For 24 years, I have been an LGBTQ activist, adviser and consultant, fighting for equality, inclusivity and the protection of our community. The word disappointment is a painful understatement regarding witnessing the LGBTQ movement so willfully betray its own principles—a chief criminal culprit being the Dyke March. Once again, this so-called progressive event has chosen to champion discrimination under the guise of activism—this time, by explicitly banning Zionists from participation.
The Dyke March’s public stance against Zionism is nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on Jewish identity. Zionism is not a political buzzword or an optional belief; it is an intrinsic part of Jewish self-determination—an ancient movement for the Jewish people’s sovereignty in their indigenous homeland of Israel.
The vast majority of Jews worldwide see Zionism as a core part of their identity. Yet the leadership of the Dyke Marc has deliberately chosen to exclude and vilify Jews and allies, engaging in the very bigotry participants claim to oppose.
As informed and aware people share their heads in disbelief of the mind-twisting, illogical and shocking anti-Zionist anti-Jew behaviors within the LGBTQ movement, I will try to add some clarity here for those who do not understand the facts. I call it, “What the fact?!”
The New York Dyke March claims to be “committed to Palestinian liberation just as to LGBTQ rights” as it bans Zionists. The organizers say this move reflects a commitment to the “community’s values against Zionism, racism and anti-LGBTQ hatred.” Clarity: The march is not engaging in meaningful advocacy for Palestinians. It is not providing aid, lobbying for policy changes or contributing to peace efforts. Instead, it is indulging in performative activism that does nothing for Palestinians but everything to demonize Jews. Its focus is not on helping Palestinians but on hating Israel and, by extension, Jews.
This is not an isolated incident. We have seen Jews marginalized on college campuses, in progressive activist spaces and in Hollywood. We have seen social media flooded with anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda straight from the playbook of Islamist extremists who openly call for genocide against Jews. The Dyke March is merely a repeat offender as the latest in a long line of groups weaponizing social justice rhetoric to justify antisemitism.
It is impossible to give the march the benefit of the doubt. They know exactly what they are doing. This is not ignorance—it is intentional. They have engaged in this exclusionary discrimination before, and they are doing it again, fully aware that anti-Zionism is merely antisemitism rebranded.
What makes their hypocrisy even more grotesque is that any genuine LGBTQ activist should recognize Israel’s role as the only safe haven for LGBTQ people in the Middle East. Israel is the only country in the region where LGBTQ people have legal protections, the freedom to marry and the ability to live openly. It is also the only country that actively provides asylum and refuge for LGBTQ individuals fleeing persecution in neighboring countries where being gay is punishable by death. And yet, the Dyke March has chosen to side with oppressive regimes that brutalize LGBTQ people rather than stand with the only Middle Eastern nation that protects them.
Moreover, their exclusion of Zionists directly violates the city permit under which the march operates. It is a public event, yet it is openly engaging in bigotry, exclusion and racism. If this were any other form of discrimination—whether banning people based on race, gender identity or sexual orientation—the outcry would be deafening. But because it targets Jews, it is tolerated and even celebrated within certain activist circles.
This betrayal of the LGBTQ movement’s values is nothing new. In 2017, the Chicago Dyke March expelled participants for carrying rainbow flags with the Star of David. In 2019, the Washington, D.C. Dyke March banned Israeli and American flags while permitting Palestinian ones. In 2024, the Dyke March and joint Queer Liberation activists ignored the plight of Jewish and Israel victims of Islamist terror on and since Oct. 7, 2023, including LGBTQ people who were raped, brutalized, kidnapped and murdered—and expressed complete support of the Islamist groups who are the same groups that criminalize and kill LGBTQ people. Now, in 2025, the New York Dyke March has made its antisemitism official policy by formally banning Zionists.
In response to this disgraceful decision, former organizers have launched “Shalom Dyke”—a space for Jewish lesbians and queer individuals who refuse to be erased. This counter-movement is a necessary step, but the larger problem remains: The LGBTQ movement is being hijacked by those who see Jewish exclusion as an acceptable price for their ideological purity tests.
I have been calling out the antisemitism in the LGBTQ and progressive movements for nearly a decade. I have witnessed the groundswell of anti-Jewish hatred, often funded by Islamist manipulators, within the movements that are supposed to be about diversity, inclusion, tolerance, acceptance and equality. Apparently, these movements are not meant to represent everyone, as if equality and rights are not meant for everyone, specifically Jews.
The Dyke March organizers claim to stand against “racism and anti-LGBTQ hatred,” yet they are actively engaging in both. If they truly cared about LGBTQ lives, they would focus on advocating for real change, not policing Jewish identity. Their stance is not about justice. It is about hate. And it is time the LGBTQ community called them out for it.
