For years, Amrit Kohli often visited Affirmations Community Center in Ferndale, where he volunteered and once was a board member of the largest LGBTQ+ facility in metro Detroit. As a Queer musician, Kohli connected with others, developed friendships and found refuge at the center on 9 Mile, in the heart of sizable LGBTQ+ communities.
But after disputes with the center over his support for Palestinians in Gaza, Kohli had his concert planned at Affirmations canceled by their officials. Then, he was barred from the center, one year ago this summer, in August 2025.
“It is very upsetting the degree to which I’ve been excluded from the community,” Kohli, 52, of Ferndale, told the Detroit Free Press after performing a few blocks from Affirmations at a recent pro-Palestinian concert in a Ferndale park that drew pro-Israel protesters. “I don’t even know if the ban is for life or when it’s going to be lifted, if it ever will.”
The story of how Kohli came to be barred from Affirmations illustrates the tensions and debates among LGBTQ+ people in metro Detroit about who defines the community amid racial divides and stark differences over the Israeli-Palestinian war since Oct. 7, 2023. Kohli and other Queer activists, especially those who are minorities, feel that establishment LGBTQ+ groups in Michigan have excluded people of color over the decades and have been hostile to those in the Queer and trans community who are pro-Palestinian.
Some pro-Israel advocates applauded Affirmations when they canceled Kohli’s concert in 2024, after a concert flier contained pro-Gaza messages. Others were upset, saying it betrayed the values and historical struggles of LGBTQ+ people. Over the years, some have accused Affirmations of racism and marginalizing minority communities, claims their leaders denied; Pride Source has previously reported. Affirmations has grown in size over the past 15 years, from taking in $889,000 in revenue in 2011 to $1.9 million in 2024. It now has a program for LGBTQ+ Arab Americans called “Yallah Talk!” but more needs to be done, activists say.
The dispute resulted in a lawsuit Kohli filed against Affirmations for canceling his concert that has been playing out over the past year in a federal court in Detroit, where a U.S. district judge ruled against him on July 7. In his dismissal, Judge Robert White said the allegations against Affirmations in the lawsuit were factually and legally “insufficient.” Kohli said he plans to appeal and wants Affirmations to ensure there won’t be future discrimination against those with strong voices against war and for human rights. Officials with Affirmations and their attorney did not return messages seeking comment; in court filings, an attorney for Affirmations, Tom Cedoz, said Kohli’s case is based on “threadbare conclusions” and without merit.
Born in Kenya to parents with roots in India, Kohli’s immigrant journey led him to live in various areas, settling in Michigan in 1982, as he searched for an identity that he eventually found in Queer communities. Disowned by his father after he came out in the 1990s, he started a group called Queer Folk in 1997 as a platform and space for LGBTQ+ musicians. He’s now hoping his battle against Affirmations can help future activists gain access to mainstream LGBTQ+ groups.
“What I really hope is that the center can change for the positive, and bring people back into the center that it has traditionally hurt and excluded,” Kohli said. “There is a form of institutional racism at play here. Hidden behind these denials is a racist agenda to silence dissent against Israel and uphold a racist policy of not allowing pro-Palestinian groups or Palestinians to use the center for organizing, for performances. … This is a systemic problem in the queer community of metro Detroit.”
Kohli’s concert draws pro-Israel protest
“I’m praying that you stop dropping bombs on us,” Kohli sang on a warm Saturday evening in June, reciting the lyrics to his song about Gaza, ‘Shame,’ while strumming on his guitar in Schiffer Park. “In your genocidal dreams.”
A Palestinian flag fluttered behind him during the June 27 concert next to a wide banner that read “Coalition Against Genocide” and posters that read “No War” and “Never Again for Anyone” above photos of Holocaust and Gaza victims. A sign in front read “Jail the Butchers of Gaza” above photos of President Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. The concert was a benefit for the Michigan Coalition Against Genocide a pro-Palestinian group started by the late Rene Lichtman, who was Jewish and a Holocaust survivor, and Palestinian Americans.
A crowd of supporters and fans sat on chairs in the park, applauding his songs whose lyrics touch upon, in addition to political and foreign policy issues, his own struggles and relationships over the years. Huwaid Arraf, a longtime Palestinian activist in Macomb Township who took part in Gaza flotillas, spoke at the event, decrying the failures of nations and international law to protect Gaza.
“If our government fails, if international law fails, then what is left?” Arraf told the crowd. “What’s left is us. What’s left is our movement, the people.”
Behind the crowd was a group of pro-Israel protesters with a new group in Michigan, Jewish Frontline. Waving large flags that interweaved American and Israeli flags, they held up pro-Israel and anti-Hamas banners and placards, one of which read: “Israel We Stand With You.”
One of the pro-Israel protesters held up a placard that said: “Israel is The Most LGBTQ Country in the Middle East. LGBTQ people face persecution and violence in Gaza West Bank Iran Yemen SA (Saudi Arabia).” A couple of Ferndale police officers stood between the two groups, but it was a peaceful event on both sides. The two groups are now talking about having future in-person conversations, Kohli said.
“We weren’t there to disrupt the concert or target Mr. Kohli personally,” Shlomi Bennett, executive director of Jewish Frontline, told the Detroit Free Press. “Our concern wasn’t with the music or the fact that an artist was performing. It was with the broader messaging surrounding the event and the impact we believe that messaging can have in normalizing antisemitism or hostility toward Israel’s existence.”
About a month after Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli government posted on its X account photos of an Israeli soldier in Gaza holding LGBTQ+ Pride flags in front of ruins that appear to have been destroyed in Israeli attacks and an Israeli tank.
“The first ever pride flag raised in Gaza,” the post on X read. “Yoav Atzmoni who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community wanted to send a message of hope to the people of Gaza living under Hamas brutality. His intention was to raise the first pride flag in Gaza as a call for peace and freedom.”
The narrative that Israel should be supported instead of Palestinians because of its views on LGBTQ+ rights has been criticized by Queer activists as “pinkwashing,” using gays and lesbians as a tool to legitimize oppressing other groups.
“Pinkwashing is a racist social construct used to demonize Muslims and Arabs by using the queer community to pit us against each other,” Kohli said. “Israel is actually not a very queer-friendly place despite their attempts at hiding their obvious homophobia. Many leaders in Israel are homophobic. They perpetuate this idea that queer people should fear Muslims. … We here in the queer community feel loved by Palestine. It’s a fictional narrative to suggest the movement to liberate Palestine is somehow not aligned with the movement for queer liberation. These movements are fighting the same foes.”
In Michigan, there are some LGBTQ+ Muslims and Arab Americans who have combined their identities in ways that don’t support stereotypes of their faith. Some activists have expressed concern about how the LGBTQ+ issue is used to demonize Muslims in places like Dearborn and Hamtramck. After Hamtramck, whose elected officials are all Muslim, banned the display of the Pride flag on city property in 2023, Muslims there were attacked by some Democrats, LGBTQ+ publications and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. But Muslims and others have noted that when the city of Livonia, a largely white Christian city with no Muslim elected officials, took the same action the year before to ban LGBTQ+ flags on city buildings, there was no similar outrage.
Canceled concert leads to legal dispute
In May 2024, Affirmations approved Kohli’s request to perform a concert to mark an album release on June 19, 2024, at the center’s Ringwald Theatre, according to Kohli and a lawsuit he filed in 2025. The concert date was set for Juneteenth, a holiday that recalls Black struggles for freedom, to coincide with the release of Kohli’s album, “Mama! I Can’t Breathe,” a reference to George Floyd’s words before he died; its songs focus on social justice and political issues. After the concert was approved, Kohli ran ads or paid content for his upcoming show in local publications that indicated he supported Palestinians and a ceasefire in Gaza: one ad that ran in Pride Source read “Solidarity with Palestine,” “No More U.S. Funded Genocide,” and “End the Apartheid State,” along with Palestinian flags and symbols.
On May 15, 2024, Affirmations told Kohli it was cancelling his June 19 show because he used the term “ceasefire” in his promotional materials. Kohli had to scramble to inform the public of a venue for his show, which ended up being in a park on a sweltering summer day. In November, Kohli again asked Affirmations if he could perform at their theater, saying he would avoid the term “ceasefire” in his flyers and ads, but was denied once more. Over the next several months, Kohli exchanged emails with Affirmations officials, one of them accusing an official of being a Zionist, and on Aug. 8, 2025, he received a letter from an attorney for Affirmations saying he was banned from the center.
Kohli filed a case in October 2025 in small claims court in Oakland County, which was transferred a few months later to federal court. In the lawsuit, Kohli said that Affirmations has taken political stances before, mentioning how they released a statement in 2022 in support of Ukraine and that criticized Russia after the start of the Ukraine-Russia war. Kohli claimed in the suit he was being discriminated against due to not being white and also not “of the Judeo-Christian persuasion.” In March 2024, a trans person who shouted pro-Israel views at a pro-Palestinian vigil held by protesters in the lobby at Affirmations was not barred from Affirmations, Kohli said.
Whites “have been known to be granted access to the facility and not had their access revoked when they express political or controversial views,” the lawsuit said. Kohli also claims he was discriminated against because he is sometimes bipolar.
But the Affirmations attorney, Cedoz, responded in court by saying Kohli “fails to include sufficient facts to show discriminatory intent.” Canceling Kohli’s concert because of the pro-Palestinian messaging that contained the word “ceasefire” is “a political statement, not tied to race or national origin,” Cedoz wrote.
Kohli “points to no specific examples of others outside his race who made comparable statements without adverse action,” Cedoz said.
Judge White agreed, saying in his ruling dismissing the complaint that “the complaint contains no allegations supporting a reasonable inference that Affirmations barred Kohli from performing at the center because of his race.”
This is not the first time Kohli has faced controversy. In 2024, he became the Democratic nominee for Oakland County Sheriff, but then dropped out of the race because activists he worked with who are critical of police urged him to drop out. His latest project is a new group he formed called Musicians Against Genocide that he hopes to promote diversity and pro-Palestinian views in LGBTQ+ spaces. He’s also calling for a second constitutional convention.
“Traditionally, the queer movement has been led by upper class white people,” Kohli said. “That is a problem, and I think we need we need to allow leadership from other communities … and lift them up … not just diversity but acceptance. … The thing that hurt the most was just that I was being silenced for who I was, and that’s always been a painful thing for me because my dad did the same thing.”
Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com, X @nwarikoo or Facebook @nwarikoo
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Queer artist: I was barred from LGBTQ Michigan center for Gaza support
Reporting by Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
