feature image photo by SAJJAD HUSSAIN / Contributor via Getty Images

Over 240 LGBTQ+ artists across arts and culture industries have signed an open letter, as Them initially reported, calling for a permanent ceasefire in Palestine and condemning Israel for the ongoing genocide as well as the pinkwashing propaganda campaigns that have been used to bolster oppression of Palestinians. The letter also crucially includes a commitment to boycotting Israel. As the letter puts it:

Today, we demonstrate our solidarity with Palestinians by pledging not to perform or participate in public events in Israel until Palestinians are free. We believe that showing our work in Israel would dishonor the radical histories of queer activism and self-expression, which stand opposed to violent systems like apartheid and military occupation. Palestinians remind us that none of us are free until we are all free. That “queer liberation is fundamentally tied to the dreams of Palestinian liberation: self-determination, dignity, and the end of all systems of oppression.” We will continue to speak out for Palestine, to educate ourselves, and to uplift Palestinian voices.

Open letters and statements of course can be meaningful on their own, but it’s the ones that have commitments to action — such as the stated boycott of events in Israel in this Queer Artists for Palestine letter — that carry the most weight. In history, we saw how the cultural and academic boycott of South Africa moved the needle on ending apartheid. A cultural boycott is similarly an arm of the BDS movement. “Israel celebrates visits by international artists as a sign of support for its policies,” as the BDS website explains.

Among the signatories are Indya Moore and Kehlani, who have been seen at many protests and actions over the past couple months. Moore was arrested last month as part of a Jewish Voice for Peace sit-in at Grand Central station in New York City alongside Cecilia Gentili, who is also a signatory.

The letter comes from artists across the music, performance, film/television, and literature industries. All three members of the band MUNA and all three members of boygenius also signed on along with several past cast members of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Authors and poets include Michelle Tea, Fariha Róisín, Zeba Blay, and more.

Fatimah Asghar, whose brilliant essay on the links between queer liberation and Palestinian liberation was republished today on Autostraddle, is also a signatory. I recommend reading their essay in full and holding it in mind when reading through the open letter and its list of names, because it really gets to the heart of why a specifically queer call to solidarity and action is not only necessary but a part of queerness itself. As Asghar puts it: “It is our duty as queer people to show up, and to show what being queer really means.”

Being queer means standing against oppression, against the dehumanization of a people, and certainly against genocide.