Apparently it's not always sunny in Philadelphia, or at least it didn't seem so this weekend during the city's annual pride parade. The usual revelers with their gaudy outfits were preparing to march down the designated parade route when they encountered a large group with a very different agenda. It was yet another gang of pro-Hamas, anti-Israel protesters. They brought signs of their own, bearing slogans such as "No Pride in Genocide." They blocked the streets and got into standoffs with the LGBT marchers. In the end, they effectively shut down the parade. Throughout all of the mayhem, nobody appeared to bother asking the demonstrators what the pride marchers had to do with Israel or genocide or anything else and why they would be attacking them. (NY Sun)

Anti-Israel protesters at Philadelphia have shut down the city’s annual pride parade, blocking individuals from marching in the streets and chanting slogans comparing Israel to infamous racist groups.

According to videos posted of the event online Sunday, dozens of protesters stood in the middle of the street to block drum lines and dance troupes from moving down the parade route at downtown Philadelphia.

O"ne anti-Israel protester held up a pride flag with the words “No Pride in Genocide” scrawled across it. The flag was also covered with blood red hand prints. In the same video, a tall, muscular man clad in leather can be seen arguing with several women who are demanding that he get out of their way.

Ironically, in the few areas where the marchers were able to proceed down the street, the protesters stood to the side and chanted, "The more you try to silence us, the louder we will be!" But who was trying to "silence" them? Those people were there to march in a gay pride parade. They had a permit. The pro-Hamas people could not say the same. They should have been arrested but, as usual, few people seemed motivated to take any action to restore order to the parade route.

The coverage from the Sun points out that it was unclear if any of the pro-Hamas people were there for the parade, if they were gay, or if they might have been part of the "Queers for Palestine" demonstrations taking place on college campuses. They were unable to identify anyone in the group wearing any sort of rainbow gear. So that brings us back to the original question. What were they doing there and what would motivate them to shut down a gay pride parade?

At least the protesters on the college campus sort of had an excuse for their actions. Most of them had identified channels where the colleges had investments in interests somehow connected to Israel. They were attempting to force the schools to "divest" from the Jewish state. Other protesters have shown up at Israeli embassies. But this was the pride parade. It's totally unrelated to any of this. Are they protesting just for the sake of disrupting society? Because that's certainly what it looked like.

Of course, I'm probably spending far too much effort trying to figure out the motives and inspiration of a group of people who are generally acting in a nonsensical fashion to begin with. I have more than my fair share of issues with "Genocide Joe," as they call him, but not because of his alleged support for the war in Gaza. If anything, I grow annoyed when he sticks his nose in there and tries to influence Netanyahu. Biden just needs to keep sending aid to Israel as it's needed. And that's the point that these protesters continue to miss. Biden can't stop the war in Gaza. Only Israel can do that. Or Hamas could if they would surrender, which they are unlikely to do. These protests accomplish nothing.