By Light Dorn

When Nancy Pelosi, American representative and former speaker of the house, made her way to the podium in a pastel yellow power suit for her surprise appearance at “Equalitea,” an event centered around advocating for the ratification of the ERA, every phone in the room went up. 

It was briefly reminiscent of being at a concert — the room’s energy crackling with adoration, excitement and hope as a revered figure took the stage and everyone tried for a video.

About halfway through Pelosi’s speech about the need for equality, a woman in the audience began loudly projecting questions and comments about the war and violence taking place in Gaza toward the podium. “Nancy Pelosi could fix this,” she shouted. 

Quickly, her protests were drowned out by the rest of the audience repeatedly chanting “ERA,” effectively overpowering her words in favor of Ms. Pelosi’s — and she was soon ushered out of the ballroom. 

The protests and disruptions throughout the DNC underscored numerous complexities within the progressive movement and sparked debate about how justice movements should engage with one another and whether different causes can — or should — be united under a common banner. However, the perspectives of attendees, speakers and protesters all seemed to agree that the demonstrations mainly positively influenced the convention.

Lisa Lee is a cultural activist and the executive director of the National Public Housing Museum in Chicago who attended multiple convention events, including “Equalitea.” In her opinion, using “ERA” as a chant to drown out a protester in the audience was in bad taste — one movement should not be pitted against another in this way, she believes.

“It is a critical mistake for any justice movement to believe that any one issue should be held above or against another,” Lee said. 

The protester at Equalitea was one of many throughout the convention, and Lee believes that disruption and demonstration were powerful and positive forces during the week.

“The protests were a positive and integral part of the DNC,” Lee said. “Any real democracy is made stronger and better with activists and organizers willing to challenge the status quo, question the mainstream narrative and stand up for their moral convictions. It was a mistake for the Democrats to not allow a Palestinian activist to speak at the podium.”

Danaka Katovich, the national co-director of left-wing organization “Code Pink,” attended the convention as a protester. Several groups and individuals attended the convention solely to hand out leaflets or hold up signs, and Code Pink was no exception.

“We joined the coalition to march on the DNC; our main demand was a ceasefire and an arms embargo,” Katovich said. 

Katovich attended four marches on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday of the convention. In addition, she and several other members of Code Pink attended smaller-scale convention events and demonstrated at them as well.

“We were getting into these DNC side events like fundraisers with senators,” Katovich said. “Even Vice Presidential Nominee Tim Walz was at some of them. We went to the women’s caucus, which Tim Walz was speaking at, and we disrupted, saying ‘stop killing the women of Gaza’ and ‘stop killing the children of Gaza.’”

One of the main goals of the Code Pink protests and disruptions, Katovich said, was to bring attention to the Democratic party’s response to the war in Gaza that, in the opinion of many Code Pink members, has been highly unsatisfactory. 

“We were calling in to question the Democratic leader’s complicity in the ongoing assault on Gaza,” Katovich said. “Kamala Harris is our current sitting vice president and has been for four years, and we don’t feel like she’s done enough to stop the senseless killing of women and children in Gaza. I don’t think that the people inside and going to the DNC could’ve avoided the messaging around Gaza at any point this week.”

Having campaigned for Kamala Harris in her speech on the convention’s final day, former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan found the protests untroublesome — in fact, the number of protestors she saw demonstrating at the convention was significantly smaller than she had anticipated. 

“I expected there would be a lot more people protesting,” Ms. Madigan said. “There may have been, but I didn’t see them. In the convention center last night during Kamala’s speech, when she discussed Israel and Gaza, I didn’t hear more than a handful of people shouting. Most people were listening to her and clapping, but not trying to drown out the protesters.”

The voices of protesters at the DNC were loud and clear, but it’s apparent that many attendees and speakers alike didn’t feel bothered or disrespected by them. Instead, they felt the messages and appreciated those voicing them.

“Everywhere across the city, the necessity for peace, a ceasefire, an arms embargo, and the return of the hostages could be heard,” Lee said.

The election will be held on Nov. 5.