Jewish Groups Withdraw From 2025 San Diego Pride Festival Over Kehlani's Support For Palestine
Among those pulling out of the event slated to take place on July 19-20 in San Diego's Balboa Park — Kehlani is slated to perform on the first day of the fest — are the Jewish Federation of San Diego, Anti-Defamation League of San Diego and the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center. In a statement released last week, the organizations said their decision came after 'The Finest Community Coalition released a statement last month, signed by nearly three dozen Jewish organizations, urging San Diego Pride to reconsider giving Kehlani a platform. That appeal has thus far gone unanswered, and as a result, there will be no organized Jewish presence at San Diego Pride this year.'
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In addition to those organizations, the Chronicle reported that festival's current director of medical operations and her assistant director have stepped down from their volunteer roles. In response to the actions, San Diego Pride's board of directors said in a statement that it does not endorse the political views of any of its performers.
'Each member of our community must make their own decision about attending this year's events, but we hope everyone will come out as a sign of solidarity for our queer community,' read their statement. 'We honor the value of artistic integrity, the importance of free expression and the role that artists play in shaping culture, challenging systems and amplifying voices while respecting each other's differences.'
Kehlani has been hit by a series of boycotts and cancellations due to her pro-Palestinian comments throughout Israel's ongoing war against Hamas following the militant group's terror attack on the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023, during which raiders killed more than 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages. In the ensuing war, Israeli bombing and incursions into the Gaza Strip and other Palestinian-majority territories have resulted in the deaths of more than 55,000 Palestinians according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not make distinctions between military and civilian deaths.
In May, Kehlani's Central Park Pride concert in New York was canceled under advisement from the city's mayor. The festival announced that the Pride with Kehlani show slated for June 26 as part of New York's SummerStage series of shows was called off after it was notified by Mayor Eric Adams' office that 'they have concerns for security and safety issues.' Kehlani responded to that cancelation with a 'lol' on their Instagram Stories. The SummerStage cancelation came after Cornell University pulled the plug on a planned Kehlani appearance at the school's annual Slope Day event on May 7 over her public support for Palestinians and what they deemed her 'antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments.'
Kehlani responded the the Cornell cancelation with a statement on April 26 in which they said, 'I am being asked and called to clarify and make a statement yet again, for the millionth time, that I am not antisemitic nor anti-Jew. I am anti-genocide, I am anti the actions of the Israeli government, I am anti an extermination of an entire people, I am anti the bombing of innocent children, men, women — that's what I'm anti.'
The singer added, 'In fact, the very first Live that I did in the beginning of this genocide was with a really beautiful Jewish organization called Jewish Voices for Peace, and I still continue to learn from and work alongside really impactful Jewish organizers against this genocide.'
Oakland native Kehlani was also slated to be a headliner at SoSF, a new San Francisco pride festival, but they announced last week that they had pulled out of that June 28 event. Kehlani's 2024 'Next 2 U' video featured the phrase 'long live the intifada,' a reference to the two violent uprisings in the West Bank and Gaza Strip aimed at ending Israel's occupation of those territories. It also depicted the singer and their background dancers waving Palestinian flags and wearing suits made of traditional keffiyeh scarves. In a since-removed Instagram video last May, Kehlani called out their musical peers for not joining in and commenting on Israel's war against Hamas, saying, 'You can't speak? Disgusting… It's f–k Israel. It's f–k Zionism. And it's f–k a lot of ya'll too.'Best of Billboard
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Boston Globe
42 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
A lively novel based on a real crime in midcentury Hollywood
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Newsweek
6 hours ago
- Newsweek
Dean Cain Doesn't Understand Superman
Dean Cain, who donned the Superman cape in the 1990s TV series Lois & Clark, recently announced he'll be working with ICE. The irony is so thick you could cut it with a kryptonite knife. Here we have an actor who played America's most famous illegal alien—a literal undocumented immigrant who crossed intergalactic borders without permission—now joining the agency tasked with deportation. It's enough to make you wonder if Cain ever actually read a Superman comic or if he just memorized his lines. Shortly before James Gunn's newest silver screed adaption was released, Cain complained that portraying Superman as "an immigrant thing" was a mistake that would "hurt the numbers on the movie." He insisted that wanting people to "follow our immigration laws" shouldn't be seen as negative, apparently missing that the most famous character he ever portrayed broke every immigration law on the books. Baby Kal-El didn't arrive with a visa. The Kents didn't file paperwork with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). There was no green card application for refugees from the planet Krypton. Superman is, by every legal definition conservatives like Cain love to invoke, exactly the kind of alien they claim threatens American society. Dean Cain speaks onstage at the Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman 25th Anniversary Reunion panel during New York Comic Con 2018 at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on Oct. 5, 2018, in... Dean Cain speaks onstage at the Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman 25th Anniversary Reunion panel during New York Comic Con 2018 at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on Oct. 5, 2018, in New York City. Morefor New York Comic Con But here's what really reveals the depth of Cain's misunderstanding: Superman's story has always been an immigrant narrative. This isn't some new "woke" reinterpretation by modern Hollywood. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, children of Jewish immigrants, created Superman in 1938 during a period of intense anti-immigrant sentiment and rising fascism. The immigrant metaphor of Superman isn't subtle—it's the foundation of the entire mythology. Cain argues that immigrants can't come to America wanting to "get rid of all the rules" and make it "more like Somalia," warning that "society will fail" without strict limits. Yet Superman's entire story refutes this zero-sum thinking. The last son of Krypton didn't try to transform Earth into his dead planet. Instead, he became the ultimate example of successful integration—maintaining his Kryptonian heritage while embodying the best values of his adopted home. He kept his birth name, Kal-El, while also being Clark Kent. He built a Fortress of Solitude to preserve his culture while dedicating his life to protecting Earth. That's the actual immigrant experience—not abandonment of identity but synthesis of old and new. Cain's failure to grasp Superman extends beyond immigration, as he also recently complained about the Kent family being portrayed as "stupid rednecks," seemingly oblivious to the fact that these salt-of-the-earth farmers are the moral center of Superman's universe. As the Superman: Red Son brilliantly illustrated—a storyline where Superman was reimagined to have landed in the Soviet Union instead of Kansas—it's not Kryptonian DNA that makes Superman a good person. It's the Kents' compassion, humility, and decency that shaped him into a hero rather than a tyrant. Without Jonathan and Martha Kent's rural American values, Superman becomes something else entirely, something sinister. Those "stupid rednecks" are literally the reason Superman fights for truth and justice rather than ruling through strength. What's particularly telling is that while Cain fretted about the new movie's immigrant themes possibly hurting domestic box office, Superman has actually performed well domestically but struggled internationally. And why might that be? Perhaps because Superman has become so intertwined with American identity that when America's global reputation suffers, so does his. Under the current political moment, with America's international standing at historic lows, the world is less eager to embrace a character wrapped in American symbolism. The immigrant story isn't hurting Superman; American nativism is. The tragedy here is that Cain is rallying conservatives to abandon a character who should be their natural champion. Superman represents the successful assimilation they claim to want—an immigrant who embraced American values, contributed immeasurably to society, and became a symbol of hope. He learned English, got a job at a great American newspaper, and fell in love with Lois Lane. He's literally everything conservatives say they want from immigrants—except he had no documents and would have been deported by the very agencies they champion. This isn't about making Superman political. It's about recognizing what he's always been—a story about the potential within every refugee, every immigrant, every stranger who arrives on our shores seeking safety. When Dean Cain puts on an ICE badge while criticizing Superman's immigrant story, he's not protecting American values. He's betraying the very core of the mythology that made him famous. Superman saves the world regularly precisely because the Kents didn't check his immigration status before saving him from that crashed rocket. That's not a bug in the Superman story—it's the entire point. Nicholas Creel is an associate professor of business law at Georgia College & State University. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Los Angeles Times
6 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Dean Cain wants to join ICE. Forget Lex Luthor, this Superman is after Tamale Lady
There are people who keep reliving their glory days, and then there's Dean Cain. The film and TV actor is best known for his work in the 1990s series 'Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.' He was no Christopher Reeve or Henry Cavill. But enough people remember Cain in blue tights and a red cape so that he's a regular on the fan convention circuit. It's his calling card, so when the Trump administration put out the call to recruit more ICE agents, guess who answered the call? Big hint: Up, up and a güey! On Aug. 6, the up until then not exactly buzzworthy Cain revealed on Instagram that he joined la migra — and everyone else should too! The 59-year old actor made his announcement as an orchestral version of John Williams' stirring 'Superman' theme played lightly below his speech. Superman used to go after Nazis, Klansmen and intergalactic monsters; now, Superman — er, Cain — wants to go after Tamale Lady. His archenemy used to be Lex Luthor; now real-life Bizarro Superman wants to go to work for the Trump administration's equally bald-pated version of Lex Luthor: Stephen Miller. 'You can defend your homeland and get great benefits,' Cain said, flashing his bright white smile and brown biceps. Behind him was an American flag in a triangle case and a small statue depicting Cain in his days as a Princeton Tigers football player. 'If you want to save America, ICE is arresting the worst of the worst and removing them from America's streets.' Later that day, Cain appeared on Fox News to claim he was going to 'be sworn in as an ICE agent ASAP.' a role Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin later on clarified to the New York Times would be only honorary. His exaggeration didn't stop the agency's social media account to take a break from its usual stream of white supremacist dog whistles to gush over Cain's announcement. 'Superman is encouraging Americans to become real-life superheroes,' it posted 'by answering their country's call to join the brave men and women of ICE to help protect our communities to arrest the worst of the worst.' American heroes used to storm Omaha Beach. Now the Trump administration wants their version of them to storm the garden section of Home Depot. Its appeal to Superman is part of their campaign to cast la migra as good guys while casting all undocumented people as shadowy villains who deserve deportation — the faster and nastier the better. But as with almost anything involving American history, Team Trump has already perverted Superman's mythos. In early June, they put Trump, who couldn't leap over a bingo card in a single bound let alone a tall building, on the White House's social media accounts in a Superman costume. This was accompanied with the slogan: 'Truth. Justice. The American Way.' That was the day before Warner Bros. released its latest Man of Steel film. Even non-comic book fans know that the hero born Kal-El on Krypton was always a goody-goody who stood up to bullies and protected the downtrodden. He came from a foreign land — a doomed planet, no less — as a baby. His alter ego, Clark Kent, is humble and kind, traits that carry over when he turns into Superman. The character's caretakers always leaned on that fictional background to comment on real-world events. In a 1950 poster, as McCarthyism was ramping up, DC Comics issued a poster in which Superman tells a group of kids that anyone who makes fun of people for their 'religion, race or national origin ... is un-American.' A decade later, Superman starred in a comic book public service announcement in which he chided a teen who said 'Those refugee kids can't talk English or play ball or anything' by taking him to a shabby camp to show the boy the hardships refugees had to endure. The Trumpworld version of Superman would fly that boy to 'Alligator Alcatraz' to show him how cool it is to imprison immigrants in a swamp infested with crocodilians. It might surprise you to know that in even more recent times, in a 2017 comic book, Superman saves a group of undocumented immigrants from a man in an American flag do-rag who opened fire on them. When the attempted murderer claimed his intended targets stole his job, Superman snarled 'The only person responsible for the blackness smothering your soul ... is you.' Superman used to tell Americans that immigrants deserved our empathy; Super Dean wants to round them up and ship them out. Rapists? Murderers? Terrorists? That's who Superman né Cain says ICE is pursuing — the oft repeated 'worst of the worst' — but Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse found that 71% of people currently held in ICE detention have no criminal records as of July 27 . I don't think the real Superman — by whom I mean the fictional one whom Cain seems to think he's the official spokesperson for just because he played him in a middling dramedy 30-some years ago — would waste his strength and X-ray vision to nab people like that. Dean 'Discount Superman' Cain should grab some popcorn and launch on a Superman movie marathon to refresh himself on what the Man of Steel actually stood for. He can begin with the latest. Its plot hinges on Lex Luthor trying to convince the U.S. government that Superman is an 'alien' who came to the U.S. to destroy it. 'He's not a man — he's an It. A thing,' the bad guy sneers at one point, later on claiming Superman's choirboy persona is 'lulling us into complacency so he can dominate [the U.S.] without resistance.' Luthor's scheme, which involves manipulating social media and television networks to turn public opinion against his rival, eventually works. Superman turns himself in and is whisked away to a cell far away from the U.S. along with other political prisoners. Luthor boasts that '[constitutional] rights don't apply to extraterrestrial organisms.' Tweak that line a little and it could have come from the mouth of Stephen Miller. Director James Gunn told a British newspaper that his film's message is 'about human kindness and obviously there will be jerks out there who are just not kind and will take it as offensive just because it is about kindness. But screw them.' He also called Superman an 'immigrant,' which set Cain off. He called Gunn 'woke' on TMZ and urged Gunn to create original characters and keep Superman away from politics. Well, Super Dean can do his thing for ICE and Trump. He can flash his white teeth for promotional Trump administration videos as he does who knows what for the deportation machine. Just leave Superman out of it.
