Arafat's "Queer" Brigade. The Forward newspaper
presents an even-handed account of opposing views in the gay
community on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Gays Are
Divided on Mideast Strife.The paper reports:
Emmaia Gelman, a member of Queers for Palestine, a New York-based activist group that she said has some 20 to 30 members, said gays and lesbians are disproportionately represented in leadership roles in pro-Palestinian activist groups.
"Queer activism has traditionally fought to recognize the parallels between all kinds of oppression that are based on identity and on the wish of a government or society to repress a certain kind of people, or to erase people from the public dialogue or public space whose existence is inconvenient," Gelman said. "And so in that way there are enormous parallels between the queer liberation struggle and Palestinian struggle for human rights."
Well, that's one point of view. Fortunately, reporter
Daniel Treiman also interviewed IGF contributor and LA Times
columnist Norah Vincent, who
said her support for Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians "has nothing really to do with being gay, it has to do with notions of freedom and democracy." She did say, however, that the relatively advanced status of women and gays in Israel is indicative of why Israel is worthy of support.
Finally, the story quotes the Village Voice's Richard Goldstein, who pens attacks on gays who are out of lockstep with the left. Goldstein called Vincent's characterization of the gay left's attitudes toward Israel "an outrageous libel" and claimed he has never heard of Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT) or Queers for Palestine. Does that mean he doesn't read this site?
Palestinian "Liberation": Redux The New Republic's mortifying account of the arrest and torture of gay Palestinians by Arafat's forces (summarized in my Aug. 13 posting) is now online at the magazine's website. Read it for yourself. But don't expect Arafat's "useful idiots" on the gay left to see the light. They're the ideological descendants of the same ilk that celebrated Mao, Fidel, and Uncle Ho (and before that, Uncle Joe).
Was Pim Fortuyn Right? The gay Dutch
politician, assassinated while making a credible run to become that
nation's prime minister, warned that unchecked immigration posed a
real threat to women's rights and gay equality. For this, he was
condemned as "intolerant" and called a "racist." But read
Mark Steyn's commentary in Canada's National Post about the
blinkers worn by multiculturalism's proponents. He notes that "even
in the face of the crudest assaults on its most cherished causes --
women's rights, gay rights -- the political class turns squeamishly
away." Moreover he dares to assert, "I believe Western culture --
rule of law, universal suffrage, etc. -- is preferable to Arab
culture." I support immigration, but with assimilation. Without it,
like a Hindu widow, we're slowly climbing on the funeral pyre of
our lost empires." It's a controversial piece, to be sure, but one
whose arguments cannot simply be dismissed.
--Stephen H. Miller