Why Is This Year’s Pride Parade Different? – OpEd

LGBTQ+ Jews will never forget the first time they marched in a Pride Parade stated Nate Looney and Ethan Felson. We stood proudly on the shoulders of LGBTQ+ Jewish giants such as the politician Harvey Milk and marriage equality pathbreaker Edie Windsor, who both helped build the LGBTQ rights movement.;

But today, we're not certain a young LGBTQ+ Jew would be able to do the same given the hostility and violence that has been directed toward Jews since the war in Gaza. ;

Would one of us — or a;future;Harvey Milk or Edie Windsor — be heckled and targeted for marching with a Jewish pride flag? Would a young Jew seeking to connect to their LGBTQ+ identity for the first time have their Pride taken away? ;

In the wake of the terrorist attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 and the war that followed, many of the marches this year will be infused with anti-Israel slogans. The DC Dyke March has taken up the banner "Dykes Against Genocide" as its overarching theme.;Floats and banners planned for other parades read, "No pride in genocide."

Polling data show that;the vast majority of U.S. Jews think Israel is an important part of their identity and support its existence as a Jewish state. Most of us roundly reject the use an inflammatory rhetorical slur — that Israel is committing genocide — that has been disproven time and again.; ;

The Jewish community is already being overwhelmed by a tide of antisemitism and anti-Zionism.;Between the terrorist attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 and the end of 2023, ADL counted more than;5,000 antisemitic incidents.;That is more than occurred throughout the entire previous year.;;

More than half of these (2,718) included references to Israel, Zionism or Palestine. In other words, Jews here were targeted and harmed for actions taken by leaders in another country. That's not OK. It's no wonder that LGBTQ+ Jews feel anxious coming to Pride this year.;;

 Jews have historically been and remain an integral part of the Queer community. In the Pew survey of Jewish Americans in 2020, about 9% of U.S. Jewish adults reveal they identify as LGBTQ+, a larger percentage than the roughly 6% of all American adults who identified as LGBTQ+ in a 2020 Gallup poll.;;

In a sobering reminder of the continuing vulnerability of those identified with the LGBTQ+ community, the State Department, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security have all issued warnings of a heightened threat of terrorist attacks and other violence at this month's Pride events.;

But this year, LGBTQ+ Jews are bracing for disruption, harassment, and the potential for violence, not just from outside actors, but also from some of the Pride parade organizers and our fellow marchers. ;