Pro-Palestinian protesters recently disrupted the NOLA Pride Parade on June 8. A coalition of nine advocacy groups called the People’s Coalition for Palestine conducted a protest rally at the steps fronting Jackson Square just before the parade started. About 100 people attended the rally, which featured speakers from each of the coalition organizations. Those organizations are: Queer and Trans Community Action Project, Renters Rights Assembly, Tulane and Loyola Students for a Democratic Society, Sunrise Movement New Orleans, Jewish Voice for Peace, New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports, Krewe of Chickpea, and NOLA Musicians for Palestine. Protesters held signs that read “No Pride in Genocide,” “Down with Corporate Pride,” “Cops Don’t Belong at Pride,” and “Fuck Shell & Bayer.”
As the parade inched its way down Decatur Street, several protesters interrupted the parade and caused it to stop for about fifteen minutes as they staged a “die-in” to raise awareness about the NOLA Pride Parade’s corporate sponsors’ support for Israel’s war in Gaza. In an unrelated article about Northshore Pride by Lucas Harrell, Blu DiMarco, a member of QTCAP, said, “Corporations don’t care about queer identity or culture, instead they use us, and pride parades, as a means for profit.”
Objecting in general to the parade’s corporate sponsorship, the coalition specifically targeted Shell and Bayer. The state of Israel has purchased 260 thousand tons of crude oil to fuel its war effort and Bayer manufactures a pesticide it sells to Israel, which uses it to render Palestinian land unsuitable for agriculture. Organizer Willem Myers, of Sunrise New Orleans, also said Bayer supports illegal Israeli settlements. Participants in the “die-in” left when the New Orleans Police Department issued a dispersal order, and no one was arrested. Myers noted, “We created enough agitation for it to be meaningful, but not dangerous for those involved.”
Spectator reaction was mixed and ranged from confusion, amusement, anger, and bewilderment.” Myers believed many people probably initially assumed they were far-right Christian fundamentalists—another group that regularly protests queer events.
