San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria says he will not attend this year’s Pride Festival, and a coalition of local Jewish groups won’t participate in local Pride events at all, over objections to headlining performer Kehlani’s remarks on Israel.

The mayor notified San Diego Pride — which hosts both the annual festival and the Pride parade — of his decision to not attend the July 19 event in a letter sent this week to the organization’s leadership. The Grammy-nominated singer, who is nonbinary, has been accused of amplifying antisemitism in their criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Gloria’s letter, sent Wednesday, was followed soon after by a statement Friday morning by a group of eight San Diego Jewish organizations and synagogues announcing that they would no longer participate in the Pride celebration in San Diego this July, citing “safety concerns” surrounding Kehlani’s performance.

The festival’s volunteer director of medical operations and assistant director of medical operations, Jennifer Anger and Eliyahu Cohen-Mizrahi, who are both Jewish, said they were stepping down from their roles as well.

The mayor said in his letter to San Diego Pride that his office had received “an overwhelming number of calls and e-mails” about Kehlani, who he wrote had “used regrettable and controversial rhetoric on social media about the Jewish community.”

Kehlani has publicly expressed support for Palestinians amid Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza but has also been accused of promoting antisemitic rhetoric on social media and in their music.

Their music video “Next 2 U” opens with the message “long live the intifada” — an Arabic word meaning “uprising” or “rebellion” that generally refers to armed uprising against Israeli occupation. To many Jews and others, it’s a call for violence against Jews.

Several Kehlani performances have already been canceled in recent weeks, including one in New York City’s Central Park and another at Cornell University. On Thursday, Kehlani reportedly dropped out of a Pride music festival in San Francisco.

The singer could not immediately be reached for comment but said in a video posted to Instagram in April that they are “not antisemitic nor anti-Jew” but are “anti-genocide.”

San Diego Jewish organizations don’t see it that way.

“No one gets to tell Jews what is and is not antisemitic,” said Laura Stratton, a member of Temple Emanu-El of San Diego, one of the organizations that has withdrawn from Pride.

On May 22, the Finest Community Coalition, a group created to combat antisemitism and composed of more than two dozen local Jewish organizations, first issued a call to San Diego Pride to remove Kehlani as the festival’s headliner.

In a subsequent statement Friday, eight of the organizations said the request to San Diego Pride went “unanswered, and as a result, there will be no organized Jewish presence at San Diego Pride this year.”

The groups are “heartbroken” to not attend Pride, said Heidi Gantwerk, the president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of San Diego County.

But she said many members of the Jewish community don’t feel safe attending an event they say risks elevating rhetoric that violently targets them.

She pointed to recent violence, including last weekend in Boulder, Colo., when a man firebombed a march in support of Israeli hostages, injuring more than a dozen people, as well as a broader rise in antisemitic incidents, including in San Diego County.

“We want to be part of Pride. We want to be allies,” Gantwerk said. “We are allies for the gay community, but what we can’t be is complicit in speech that endangers our population.”

San Diego Pride confirmed Friday that Kehlani was still set to headline the festival and said in an email that it does not adopt or endorse the political positions of any individual performer.

“We made this decision after having engaged with community and religious leaders on both sides,” Pride spokesperson Joslyn Hatfield said in an email. “Ultimately, we came to the conclusion that removing Kehlani from the program would go against our fundamental belief in individual free speech, a cornerstone of our democratic system, especially in a time when the (Trump) administration is aggressively trying to silence our community.”

Mayor Gloria sent a letter to the coalition of Jewish groups Wednesday advising that he would not attend the festival and calling Pride’s selection of headliner “disappointing.”

But he also indicated that San Diego Pride had revised its contract with Kehlani to prevent the artist from “engaging in political speech.”

His office did not respond to questions about whether he had any concerns about restricting LGBTQ+ artists’ political speech, and about what role he believed political advocacy should play in the city’s Pride events.

Hatfield did not say whether San Diego Pride had changed Kehlani’s contract as Gloria described. But she did say it “has asked all performers, vendors, and guests to abide by a code of conduct, which includes a zero tolerance policy for conduct, language, or attire that is offensive, whether explicit, suggestive, or discriminatory.”

She also nodded to Pride’s origins in protest against police harassment of LGBTQ+ people.

“Stonewall is an important touchstone for our community — a reminder that we are capable of resistance in the face of oppression,” Hatfield wrote. “The work of Pride is resistance, advocacy and joy itself.”

Mayor Gloria will still attend and walk in the Pride parade, his office confirmed on Friday.

Rabbi Devorah Marcus, who leads Temple Emanu-El of San Diego, said the mayor’s support of the groups’ concerns is “beautiful” but hopes he will ultimately decide not to participate in the event at all, not even the parade.

She added that she’s “sorrowful” that the mayor is in the “difficult situation.”

“The Pride board has drawn a line in the sand and told people to pick teams and to pick sides, when Pride is supposed to be about bringing people together,” she said.

In his letter to San Diego Pride, the mayor expressed “deep concerns for the safety of all attendees” at this year’s parade and festival and said he anticipates the organization’s decision to keep Kehlani as headliner will prompt protests.

He encouraged Pride to keep working with San Diego police to ensure “robust safety” and a “reassuring presence.”

Originally Published: June 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM PDT