Pinkwashing Exposed: Seattle Fights Back

“Pinkwashing” is a term activists have coined for when countries engaged in terrible human rights violations promote themselves as “gay friendly” to improve their public image. Israel is the country most famous for this strategy, having initiated it as part of a rebranding campaign in which has been engaged in for the last decade to distract from the human rights abuses it is committing against Palestinians. Made in Seattle, on Duwamish Land, PINKWASHING EXPOSED: SEATTLE FIGHTS BACK! explores how pinkwashing works and what activists are doing to fight back.

In 2012, activists in the Pacific Northwestern region of the US responded to an Israeli Consulate-funded pinkwashing tour that featured gay and lesbian Israeli activists. Local queer Palestinian solidarity activists exposed the “Rainbow Generations” tour as pro-Israel propaganda, resulting in the cancellation of some of the events, including the tour’s centerpiece event hosted by the City of Seattle’s LGBT Commission. A significant backlash ensued involving the Seattle City Council and Seattle’s leading LGBT and HIV organizations.