The Spanish F.E.L.G.T.B. (Federación Estatal de Lesbianas, Gays, Transexuales y Bisexuales or State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals) has decided to veto the participation of Israeli homosexuals from Tel Aviv-Yafo in the gay pride parade, which will be held on Saturday, July 3, 2010, in Madrid, Spain's capital. The Israeli homosexuals who want to participate were notified that their presence was suspended due to security concerns, but the reason given here in Spain by the Federation was that Tel Aviv-Yafo's municipal authorities didn't condemn the operation carried out by the Tzahal against the so-called Gaza flotilla last week.
Antonio Póveda, president of the Federation, has stated (translated as accurate as possible, between quotation marks): "We can't allow that in a demonstration held in the defense of human rights, also in the defense of the murdered activists' rights, an institution which doesn't condemn those facts can participate." Póveda has also declared that Israeli associations of homosexuals are allowed to participate in the parade only if they condemn the aforementioned military operation.
A gay pride parade is supposed to defend lesbians', gays', transsexuals' and bisexuals' rights, regardless of other issues such as the Arab-Israeli conflict. And the F.E.L.G.T.B. has decided to veto Israeli homosexuals just because they're citizens of the Jewish State, which precisely is in many aspects one of the most tolerant countries on Earth towards homosexuals, and even the most one in the Middle East; but Póveda hasn't told anything about those homosexuals from Arab and muslim countries who are being subjected to persecution and repression, including death penalty.
This case reminds me Norwegian homosexual parlamentarian Anette Trettebergstuen, whose case is available in Norway, Israel and the jews (read here), a Norwegian blog which has also covered the case of the F.E.L.G.T.B.
F.E.L.G.T.B.'s attitudes towards Israeli homosexuals, forcing them to officially accept a determined ideal if they want to exercise their right to held a demonstration in the defense of their rights, also remind me Republican Senator from Wisconsin Joseph Raymond McCarthy, who was in charge of a witch-hunt against suspected communists during the 1940s and 1950s. This witch-hunt included unconstitutional measures such as making the suspects to confess their ideology, to reject communism and to swear they weren't communists, thus forcing them to accept an undesired cause in order to exercise other rights such as being free (to refuse to accept the aforementioned... "proposals" and many others used to be severely punished with imprisonment).
And as done by McCarthy himself in the past, the F.E.L.G.T.B. seems to be exclusively centred on Jews.
"A gay pride parade is supposed to defend lesbians', gays', transsexuals' and bisexuals' rights, regardless of other issues such as the Arab-Israeli conflict."
ReplyDeleteWhy? If you had organized the demonstration, would you have accepted Palestinian gay people waving Palestinian flags or Kefias besides the multicoloured flag? Probably not, I suppose. Well, for the organizers, not condemning the attack against the international activists and the Freedom Flotilla means supporting it. Arab and Palestinian gays (even in exhile) are also part of the International Gay Community, gay peace activists from Europe, America and Turkey are also part of the International Gay Community... and they all feel neglected by the lack of condemn by the Israeli Gay Community to the attacks. In fact, you "forgot" to mention that they will accept every Gay group which condemns publicly the attacks of the IDF and the killings of the activists. I really hope some of them will.
“but Póveda hasn't told anything about those homosexuals from Arab and muslim countries who are being subjected to persecution and repression, including death penalty.”
Don't take this personally, but do you know him or anything about his organization at all? Because if you did, you would know that many arab and muslim asylum seekers belong to it, are being helped by it, and are fighting everyday to try to go back to their countries or their families. And in case you did not know, it is usually their own families who provoke most of the refusal and crimes against homosexuals in muslim countries, not their governments, and you cannot change that with just a few demonstration from abroad.
Furthermore, the last most shocking case of homophobic government took place in a Christian country and I did NOT see any demonstration from anyone about it, either. Do you even know where it was? I wonder...
So I'm sorry, but this argument of "leave the Israelis and worry about the homosexuals in Arab and Muslim countries" is based on complete ignorance and distortion of the issue.
Yes, if I had organized the demostration I'd allow Palestinians to participate while showing keffiyahs and Palestinian flags, and no, I didn't forget to tell that Póveda will allow Israeli homosexuals to participate if they condemn the raid.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I cited it in order to compare the F.E.L.G.T.B. with McCarthy; the organizers are trying to make the Israeli homosexuals to accept a cause which they probably don't want to accept, or they propbably want to accept but they don't want to talk about it.
Somebody's ideology hasn't to be confessed, whether it consists of supporting or not supporting a determined action. Israeli homosexuals' right to defend their status as equal citizens in this world can't depend on their ideology. It's completely absurd.
My point was: why does Póveda allow Arab and muslim homosexuals to participate when these homosexuals didn't officially condemn, for example, Arab and muslim hostility against Israel?
By the way, many Palestinian gays have sought refuge in Israel.