Bay Area drag artists and activists are calling for a boycott of San Francisco Pride due to concerns of over-policing and sponsorships from companies with business operations in Israel.
In a May 23 Instagram video, San Francisco-based Palestinian drag artist Mama Ganuush called for a boycott of SF Pride. They call out sponsors with “significant business operations” in Israel. Many of the named sponsors, like Apple, Salesforce, and Ikea, have offices or retail locations in Israel. Amazon, another sponsor called out in the video, has contracted its cloud services to the Israeli military as part of Project Nimbus.
Mama Ganuush also called out the choice of actor Billy Porter as SF Pride’s celebrity grand marshal and headlining performer. Porter, who starred in the TV show Pose and is slated to star in a biopic, has opposed Israeli boycotts, signed an open letter in support of Israel in the wake of the October 7 attacks, and called online backlash over his views “bullshit” in a Guardian profile while emphasizing that he is “supportive of a two-state solution.”
“I don’t feel safe as a Palestinian, and I’m asking people to boycott,” Mama Ganuush told Gazetteer SF. “I’m not asking people to attack, I’m asking people to stay safe and boycott an event that doesn’t represent queer voices, but represents corporate interests, conservative gay politicians, and conservative lobbyists and organizations.”
SF Pride did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Gazetteer SF regarding the call to boycott, but a day after we reached out, the organization published a lengthy statement on Instagram rejecting many of the claims in Mama Ganuush's video and inviting pro-Palestinian groups to the parade.
Allegations that SF Pride called for a heightened police presence, the organization said, were unfounded, adding that it does “not dictate law enforcement responses,” and denied that the organization referred to protestors as “terrorists.” Another allegation that Israel will have a float at Pride, widely circulated on social media, is untrue, they added. SF Pride also assured that sponsors wield “no influence over the content of our programming or the stance of the organization,” but did not comment on the selection of Porter as the parade’s grand marshal.
Still, the push to boycott San Francisco Pride — scheduled for June 29 and 30 — has gained traction.
Mama Celeste, the executive director of the wildly popular Oakland drag festival Oaklash — which just hosted Drag Race superstar Sasha Colby and popular drag king Landon Cider — told Gazetteer SF that the aim for the boycott is to build a “collective resistance against San Francisco Pride’s stance on this genocide.” Oaklash is the fiscal sponsor of a mutual aid fund called The BAD Fund for drag performers who pull out of SF Pride.
“Drag artists specifically have a really important role to play. Queer and trans artists have a really important role to play,” Mama Celeste said. “I think we've been used by corporations, by companies, by countries so they can glaze over and sanitize the things that they're doing.”
The Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits’ board and staff announced Tuesday that the group — which represents indigenous two-spirit individuals and is a longtime fixture at SF Pride — would not participate in any official events, including the parade, in an act of “solidarity with indigenous struggles impacting our kin nationwide.” (The organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Gazetteer SF.) Some vendors, including Los Angeles-based cannabis accessory maker and sex work activist Onyx Black, have pulled out despite losing money for doing so. Black explained that she registered for SF Pride, which includes a $500 non-refundable registration fee, back in January — but that the cost was worth it.
“I just assumed that San Francisco was already with it and that they were completely against anything that had to do with the genocide around the world because [in] San Francisco, Oakland, we know historically what those places have brought about,” Black said, invoking the Black Panther and the anti-war movements of the ’60s.
Drag performers are also pulling out, or refusing to work with SF Pride altogether. The Dragon King, a drag king and local event producer, has pulled out of scheduled events, writing on Instagram this week that they issued their “2 minutes notice” to SF Pride. Kai Gault, a staffer at Oakland nonprofit Homeless Action Center who performs as KaiKai Bee Michaels, also declined an invitation to perform for an SF Pride-affiliated event for VIPs at City Hall, she told Gazetteer SF.
“I decided not to do it because I was already really not feeling Pride, honestly, for a lot of years,” Gault explained. “I just couldn't, with the Bank of America floats and the aggressive, disgusting corporatization that I've been seeing Pride lean into over the years.”
Gault also expressed frustration with SF Pride referencing a joint May announcement from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security that “foreign terrorist organizations or supporters may seek to exploit increased gatherings” connected with Pride events. She worries that the messaging will target individuals who choose to protest at the parade or any other SF Pride events despite the organization’s assurances otherwise.
“The cops at Pride are a problem enough, and now having people looking out for quote-unquote terrorists when Republican, MAGA folks have been threatening us for years, and now all of a sudden, they care about terrorism at Pride,” she continued. “Are you kidding?”
Some on the fence are still opting to work with SF Pride, albeit with major caveats. Vamp, a popular queer and trans nightlife series hosting an official Pride afterparty and a stage at the Pride festival, announced on Instagram that it would donate all funds from its events to Palestinian organizations such as the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund and highlight queer Palestinian performers at its events. The group is also hosting a town hall to determine its approach to SF Pride.
Niko Storment, the executive director of Rosen Creative House, which produces Vamp, explained that the decision comes as a way to call for change within SF Pride while ensuring that drag artists who rely on the income of these events can be taken care of. Storment, who identifies as an anti-Zionist Jew, added that he had spoken with SF Pride executive director Suzanne Ford to express his concerns — and that she was receptive to conversation.
“I don’t know what's gonna happen next year, I don’t know what's gonna happen after our Vamp town hall, but I at least want to try to make these spaces what they should be and what they were founded upon,” he told Gazetteer SF.
SF Pride is no stranger to protest. In 2022, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Matt Dorsey, following the objections of city police, threatened to bow out of that year’s parade after the organization moved to ban uniformed police officers from marching. They ultimately participated following a compromise between SF Pride and San Francisco’s police union.
(At this point, it seems as if Dorsey and Breed have fully made amends with SF Pride: Both officials posed for photo ops with Ford, the SF Pride director, earlier this week during a flag-raising event at City Hall.)
But it seems likely that the call to boycott SF Pride will only intensify in the lead-up to the parade at the end of the month.
“Until San Francisco Pride works on real strategies for decreasing police involvement in their event and commits to the boycott, divestment, and sanction of Israeli companies, funders, and products, a statement isn't enough,” Mama Celeste said when asked about SF Pride’s statement.
