Gay Pride marches have been happening across the globe this last couple of weeks. They've ranged from the huge (Brazil) to the small, but passionate (Romania), and lets not forget our own Pride March in Kolkata which, as Ranjan has told us, went off very well. (GB was proud to have contributed to this by having a fund raising party). Here are some pix from around the world, including one from Kolkata:
http://towleroad.typepad.com/towleroad/2005/06/and_to_think_th.html#mo re Of all these, Jerusalem's Gay Pride march was probably the most dramatic. It happened in a city dominated by the orthodox of three religions, who that are all overly homophobic (I mean the orthodox, I refuse to believe the religions are necessarily homophobic), and in the face of active opposition from the city's mayor. It also happened against the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (and its worth noting that the march was open to both Israelis and Palestinians). And perhaps it was not surprising then that it was the one march that did face real violence, when an orthodox Jewish man (haredi) attacked three marchers with a knife. I haven't been able to find out what happened after that, but here's the basic news and the earlier story about how the march was allowed over the mayor's objections - and how, even better, he was literally made to pay for trying to stop it. I've also attached a profile from The Jerusalem Post of Sa'ar Netanel the openly gay Jerusalem city councilman whose dedication was instrumental in letting the march happen. What I found impressive was not just reading about his courage and openness - but how he also managed to get along with his Orthodox opponents on a regular basis, winning their respect if not their support for the march. Its a great example of how to achieve change in the real world, with pragmatism but no loss of your principles. It's also impressive to see the support that the Israeli gay movement gets from the government and the judiciary. Its good to see how despite the pressures of fundamentalists from outside and from within, Israel remains the one beacon of hope for the queer movement in the Middle East, Vikram Haredi stabs three at Gay Parade By SHEERA CLAIRE FRENKEL What started off as a lively parade of nearly 5,000 Gay Pride activists quickly turned violent Thursday as three young marchers were stabbed by ultra-religious protestors of the parade. Witnesses said they saw a young, ultra-Orthodox youth dart into the crowd of marchers and stab a young man and woman as they neared the corner of Ben Yehuda Street and Hahistradrut Street. The young woman was injured on her left forearm, while the young man received wounds to his right wrist and a deeper injury to his left upper torso. When nearby marchers saw what had happened they tried to detain the youth, who lightly injured a third ale before running into a group of ultra- Orthodox men standing on the sidewalk. The three victims were taken to Bikur Holim Hospital in the city center and were listed in stable condition by paramedics on the scene. Police said they had detained one young man in connection to the stabbing and were searching for others who may have been involved. Police also arrested 13 religious Jews who attempted to block the parade's path as it turned onto King George Street. "In light of the violence we have seen here today, it goes to show how much farther we have to go to turn Israel into a liberal and tolerant state," said MK Roman Bronfman. The parade started on Ben Yehuda Street at 6:30 p.m. with a stream of colorful balloons and music. For the marchers in the parade, the dress code was anything rainbow. But mixed in with the rainbow streamers were other ribbons marking views both for and against the disengagement. "The rainbow brings everyone together, people both for and against disengagement!" said Sarah Choler, who arrived for the parade from Haifa. She pointed to several people nearby, some of whom had orange ribbons, the colors of the anti-disengagement campaign, and others with the blue ribbons that stand for pro-disengagement. "The whole point of this is that we can all, all colors, be united under the rainbow. That is why the theme here is love without borders." But for the nearly 1,000 protestors who lined the streets of the march, love was clearly not in the air. Several protestors threw bottles of urine and bags of feces into the crowd, while others yelled "shame" at the passing marchers. A large cluster of ultra- Orthodox counter protestors gathered in front of the Great Synagogue bearing signs which read: "People with AIDS belong in hospitals" and "Homosexuality is a sickness." "I believe these are sick people," said Shifra Hoffman, who came to protest the march. "As sick people I think they should be treated, although I definitely don't agree to engaging in violence against them." "It's hard to be gay, but this event is about making people feel proud about themselves and about who they are as a gay individual," said a young gay Palestinian man from Ramallah who asked to be labeled "Boody." "It's surreal," he said. "That I cross over the checkpoints to come here. "It's as though, as a Palestinian, many people don't consider me human, and then as a gay man many people here don't consider me human." Several women of the new organization "Lesbian Religious Females" could relate to Boody's sentiments. "It's not easy to be gay and part of a group that doesn't approve," said one of the females in the group. "Whether you are Palestinian or a religious Jewish female, it's equally hard to not be accepted by your peers." For many of the people who arrived from across Israel for the parade, attending the parade was especially important because of the controversy surrounding this year's event. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Israeli minister gives go-ahead to Jerusalem Gay Pride march Fri Jun 24, 2:18 PM ET JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Interior Minister Ofir Pines said he had given the green light for the annual Gay Pride march to take place in Jerusalem later this month, overruling opposition from the municipal council. It was the duty of the municipality "to allow the right of expression to all those making up the city's population," Pines said, confirming he would ensure the parade could set off unhampered for what will be its fourth year running. Earlier this week, the municipality expressed opposition to the parade in a letter to organisers, warning it would be "a provocation and upset the sentiments of the wider public who live in or are visiting the city." Since June 2004, the municipality has been headed by mayor Uri Lupolianski, an ultra-orthodox Jew. Organisers of the "Love Without Borders" parade dismissed the letter and had pledged to appeal the municipality's ban to the supreme court. Last month, organisers cancelled the International World Pride gathering that was due to take place in Jerusalem in August, because it would take place at the same time as Israel's evacuation of all troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip. With the majority of Israeli police being recruited for the Gaza pullout, the organisers realised there would not be enough forces to ensure the safety of festival-goers at the event, which has faced fierce opposition from senior Muslim, Christian and Jewish clerics as well as at grassroots level. Despite antipathy for gays among Israeli religious circles, homosexuality was legalised in the Jewish state in 1988 and since then, the rights of gay couples have been recognised by the courts. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Parading his victory by Larry Derfner, THE JERUSALEM POST Jun. 30, 2005 The elevator door in Jerusalem's City Hall opens on the ground floor and inside stands Mayor Uri Lupolianski with his bodyguard. Waiting for the elevator is Sa'ar Netanel, the forthrightly gay city councilman and nemesis of the haredi mayor. Grinning in full gloat, Netanel dressed in casual-to-sloppy Jerusalem style, with shirt tails hanging over his loose jeans gets in and asks the mayor provocatively, "What, don't I get a mazal tov [congratulations]?" Lupolianski short, well-tailored, every bit the confident mayor responds in kind. "Mazal tov for what?" he quips. "Did you just have a son? When it's something serious, I'll congratulate you." Netanel laughs. It's Monday afternoon, a day after a Jerusalem court overturned Lupolianski's decision to ban the fourth annual Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade, scheduled to depart Thursday as originally planned from Zion Square. The court ordered Lupolianski to pay NIS 30,000 out of his own pocket to Open House, the local gay community center that appealed the ban, to cover half its court costs. The municipality will pay Open House the other half. "Looks like my battles cost you NIS 30,000 this time," Netanel teases the mayor. "Your battles," Lupolianski replies dismissively, and he and his bodyguard hustle out of the elevator to a waiting car. This is a great day, a great week, for Netanel and the Jerusalem gay community whose relations with the city have gone together like oil and water. Not only are they in constant conflict with the local haredim and the national religious, but recently, in the battle they lost to stage the WorldPride international gay festival in the capital next month, they found themselves up against a coalition of Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders who were unanimous in their stance on this particular issue. Buoyed by this victory, Lupolianski tried to put an end to the local annual gay pride parade, which attracts a few thousand homosexuals many of whom come dressed in what could be considered outrageous get- ups along with a handful of Kach rabble-rousers who come to chant insults. The parade also results in pashkovilim, or public denunciations, being plastered on the walls of the city's haredi neighborhoods, cursing this "abomination" in the streets of the holy city and warning the faithful to keep their distance lest they become "infected." "The gay pride parades have turned out to be processions of lewd sexuality lacking any civilized character, in which some of the participants walk around in provocative dress that exposes their private parts, all for the purpose of causing a cheap, wild sexual sensation," argued Hanan Doron, the lawyer hired to defend the municipality against Open House's appeal. City Attorney Yossi Havilio refused to handle the case, saying the city's position was indefensible. Judge Moussia Arad agreed, ruling that a community cannot be denied its right to free expression merely because some members of the public-at-large are offended by it. Among the Jerusalem gay community, Netanel, 34, is the lightning rod for anti-gay antagonism, which comes mainly from the haredim. Elected to the council as number two on the Meretz list two years ago, his is the most public, defiant face of the city's gay community. And if there were any local haredim who weren't familiar with that face, they were introduced to it during the protests over last year's Gay Pride Parade. "I was the star of their pashkovilim," Netanel says in a lengthy interview in his City Hall office between endless phone calls. "A huge picture of me was printed on the posters, along with my home phone number, my office phone number, and even my mother's phone number. Even now, hardly a day goes by without me getting an SMS threatening me or calling me names. But the worst was that they called my mother, who's in her 70s, and said obscene things to her and told her they'd kill me. Finally she had to change her phone number." For a while Netanel needed police protection: Once, while driving, he received a threatening call from someone who told him he could see which street the councilman was traveling on. CHAIN-SMOKING Marlboros in an office with a gay rainbow flag on the wall, a Peace Now banner in a cardboard box, and a desk buried under a blizzard of documents, Netanel says he is a veteran of political battles against the city's haredim. Joining the local Meretz branch at age 16 and rising in the ranks, he became one of the lead organizers of the 1990s' protest convoys to keep Bar-Ilan Street open on Shabbat protests that attracted stone- throwing from young haredim. "I once got hit by a stone in a very delicate place," Netanel recalls. "I was seeing stars." Coming out of the closet in his early 20s, Netanel became chairman of the Hebrew University's gay student association, The Other Tenth. Later, he managed the city's first gay bar, the defunct "Lulu," and now is co-owner of Lulu's successor, "Shushan." The bar, which attracts not only out-of-the-closet secular gays but also closeted religious and Palestinian ones, was hit by a minor arsonous attack during Passover, at the height of the WorldPride controversy. No one was caught. At City Hall, however, Netanel says he has gotten no unfriendly treatment from any of the many haredim going in and out of the corridors, and in fact gets along very well with those he works with. "They shake my hand, they invite me to come have dinner with their families," he says. "They've gotten to know me, so their attitude is, 'We'll accept Sa'ar. He's sick, but he's nice, he's intelligent.'" On the third floor of City Hall's Building Four, tolerance between gays and haredim is pretty much a practical necessity: Netanel's office is on the other side of a narrow hallway from the offices of councilmen from United Torah Judaism. "We're in and out of each other's offices all the time. Come on, I'll introduce you to them," he says, leading the way into a room where a few UJT men are talking. "This gentleman is a relatively intelligent dos," says Netanel, fearlessly using the pejorative for Orthodox Jew in introducing Councilman Shlomo Rozenshtien. "Dosson," Rozenshtien corrects him, using an even worse name for the religious. Introducing himself as chairman of the Appropriations Committee, he says he is proud it voted against funding the Gay Pride Parade. He and an aide then razz Netanel about not wanting to be left alone in a room with him. Thus, at the outset of the meeting, the air has been cleared. Indicating Rozenshtien, Netanel says, "He's always coming around to shnorrer cigarettes from me." "Not anymore I switched brands," says Rozenshtien, showing his pack of Parliament Longs. "Parliament Longs? You know who smokes those?" says Netanel. "He's going to tell us the lesbians," says one of the UJT men. "No, the queens," says Netanel. "Here we go," says Rozenshtien. "Why can't you at least smoke a real man's cigarette?" says Netanel, and Rozenshtien looks at me and says, "Now you understand why the Jerusalem Municipality is against the Gay Pride Parade?" After Netanel returns to his office, Rozenshtien, turning serious, says of the parade, "Jerusalem is not the place for this. I would have expected [the gay community to understand that this is a different, special, holy city." Noting that in their work, he and Netanel do all sorts of collegial favors for each other, Rozenshtien says, "We have very serious ideological disputes, but the fact that we work next door to each other and get along personally loosens the tension from those disputes." Acknowledging that he never expected to have such a "harmonious" working relationship with a gay Meretz councilman down the hall, the haredi lawmaker suggests that "politicians at the national level could learn from our example that ideological battles can be fought respectfully." The verbal "ping-pong" he plays with the haredim down the hall is the same kind he plays in the Council chamber with Lupolianski, says Netanel, suggesting that the mayor is outclassed. "One time I brought in a point of order about how there were hardly any women getting appointed to the boards of city-owned companies that the appointees were all men. And Lupolianski said, 'I would have thought you'd like that.' And I said, 'Seeing the kind of men you associate with, I prefer women.'" Cheerful banter aside, Netanel runs Lupolianski down for his "ignorance," "homophobia" and "fanaticism." He interprets this week's court verdict as a message to the mayor "not to act like thug." Still, he says he finds "Lupo" as many people around City Hall refer to the mayor to be a "likable man, and I think he likes me, too." On his way to a committee meeting, Netanel stops in to say hello to the Shas faction. With a deadpan expression, Shas Councilman Shmuel Yitzhaki asks him, "Why didn't you bring me an invitation, I want to be there, too." Yitzhaki is referring to the ceremony Netanel will be hosting in City Hall's auditorium to mark the start of Gay Pride Month. One of Yitzhaki's aides says of his boss, "He wants to be the guest of honor on the dais." With the committee about to convene, Netanel doesn't have time for further verbal fencing. "Listen, you want an invitation, I'll bring you one," he shrugs, heading off down the hall. Seconds later, a ripple of laughter can be heard from the huddle of Shasniks. Crossing Safra Square, Netanel is called to by an elderly haredi councilman, Ya'acov Shneur. Shneur comes over and speaks his piece about the Gay Pride Parade. "Jews are against it; Muslims, Christians, secular people are against it. King David said..." "You know about King David and Jonathan?" Netanel asks with mischief in his voice. "Are you being interviewed or am I?" Shneur scolds, then continues, "We do not want to interfere in people's personal lives..." "King David was a faygele," Netanel says. "...But such a display violates the sanctity of the city," Schneur continues stoically, "it offends people, and this must be opposed, but and I want to stress this without the use of violence." Asked his personal opinion of Netanel, Schneur quotes from the Torah: "Wipe out the sin, not the sinner." Netanel says Jerusalem is a hard city to change. "The intolerance and fanaticism are so strong, so entrenched, and when you're gay, secular, left-wing and in the opposition, it can get frustrating," he notes. Yet he considers his own dissident but sociable presence at City Hall to be progress in itself. "I am the gay community's voice, and people here have to listen to us. And because of my personality, maybe their image of homosexuals is changed a little for the better," he says. Real victories, though, are rare for the gay community, and the verdict against Jerusalem's haredi mayor and in favor of the Gay Pride Parade Group Site: http://www.gaybombay.info ========================== This message was posted to the gay_bombay Yahoo! Group. Responses to messages (by clicking "Reply") will also be posted on the eGroup and sent to all members. If you'd like to respond privately to the author of any message then please compose and send a new email message to the author's email address. Post:- gay_bombay@yahoogroups.com Subscribe:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Digest Mode:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] No Mail Mode:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Individual Mail Mode:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Contact Us:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives are at http://www.mail-archive.com/gay_bombay%40yahoogroups.com/maillist.html Yahoo! 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