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

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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