Queer Palestinian is far freer and safer in Israel than in a Gaza Strip ruled by Hamas.”

There is no evidence to support Torres’ claim that queer Palestinians would be safer in Israel, a place they don’t even have access to during the current genocide and had limited access to prior to October 2023 due to apartheid. Israel relies on pinkwashing to manufacture Western consent for its destruction of Palestine and violence against Palestinian people. To invoke violence by Hamas against Palestinians when over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since October 2023 is an absurd redirection when it’s clear based on evidence that, currently and historically, the greatest threat to Palestinian safety and life is the IDF.

On top of his Zionist and Palestinian views, Torres has been a roadblock to progress in his own district, speaking out against efforts to defund the police at a time when his own constituents are facing widespread police brutality. Having LGBTQ+ politicians in office does not always lead to queer and trans progress. With Torres, we see that on both a local and global scale. Words like “trailblazing” lose their meaning entirely when they’re applied to people like Torres, who through his words and legislative actions openly supports genocide. Openly being gay doesn’t negate any of that. As queer people, we should be outraged and appalled that a politician claiming to stand up for LGBTQ rights is actively condemning ACT UP NY, an organization that was at the forefront of one of the most important political movements in LGBTQ history. This Pride, we shouldn’t just be turning to politicians. We should be looking to the activists who are doing the real trailblazing.