WorldPride in the Name of Love
The LBGT community tries to provide a rare moment of unity in the Middle East.
By Adam Yoffie, Duke University
Wednesday August 23, 2006
On Thursday, Aug. 10, nearly a hundred uniformed police officers accompanied by military police officials lined the sidewalk in front of Jerusalem’s Liberty Park. While there to provide safety to the LGBT community and its supporters in attendance at the annual WorldPride celebration, the officers smoked cigarettes and talked with their colleagues as the largely peaceful crowd unfurled banners and posters boasting of gay pride and unity. As posters danced above the Jerusalem skyline and rainbow tee-shirts adorned the city’s iconographic stone walls, one could hear snippets of English, Hebrew, French, and Arabic.
But shortly after the gathering—a “Silent Protest”—began, a small crowd of anarchists hijacked the event in order to stage a boisterous protest of Israel’s wars with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in clear violation of the terms set forth by Jerusalem Open House, the non-profit, grassroots LGBT organization that planned the event (and for which I intern). The schism in the crowd was evident as the anarchists chanted in English, “ Israel is a fascist state,” inching closer to the sidewalks and law enforcement officials. The roughly 400 WorldPride participants largely remained in the center of the park, responding with, “Shame on you!”
The police charged the anarchists and as officers intertwined with protestors, the shouts reached a near deafening tone. At least one older woman was trampled, while two young adults were hauled away in squad cars. The police tried to disburse the crowd but were fairly unsuccessful until reinforcements arrived. Putting their automatic weapons on the ground and their cigarettes out on the street, officers wearing bullet-proof vests quickly disbursed the crowd.
At the last minute, Jerusalem Open House had replaced their planned Pride Parade with a “Protest Against Hatred,” after city officials denied the group a permit for the march, citing a dearth of available security forces due to the conflict in the North and heightened sense of alert throughout Israel. Perhaps a harbinger of things to come, the cancellation of the parade presaged a WorldPride week marred by low attendance. As if anyone could forget, the low numbers served as a constant reminder of the deadly hostilities in Lebanon and northern Israel. The underwhelming numbers—only about 200 at some events— were disappointing, especially considering the opportunity to spur cross-cultural unity for young, progressive people in the region. Yet in spite of the incident at the park and geopolitical tensions, the smaller crowds fostered an intimate and congenial atmosphere in which one could reunite with familiar faces throughout the week.
Held in the city that is a major historical site for the three major monotheistic religions—all of whom have a history of condemning homosexuality—WorldPride has been highly controversial since its inception in 2000 in Rome. In a rare show of religious unity in a city often fraught with theological tension, Muslim, Christian, and Jewish clergymen joined together to denounce the event.
In the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Mea Shearim, posters offered a $4,500 reward to “whoever causes the death of one of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah”—a reference to Old Testament cities destroyed by God because of the sins of their inhabitants. The posters chillingly reminded the LGBT community of the gruesome stabbing of three Pride Parade participants during last year’s Jerusalem Pride parade. In spite of the condemnations and threats, as well as overt attempts by the mayor to block the festivities, JOH persisted. Having already postponed WorldPride—which was originally scheduled for August 2005—due to the Gaza Withdrawal, JOH refused to capitulate.
The week kicked off with an LGBT Health Fair, which focused on the specific health needs of the gay community. One highly contentious panel titled, “Is it necessary and/or feasible to open an LGBT healthcare center in Israel?” included Israeli and American medical personnel who agreed on the medical profession’s widespread ignorance regarding the needs of the LGBT community. On the one side, Nurit Shein, the executive director of the Philadelphia-based Mazzoni Center, a full-service LGBT health center, advanced the argument that the gay community needed such a center in Israel and that the clinic could also benefit the greater population by providing a wide range of HIV/AIDS services. But Dr. Itzik Levi of the HIV/AIDS Center at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel argued that the Israeli LGBT community should not medically segregate itself, and should focus instead on expanding the number of “gay and gay-friendly physicians [in Israel] who can give good care.”
The Heath Fair was followed by a youth rally the next day outside the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Attendees were treated to an impressive art bazaar that included films, bands, and performances by at least three different troupes of drag queens. For many of those who agonized over their decision to fly to the Middle East during the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, the theatricality, smiles, and prayers of these events overshadowed the instability and uncertainty enveloping the city and region.
Another highlight of the week was the Multi-Faith Convocation held at the Reform Movement’s Hebrew Union College in the heart of Jerusalem. A bastion of religious liberalism, HUC has opened its doors to LGBT rabbis, cantors, and educators for more than a decade. The ecumenical panel included a rabbi, bishop, reverend, and United States Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). In a clear rebuke to the vitriol spewed over the past year by the self-proclaimed religious leadership of Jerusalem, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of New York City’s Congregation Beth Simchat Torah lauded the Holy land as an adopted “Homoland” during the WorldPride festivities.
The final and most powerful speaker of the evening was international best-selling author Irshad Manji, author of “The Trouble with Islam: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith.” A notorious gadfly to the Muslim community and outspoken lesbian activist, Manji emphasized the need for everyone in attendance to concern themselves with social issues like homophobia on a global level, even those that do not directly affect them individually.
As Manji noted, the revelry of WorldPride, ranging from health fairs and religious services to political protests and drag shows, was not about infuriating the Orthodox Jewish denizens of Jerusalem or displaying a lack of sensitivity toward the violence nearby, but rather about the universal struggle to create “safe space” for all LGBT individuals throughout the world.
WorldPride clearly marked a turning point in the LGBT community’s ongoing struggle for equality. Willing to confront the religious Orthodox on their own home turf, the organizers of the event demonstrated their commitment to the full realization of human rights for all individuals, regardless of their sexual identity. The internal divisions evidenced at the Silent Protest are only symbolic of the increasing number of individuals eager to support one of the most important civil rights battles of the 21 st century. Yet in witnessing the stumbling blocks that the Jerusalem Open House had to overcome to host this event in Israel—a vibrant, if troubled, democracy—I can only imagine how far the LGBT community has to go in the rest of the Middle East.
Adam Yoffie, Duke ’06, is studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem on a Fulbright fellowship and will be interning with the Jerusalem Open House.
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Comments
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Thanks for the piece. Would the LGBT community be able to stage a similar revelry in any of Israel’s neighbors? The answer to that question also makes me question the moral relativism of equating Israel with her antagonists.
If the piece about Orthodox Jews offering rewards to kill LGBT celebrants is true, then it is morally reprehensible. The offer of cash to kill one’s ideological opponents sounds an awful lot like the Muslim extremists. Perhaps that is the common thread: extremism.I applaud Irshad Manji. I can’t say that I am familiar with all of her positions, but if she has the moral courage to stand up to the extremists in Islam, then I will applaud her courage.— 53egradstudent - Aug 24, 09:14 PM - #
Homosexual behavior is immoral. That is the bottom line. Any pro-sodomy protest should be be quickly dismissed as mere anarchy in and of itself, or, in other words, a display of rebellion against the Tao, the Satya, the Rta, The way in which every man should tread in imitation, the Path, the Way, Universal Truth, Natural Law, Enilghtenment, Traditional Morality,—The Doctrine of Objective Value itself, the rebellion against reality!
And, the rebellion of natural human rights against natural law is the rebellion of the branches against the tree, if the rebels were ever to succeed they would find that they had destroyed the very basis for their own existence!
Homosexuality, is, in fact, an immoral behavior, and I will debate anyone at Campus Progress on this issue any time, any place, in fact, I challenge you Adam Yoffie to a full scale academic debate. Do you accept? Or, are you unsure and insecure of your own arguments? Let me know. Any time, any place!
Ryan
— Ryan Sorba - Aug 25, 03:30 AM - #Homosexuality is not immoral, passing judgement on others seems to be the bigger breach with morality, Tao, Natural Law, Enlightenment, ect.
I sincerely doubt Ryan Sorba, or any other human being, is in the position to label homosexuality as flatly immoral. Different strokes for different folks.
Just the opinion of another straight, therefore moral, college kid.
“All Men are created equal”
— Tristan Brown - Aug 25, 01:14 PM - #I labeled homosexual BEHAVIOR immoral, therefore I have not passed forth judgement on any person in particular, only homosexual BEHAVIOR, you should read the posts you comment on prior to making ignorant remarks!
— Ryan Sorba - Aug 25, 08:24 PM - #The above comment was written to Tristan Brown, whom I will academically debate any time, if he so requests.
— Ryan Sorba - Aug 25, 08:26 PM - #Like Tristan, a number of people have taken historical quotes about not judging out of context by using them to pander to rebellious acts and by promoting indiscriminate tolerance. When people do this, they strike a blow at the very heart of all virtue, including that virtue which makes it morally possible for us to defend human rights. If never judging truley were the ideal then it would be immoral for us to judge even Hitler’s actions as wrong, and, subsequently, immoral for us to rise up against his forces.
We should not condemn all judgements, only hypocritical ones, arrogant condemnations charactorized by disdain and condescension. Not all judgements are of this sort. There are two other kinds of judgments that are very imortant.
Some judgments are judicial. They are proper when conducted by PROPER authorities. Judges judge. They pass sentence. That is their job.
Other judgments are assesments, appraisals of right or wrong, wise or foolish, rational or irrational. These types of judgments are very important. In fact, they are necassary for us to act in even the most basic of situations.
Everyday we are drawn to things that we judge to be good and we avoid or shun things that we judge to be bad. It is possible, however, that we can make mistakes about that. Sometimes things that we judge to be good at first turn out to actually be bad for us, and vice-versa. That is why it important for us to know the Truth about something before we make a judgement about it.
So Tristan, I hope that the foregoing post has helped to change your judgment about judgments. And if you need to know why it is moral to judge homosexual behavior as immoral, physically consequential, and fluid, all you have to do is ask.
Oh yea, and remember, I will debate you any time, publicly, just let me know.
Ryan Sorba
— Ryan - Aug 26, 04:26 AM - #I challenge Ryan Sorba to a debate about how big of an idiot he is. I will debate the heck out of you Ryan Sorba!!!!!!!!
— Bobby Carey - Aug 28, 01:48 AM - #As I was readin this I repeatedly wondered why the people disrupting the march were labeled as “Anarchists”? Was there any indication that these people disrupting this event held political beleifs that were anarchistic, Or was the writer just using this term too loosely? I did find this to be a great piece, I’m glad that this event got some coverage.
Ryan Sorba, what someone does in their own bedroom is none of your business. What Hitler did in his bedroom is none of your business. And Finally it is one thing to have political or philisophical debate, You are pontificating, and you cannot debate dogmatic opinions.
— elise - Aug 30, 03:56 PM - #I can’t help shake the feeling that Sorba is Falafel O’Reilly in disguise. “Come on, I dare you to come on my show? Or… are you a COWARD?!”
— Assamite - Aug 30, 08:31 PM - #I was in Jerusalem for World Pride.
While I am continuing to disseminate what was achieved as a community and personally, I read the many varying viewpoints in blogs and articles.
First, the “anarchists” …yes several of the ones I talked to identified themselves as anarchists, and like most anarchists they were well organized and had a clear agenda to focus their anger on. Unfortunately they hijacked the rally from being a peaceful statement focusing on “tolerance” and acceptance, back up north to the war.
Personally I always wonder why “anarchists” are well organized and do not trust anyone who calls themselves an anarchist, a true anarchist will find ways to subvert, and not draw attention to themselves.
I flagged ‘tolerance as well, I was not there to be tolerated, you accept me for who I am as I accept you for who you are.
Ryan, I will be more then happy to help organize an open debate, following all the rules of civilized debate, and ask that all discussion be from the heart and any point made cannot be repeated or re-quoted. All “quotes “must be accompanied with the name of the author and the context in which it was originally given.
Why do I ask for these rules. In debates on issues like this, once you run out of Pavlovian quotes you will have to speak from the heart and a true debate will take place.
I have rooms on hold for the last week of June, here in Toronto.
— Mark Smith - Aug 31, 08:59 PM - #[Ryan- this is spam. You are not allowed to post the same comment, especially a long rant like this one, over and over again. Commenting is provided to allow discussion of the article and topics related to it, not to post 1,000-word articles about your personal issues of choice.
You are more than welcome to write to the editors if you would like to pitch a story or idea to us.]
-August (Webmaster)
— Ryan Sorba - Sep 1, 12:04 PM - #The fascist Webmaster at Campus Progress has deleted Ryan’s original comment. This organization is a joke, and I will not visit their cite anymore!
— Jeff Cline - Sep 4, 03:02 AM - #Ryan you are an intolerant person. Do you consider you have the absolute truth… oh come on, you are like a kind of priest who is triyin to recrute adepts with your individual, retrograd and discriminatory ideas. Homosexuality is not a new field , it has started since the beginning of human being; even some animals like dogs have the same behavior, how can you consider that’s antinatural…. the only antinatural I found in your speech was your close mind and low tolaerance level and high resistence to diversity. Youa are ashaming for human being.
— Mark Huge - Jun 3, 04:39 PM - #“Homosexuality is not a new field , it has started since the beginning of human being; even some animals like dogs have the same behavior, how can you consider that’s antinatural”
The same could be said about paedophilia. Any response?
— David Radford - May 5, 03:21 PM - #