Major LGBTQ confab maintains ‘Zionism-free space’ at conference event
One planned session — a meeting of queer Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) attendees — is explicitly defining itself as a 'Zionism-free space.'

Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
Members of various Jewish organizations walk in the NYC Pride March on Sunday, June 30, 2024, in New York.
Next week in Las Vegas, thousands of LGBTQ activists will gather for the annual Creating Change conference, a major confab hosted by the National LGBTQ Task Force. The driving value for the event’s organizers, according to the conference website, is “radical welcome: love, curiosity and respect for each other and our LGBTQ family.”
But the gathering has already drawn controversy for being unwelcoming to some attendees, with one planned session — a meeting of queer Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) attendees — explicitly defining itself as a “Zionism-free space.” (Ironically, the description of the event says it welcomes “queer individuals from diverse MENA backgrounds,” including “Mizrahi” people, which is a Hebrew word used in Israel to describe Jews from Middle Eastern and North African nations.)
The event is one of dozens of small caucus meetings happening for different identity groups and interest areas at the conference. There is also an “Oy, gay” event for Jewish attendees and a Shabbat dinner, as well as a discussion about “pinkwashing,” to teach attendees about the “tactic used to obscure Israeli militarism and occupation by presenting a narrow view of LGBT rights.” The organization hosting the MENA event and the pinkwashing event, a New York nonprofit called Tarab NYC that supports Arab and Middle Eastern LGBTQ individuals, called the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks a “military operation targeting settlements near the besieged Gaza.”
The approval of a “Zionism-free space” — even if it’s just a small gathering hosted by an independent organization — at a conference focused on inclusion has raised alarm bells among some Jewish LGBTQ advocates.
“There’s these lines that are drawn for people who call themselves tolerant,” said Mike Rogers, a media executive who served as the director of development at the National LGBTQ Task Force in the late 1990s. He estimates that he’s attended the conference 17 or 18 times over the years, but he no longer does.
“I don’t go to the conference anymore. I’m uncomfortable as a Jew,” said Rogers, who was at the Creating change Conference in Chicago in 2016, when a Shabbat dinner hosted by the organization A Wider Bridge, which builds ties between the LGBTQ communities in Israel and the United States, was disrupted and forced to shut down by 200 anti-Israel protesters. “I have no desire to go back,” Rogers added. (The Shabbat dinner had initially been canceled by the Task Force, which reinstated it after facing protests from progressive Jewish activists.)
Known simply as “the Task Force,” the organization is on the left flank of the LGBTQ movement, well to the left of the better-known Human Rights Campaign. But the Creating Change Conference is an important event for people working in the LGBTQ space. Its sponsors include Everytown for Gun Safety, AAA, Hilton and Comcast. Representatives for each of those sponsors did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
The Task Force’s communications director, Cathy Renna, told Jewish Insider on Monday that the organization aims to create a welcoming environment at the Creating Change conference, and that Zionists are included in its “broad tent.”
“All are welcome at Creating Change, where we have clear guidelines for how we treat each other, with respect and equity,” Renna said. “Creating Change is a gathering that encompasses a broad tent of people who are willing to have challenging conversations. Even when it is messy and challenging, and it often is, our people recommit to being in principled struggle with each other on all the issues that impact our communities.”
Ethan Felson, executive director of A Wider Bridge, said he is aware of conversations among senior Task Force leaders about how “to navigate this issue more deftly than in the past,” according to Felson. “We need to be in conversation and to see what steps they take before determining what steps we need to take. Hope springs eternal, but we don’t stand on the sidelines when we’re told we’re not welcome.” Renna declined to say if the organization is considering taking action regarding the Middle East event.
Seeing a “Zionism-free space” on the conference agenda didn’t come as a shock to Jewish activists who had watched an intolerant, anti-Zionist faction take hold within the organization and its annual conference.
“There is a long history of Jews and other supporters of Israel feeling that Creating Change is not a safe space, emotionally or physically,” said Felson. The 2016 incident prompted an uproar among many LGBTQ Jews and their allies. An open letter slamming the conference’s handling of the protest garnered signatories from figures including Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, an LGBTQ synagogue in New York; Roberta Kaplan, a civil rights attorney who argued a major gay rights case before the Supreme Court; and Idit Klein, executive director of Keshet, which works to promote equality for LGBTQ Jews.
“It is intellectually, politically and morally dishonest to claim that in the name of freedom, liberation, or some other progressive ideal, there is a right to target and exclude Jewish/Israeli groups, to foment physical intimidation and harassment, and to encourage anti-Semitism,” the signatories wrote.
Three years later, in 2019, a group of activists with Palestinian flags interrupted the introductory session of the Creating Change Conference with a 13-minute protest against Zionism. The first speaker in the protest criticized the Anti-Defamation League.
In January 2024, the Task Force released a statement calling for a cease-fire and an end to “the genocide in Gaza,” writing that “the roots of this conflict are based in fascism, white supremacy, and colonialism.” The statement did not mention the hostages in Gaza.
Felson declined to say whether A Wider Bridge would be represented at the conference this year. Tyler Gregory, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area and A Wider Bridge’s former executive director, told JI the Task Force is “largely not taken seriously by mainstream LGBTQ organizations because of its incompetence reigning in rogue participants and tolerance for hatred of Jews.”
Keshet, meanwhile, has taken a different approach; as a leader in the conference’s faith programming, the organization has made the decision not to distance itself from Creating Change, despite some of the controversy surrounding Israel.
“We’re not going to agree with every session. We are hosting a Jewish caucus that is at the same time as multiple other caucuses,” said Jon Cohen, Keshet’s director of community mobilization. “There is something for everyone at this conference, but every single thing is not going to be for everyone.”
The Task Force has “really treated us with respect and wanted to know our opinions, and [has] really made us feel a part of the community,” said Cohen, who added that Keshet’s decision to continue working with the Task Force does not mean it condones the MENA event happening next week.
“Keshet is very dismayed by the existence of the ‘Zionism-free’ space. We believe such political litmus tests are harmful and that exclusionary organizing spaces are counter to both the strategy and spirit that Keshet believes in,” he said. “Our programs at Creating Change will be welcoming of all people regardless of views on Israel and Palestine.”
Like other progressive spaces, parts of the LGBTQ community have faced criticism for excluding Zionist voices following the 2023 Hamas attacks that sparked a war in Gaza, even though the trend dates back years earlier. An international membership organization for global LGBTQ groups suspended Israel’s umbrella group for the LGBTQ community in October. Several Pride parades in the U.S. were disrupted last summer by anti-Israel protesters.