Who Needs Statistics?!

[eumelia]

As if a gun-fire wasn't enough the prove it, Ha'aretz News Paper put together a survey (which will be published in full on Friday and I will report about it) that shows that 46% of Israelis think gays are deviant.

I'm wondering a bit about the language and hoping the full survey shows other statistics regarding Lesbians and Bisexuals... I'm really not holding my breath for any Trans inclusion, though one never knows. I'm keeping my eyes open.

The survey uses a representative sample of 498 interviewees, you can read the break down in the actual article.

Dr. Kamil Fuchs, the statistician running this survey states:

Fuchs added that the timing of the survey- the week in which a murderous attack was carried out at a gay community center in Tel Aviv - should be taken into consideration. "It's possible that what we have here is a reaction to trauma and also that hate-filled people think this is not the moment to admit it," he said.

The survey shows that secular people are very liberal in their attitude toward homosexuals as compared to other Western states. "In other countries there are also very conservative secular people. In Israel, in contrast, those who define themselves as secular have very liberal positions," Fuchs said.

Emphasis mine.
That interesting phenomena is discussed in the Israleft blog post ...and who is Left, if you're interested.

This whole incident should act as a wake up call for the rest of the nation.
It won't though.
To see the connection between homophobia, racism, xenophobia and the relationship between Capital and Capitol can be daunting. That religion, when so intertwined with government, creates a discourse of hate and exclusion.
That there is an inherent tie between thinking gays are deviant, deporting the children of foreign workers and building a wall around a disenfranchised population isn't something we privileged people want to think about too closely.

This is a democracy!

Only for some and even for those, it is limited and gravely inadequate.

I think it's easy to see how entrenched we are in only seeing the Other and not seeing what we have in common with the Other when Yaniv Weizman (head of Tel-Aviv's gay youth organisation) is quoted as saying this:

"It comes as no surprise to me that almost half the public thinks I'm mentally ill and should be imprisoned, treated or killed. However, I feel we've made some progress. If 26 percent of the religious and 27 percent of the Arabs say we're not perverts, you can say we've achieved something."

Emphasis mine

That's a really idiotic thing to say, in my opinion. Because honestly now, we're not all a big monolith. If we were I'd be a successful, white, gay, cis man who lives in Tel-Aviv.
That's the "face" of the LGBT community and at times I find myself wanting to throw a shoe at the one who is speaking about mass Outing, which I think is a stupid tactic. Or about "saving" LGBT Arabs who live in the West Bank or Gaza.
*sigh*
No one is perfect and I'm blinded as well by my own privilege.

But seriously, systematic oppression isn't one oppression at a time.

Comments

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

"In other countries there are also very conservative secular people. In Israel, in contrast, those who define themselves as secular have very liberal positions," Fuchs said.

This seems weird - here and in the UK and US, the most conservative and most anti-gay people are almost universally religious.

But yeah, the ties between racism and homophobia and all the other forms of discrimination are strong - and then each community is played against the other. Black against gay, poor against feminist...

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

He could be thinking of Russia... which is both very secular and very homophobic (and racist and other stuff as well), as is the majority of formerly soviet Europe.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Oh, that makes sense. There's a major difference, though, between people who were forced to be secular under Communism (and might otherwise identify with the religious groups) and people who can choose, as in Israel and the rest of the world. Forced secularisation doesn't bring much in the way of religious or personal freedom!

[stateofwonder.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Gotta agree with lilacsigil, in Canada I can think of few "justifications" for being anti-gay save religion. Actually, right now I can't think of ANY, though I'm sure there must be some.

Weizman's quote is dumb on many levels. Way to further alienate your community, and alienate people within your community. And "the Arabs"? WTF.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

See my comment to lilacsigil, I could be wrong, but he could have been thinking of that.

Weizman's comment is just... horrible. I have a lot to say about the men who view themselves as "representative" of the LGBT "community".

[violachic.livejournal.com]

israleft

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Excellent!