With Tel Aviv's annual LGBTQ carnival underway, some reminders:
There is no same-sex marriage in Israel
Religious Zionist rabbis regularly incite against the queer community
Bills to improve LGBTQ rights continually fail to pass
Gay "conversion therapy" is still a thing in Israel
There is no same-sex marriage in Israel
Religious Zionist rabbis regularly incite against the queer community
Bills to improve LGBTQ rights continually fail to pass
Gay "conversion therapy" is still a thing in Israel
Another reminder: the fact that the Israeli gov't throws piles of money at putting on an annual gay circus doesn't make Israel a queer haven
But LGBTQ folk who point out the double hypocrisy of promoting Israel as a gay Eden, even as it continues to deny basic equal rights to queer ppl, are told to shut up and be grateful we're not being 'thrown off rooftops'
Because obviously, members of minorities should be thankful for the scraps we're thrown by the oppressive majority
And if you push the analysis even further, and question how Israel can use a Pride event to advertise itself as a beacon of human rights while brutally suppressing Palestinian rights - well, that's just the ultimate sign of ingratitude
That's what anti-pinkwashing activism is about - challenging the hypocrisy of promoting Pride at the expense of genuine equal rights, and challenging the privilege of focusing on your own community's position at the expense of everyone else's
Any kind of progress for queer rights that fails to destabilize other forms of oppression is not a real victory - it's just rearranging the status quo. And there is no liberation in that
