Speech by Emmaia Gelman
We’re out here to say NO to GLAAD’s despicable pinkwashing of the ADL. The ADL is a right-wing, racist organization that is pushing for the genocide of Palestinians. The ADL says it advocates for civil rights, but it has a long history of attacking us. It is spreading disinformation about anti-genocide protests that are led by brave Palestinian, Jewish, and queer students. It has called us terrorists. It has called for violent policing of protest. The ADL is pushing legislation to criminalize us, bills that smear antiracist protesters as “antisemites” or “terror supporters”. Because the ADL is an over the top dramatic b****, it claims that anti-Zionism is hate speech. It claims Keffiyehs are like swastikas. It claims protesting Israel means “calling for genocide.” SHAME on the ADL, SHAME on GLAAD.
The ADL attacks critical race theory and ethnic studies, joining with the Christian Right in saying that teaching history is harmful to white students, and that teaching Palestinian perspectives is antisemitic and — not kidding — “Soviet propaganda.” SHAME on the ADL, and SHAME on GLAAD.
For the last two years GLAAD has partnered with the ADL to count anti-queer hate crimes. But ADL stats are notoriously racist and unreliable — not just because they count anti-Zionist protest as “hate”. But also because ADL stats diminish violence against BIPOC people. They diminish violence against poor people. They don’t bother to count police violence. They equate anti-Black racism with anti-white resentment. They equate anti-poor violence with anti-rich resentment. They treat all violence as the same, in order to hide who has power and who does not. And to tell us we need more policing instead of more justice.
GLAAD is supposed to be teaching the media *not* to do violence! We demand that GLAAD drop the ADL.
In the midst of the genocide, GLAAD sent its “extremism expert” Sarah Moore to speak at the ADL’s annual conference, alongside Jared Kushner who had just called Gaza “valuable real estate.” GLAAD pinkwashed this ADL event which claims, year after year, that Palestinians resisting colonization are really just “antisemites and terrorists”. That we who oppose colonialism are just haters, and that Israel’s genocide of Palestinians is really “self-defense”. Queer communities want nothing to do with such racist state violence. Queers are resisting such violence. GLAAD has no right to link queer safety to such violence.
The ADL pretends to be a civil rights group, BUT it has attacked antiracism, from Black power to Black Lives Matter. It has attacked anti-apartheid movements, from South Africa to Palestine. The ADL attacks Jewish movements against Zionism and against genocide. The ADL attacks queer movements whenever we stand against racism and state violence. That’s why 500 social justice organizations say DropTheADL. ACT UP & Black & Pink say drop the ADL. The National Lawyers Guild & Center for Constitutional Rights say drop the ADL. DSA says drop the right-wing ADL. The Movement for Black Lives, Desis Rising Up and Moving, and Mijente say drop the racist, anti-immigrant ADL. If Not Now, Jewish Voice for Peace, and JFREJ say drop the ADL. Writers Against the War on Gaza say drop the disinformation-spreading ADL.
GLAAD and other big NGOs have been doing the same shit for a long time in the name of queer safety. The LGBTQ hate crimes bill they passed also funded wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. SHAME. We must stop linking queer safety to racist state violence. We demand GLAAD stop linking queer safety to colonial violence. The dangers stretch from Palestine to NYC. Queers are Black, Brown, indigenous, Palestinian, Muslim, Jewish, anti-Zionist. The ADL attacks us all, and GLAAD pinkwashes those attacks.
ACT UP has shown incredible leadership in connecting these issues. Our queerness is not defined by the violence directed at us, nor by counting those incidents. Our queerness is defined by resistance to repression, resistance to racism, resistance to lies, resistance to genocide, resistance to the ADL.
Free Palestine.
Read more and sign on to #DropTheADL at droptheadl.org