Toronto City Council has confirmed that the 2012 Pride Week will not be deprived of its funding despite the intention of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QAIA) to march in the parade.
They have the right to march, so let them.
Not wanting to grant them more attention in advance of their participation in this celebration under the guise of gay rights, it is still important to expose QAIA for who they are. When they march down Yonge Street, let all those in the crowds know that QAIA is about many things, but gay rights is not one of them. They're not against "Israeli Apartheid" because they're for Palestinian gays. They're against "Israeli Apartheid" because they're against Israel. They don't want an Israel-Palestine solution; they want a Palestine solution and have taken the pretext of Pride to push their agenda.
In a poor attempt at rooting the plight of gay Palestinians in Israel's occupation, the QAIA website proclaims, "There can't be freedom of gender and sexuality without freedom from daily violence and the right to love who you choose, live where you choose, and attend groups, meetings and political activities without persecution."
So that's it. The occupation will end, kumbaya will descend over the West Bank and Gaza, and gay Palestinians will have equal rights and the requisite societal acceptance to live freely and openly as gay Muslims and Christians in an Arab ruled country.
Homosexuality is illegal in 32 Muslim countries and territories, including Hamas-ruled Gaza. Explain to me how standing up for the rights of gay Palestinians is best achieved by attacking Israel, especially in this area. Israel, for whatever faults it may have, is a model state for gay rights.
Israel holds gay pride festivals in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Eilat. It has not succumbed to the threats and hostility from the religious right (including Christians and Muslims who join in denouncing Jerusalem Pride).
The inclusion and welcome that Israelis bestow upon gays is the reason why Tel Aviv was declared the best gay travel destination in 2011 , earning 43 per cent of the vote. I am unsure if Ramallah, Dubai, or Tehran were in contention. This is also the reason why gay Palestinians, even during the height of the second Intifada, flee to live illegally in Israel, where they feel safer.
QAIA, blind but not ignorant to these facts -- which it calls "propaganda" -- nevertheless insists on describing Israel as "an intensely homophobic country."
On its website, QAIA asks whether political groups belong in Pride at all. They answer that they do and that Pride is an appropriate venue for political expression.
They are correct, which is why it is such a shame no one is marching down Yonge Street in solidarity with gays throughout the Arab world denied an existence, let alone a parade. No one will be hosting a symposium during Pride on how Islamic-ruled countries might moderate, let alone erase, their state-sanctioned persecution of gays.
And who will march in the parade in solidarity with two young men, aged 19 and 20, arrested in the African nation of Cameroon last August for same-sex sexual acts? They are presently awaiting trial and face five years in prison. Then there is Jean-Claude Roger Mbede, also of Cameroon, currently serving a three-year sentence on the same charge after being tricked by the police. And let's not forget Uganda's gays, those living, and those murdered.
I could go on. I could mention Jamie Hubely, the Ottawa teen who took his own life in the fall after being bullied. I could mention too many others.
But QAIA isn't marching for these causes.
Toronto's Pride originated in response to police crackdowns on Toronto's gay community in 1981. It is a day to showcase unity and celebrate advances made in and out of the community. It should also be a day to remember that there are communities around the world unable to hold their own Pride. Unfortunately for QAIA, Pride is not about those very serious struggles that demand serious attention. Instead, their focus is to spread bigotry and lies that are no less divisive than the bigotry that Pride seeks to erase.
So let them march. But let us remind them that while they may have a right to march at Pride, as a group, they do not belong.
Stuff like this just reveals that Israel's hardline supporters are only capable of debating the issue with the straw men arguments they create in their heads.
Ironically, as everyone knows, Israel is the only country in the ME region in which there is a PRIDE event, and the LGBTQ community is free and safe, and protected by law. Queer Palestinians are seeking asylum in Israel to get to a safe place. And, would the mainstream Palestinian and Arab nations of the ME welcome and embrace a PRIDE event in their support, given that the participants are not following the Sharia code at all?
Gay people are as diverse in their opinions as everyone else, if this group wants to express that during the pride parade they should just like that Israeli group did in Vancouver. We may not always like each others opinions but we should always support the right to express them.
Did you know that Israel was the first country in Asia to have laws protecting LGBT people? And that Israel gives asylum to Arabic LGBT people escaping persecution? So I see how the LGBT people can be connected to Israel. However, how is the Palestinian issue connected to them? In what way have the Palestinians ever tried to protect LGBT people?
Go to Palestine, try the same thing. I'll wait for you here.
Forever.
Yep, it is all about human rights.
gross. this sort of attitude has been directed towards the lgbt community for decades. it would be more than just a little hypocritical to employ it ourselves.
You would be uncomfortable and you know it, they do not belong.
"HEY YOU!! THERE ARE OTHER BAD THINGS IN THE WORLD, STOP PROTESTING UNTIL WE SOLVE THE WORST ONES FIRST!!"
We, as a society, are capable of tackling more than one problem at once. Perhaps these people are most knowledgeable about the Palestinian-Israeli situation and choose to spend their efforts there?
Gays enjoy full rights in Israel........and are murdered in Palestine.
The Queers Against Israeli Apartheid are disingenuous in their criticisms. Pride is not the place to march against the Chinese occupation of Tibet, or the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. It is not the place to march for or against Russia's claims over the Kurile Islands, or over the lack of democracy in Congo. It is not the place to protest the lack of democratic freedoms in Russia. It is the place however to march for solidarity and for human rights for gays, lesbians, bi's and trans people. In this light, QAIA has no place in the pride parade. I am not one for stifling speech, however, I urge anyone who actually knows anything about gay rights in Israel vs. gay rights in many other places (including our neighbours to the south) to shout them down and boo at them for their hypocrisy, when they march down the parade route.
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/2004/05/21/gays-attacked-at-palestinian-rights-demonstration/
Since when did sexual orientation and compassion become logical?
Its silly to claim that some things are rational and logical and others things not.
Especially something as physical as sexual orientation, it is basic logic that tells us that homosexuals deserve equal rights and it was irrational emotions that kept them from getting them (those of the religious right who lack any arguments to back up their assertions).
here is the interview when he says this: http://vimeo.com/36854424