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Right after the murder at the gay youth club in August, there was a public poll via the Ha'aretz News Paper which I wrote about at the time - that indicated 46% of those questioned thought gays are deviant. Now this came right after the murder. I'm quite convinced that if the poll was taken now or before it happened, the number would be higher.
There is currently a "scandal" in the ministry of education concerning a poem by renowned Hebrew poet Yona Wallach, who was proud of her own queer sexuality.
There is talk of censoring it because it is not only erotic, it is also explicitly queer.
Yeah, we're such a haven for LGBTQ people in the Middle East
The poem in question is very difficult to translate into English - It's called "You are (he is) my Girlfriend", available in Hebrew and English at the bottom of this post - as it relies heavily on the gendered pronouns in Hebrew - each sex has a different pronoun, making Hebrew, in Wallach's own words, a "Sex maniac".
I speak of this, not only because it's an issue that is personally dear to my heart - Yona Wallach is my favourite poet - but because while the issues may appear different, they are intertwined on an international level.
The fear, dehumanisation, distortion and silencing of queer voices transcends the local and colloquial.
I speak of this, because yesterday, I had the greatest misfortune to read a fail so monumental I do not know where to even begin de-constructing it!
I warn you, because while I've a great many editorials in which gays are maligned, dehumanised and basically accused of being a disease upon humanity, I don't think I've ever read something so virulently hateful and historically inaccurate.
I found it via Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish, who linked to The Washington Times's Letters to the Editor here, or under the ( cut )
I'm not American, so this conceivably, has nothing to do with me. But when I see this kind of mis/disinfomation, this kind of unabashed hatred, to invoke Hitler in the same sentence with homophobia is the height of ignorance.
In Israel the Holocaust is the Shoa, it is a tragedy of the Jews. At Yad Va'Shem there is very little mentioning of the rest of the victims of the industrialised murder by the Nazi's.
It was only when I was 16 and went on the school trip to Poland and was at the actual camps did I realise that there were other victims, that not all were Jews. Jews held a special place in Nazi ideology, but we weren't the only victims and there was an intersection between the different populations of course.
I had no idea that the pink triangle was the gay symbol for prisoners.
I'm digressing.
My point is; to compare a leader to Hitler because one has a personal grievance, a political/policy disagreement with him is fallacious at best, obscene at worst.
It's difficult for me to even discuss this because you know what? This shouldn't even be a discussion!
I read this lovely letter the same day, via my reading list, I read The Bad Old Days, in The Advocate. In 1967, CBS aired a news report (the full length video is embedded in the article) titled "The Homosexuals, which was basically 45 minutes of dehumanising, demonising, fear-mongering and paradigm entrenching propaganda, regarding gay men (gay women are not mention and are thus invisible, bisexuality is what happens when a gay man marries a woman and keeps homosexual liaisons on the side).
I watched it.
Talk about being touched by history. Homosexuality is a cancer spreading around America and the world. Watching pre-Stonewall homosexual activists always makes me cringe - it's like they're a begging for bread crumbs. Which is exactly what they are doing.
Begging to be treated as human beings.
Unlike the Gay Liberation movement, the Matachine society were assimilationists - the whole Lib vs. Assim isn't over
That was 1967. And this is only in the "West".
Here's the video of "The Homosexuals", if you're not interested in going to the Advocate article:
( אתה חברה שלי )
( You are my Girlfriend )
There is currently a "scandal" in the ministry of education concerning a poem by renowned Hebrew poet Yona Wallach, who was proud of her own queer sexuality.
There is talk of censoring it because it is not only erotic, it is also explicitly queer.
Yeah, we're such a haven for LGBTQ people in the Middle East
The poem in question is very difficult to translate into English - It's called "You are (he is) my Girlfriend", available in Hebrew and English at the bottom of this post - as it relies heavily on the gendered pronouns in Hebrew - each sex has a different pronoun, making Hebrew, in Wallach's own words, a "Sex maniac".
I speak of this, not only because it's an issue that is personally dear to my heart - Yona Wallach is my favourite poet - but because while the issues may appear different, they are intertwined on an international level.
The fear, dehumanisation, distortion and silencing of queer voices transcends the local and colloquial.
I speak of this, because yesterday, I had the greatest misfortune to read a fail so monumental I do not know where to even begin de-constructing it!
I warn you, because while I've a great many editorials in which gays are maligned, dehumanised and basically accused of being a disease upon humanity, I don't think I've ever read something so virulently hateful and historically inaccurate.
I found it via Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish, who linked to The Washington Times's Letters to the Editor here, or under the ( cut )
I'm not American, so this conceivably, has nothing to do with me. But when I see this kind of mis/disinfomation, this kind of unabashed hatred, to invoke Hitler in the same sentence with homophobia is the height of ignorance.
In Israel the Holocaust is the Shoa, it is a tragedy of the Jews. At Yad Va'Shem there is very little mentioning of the rest of the victims of the industrialised murder by the Nazi's.
It was only when I was 16 and went on the school trip to Poland and was at the actual camps did I realise that there were other victims, that not all were Jews. Jews held a special place in Nazi ideology, but we weren't the only victims and there was an intersection between the different populations of course.
I had no idea that the pink triangle was the gay symbol for prisoners.
I'm digressing.
My point is; to compare a leader to Hitler because one has a personal grievance, a political/policy disagreement with him is fallacious at best, obscene at worst.
It's difficult for me to even discuss this because you know what? This shouldn't even be a discussion!
I read this lovely letter the same day, via my reading list, I read The Bad Old Days, in The Advocate. In 1967, CBS aired a news report (the full length video is embedded in the article) titled "The Homosexuals, which was basically 45 minutes of dehumanising, demonising, fear-mongering and paradigm entrenching propaganda, regarding gay men (gay women are not mention and are thus invisible, bisexuality is what happens when a gay man marries a woman and keeps homosexual liaisons on the side).
I watched it.
Talk about being touched by history. Homosexuality is a cancer spreading around America and the world. Watching pre-Stonewall homosexual activists always makes me cringe - it's like they're a begging for bread crumbs. Which is exactly what they are doing.
Begging to be treated as human beings.
Unlike the Gay Liberation movement, the Matachine society were assimilationists - the whole Lib vs. Assim isn't over
That was 1967. And this is only in the "West".
Here's the video of "The Homosexuals", if you're not interested in going to the Advocate article:
( אתה חברה שלי )
( You are my Girlfriend )
