LGBTQ campaigners denounce Eurovision 'pinkwashing' ahead of final

LGBTQ campaigners denounce Eurovision 'pinkwashing' ahead of final Submitted by Alex MacDonald on Thu, 05/14/2026 - 16:56 Queer campaigners say LGBTQ community should boycott Saturday's final over Gaza genocide Spectators wearing raincoats in rainbow colours gather at the fan area in front of the City Hall in Vienna on 14 May 2026, prior to the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest (Max Slovencik / APA / AFP) Off Queer activists have accused the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) of "pinkwashing" Israel ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest final on Saturday. Thursday evening's show included a pre-recorded message about the LGBTQ community, often seen as a key audience for the event, detailing the history of the contest and its openness to the community. However, many LGBTQ activists have been among those vocally opposing Israel's involvement and say the country and the EBU, which runs the event, are engaged in laundering Israel's reputation or "pinkwashing". Omar Khatib, a queer Palestinian writer and organiser from Jerusalem, told Middle East Eye that people had a clear choice to make. "Either you are against genocide and against the mass killing of Palestinians, or you are willing to normalise and coexist with it," he said. "Eurovision has become another test of our collective humanity in this sense - the question is no longer whether culture and politics can be separated, but whether people are willing to continue celebrating spectacle while an ongoing genocide is being livestreamed to the world." He added that Eurovision's claims of political neutrality also rang hollow, saying it had become a stage where "liberalism, nationalism and colonialism intersect under t...

Original source: Middle East Eye