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It likely won’t be the best received, but I wasn’t a fan of the Ottawa Pride group making this decision last year to allow the pride parade to become a Palestine protest as well.
The largest reason for me is that here in Ottawa, we have had Palestinian protests each week through the summer. There was no shortage of Saturdays where Elgin and other areas were shut down for the protests to move through town. All of this I have no problem with, and it’s part of living in the nations capital.
The problem I had with it was including the movement in the pride parade because I’m uncomfortable with a pro-palestinian message from the LGBTQ+ community because it just doesn’t exist over there. There’s a positive vibe during the pride parades about what the community has worked through and what it continues to work through, and I’m sorry but I still think too much about what some religions want to do to these groups, so mixing the messages doesn’t sit well to me.
This inclusion of the Palestine protest in the pride parade ended up with it losing a lot of funding, and supporters as well who didn’t want to get involved in the Palestinian protests, whether they supported them or not. For some of them pride is a celebration and seeing it turned into something else didn’t sit well.
Just a local opinion and the vibe that I sensed from the less-online community (read:older). It’s really not something that ended my support of anything, just something that I felt tried too hard to be inclusive.
Can I ask how many of of your irl community is queer?
Because I see this opinion online, but my local queer community in Kitchener is all supportive of Palestine, and recognizes that liberation means liberation for all.
Absolutely a fair question, and to answer, I have a number of friends that I skate with who represent many swaths of the community. We get along great and enjoy each others company, but at the same time, most are also younger than me, mostly younger to mid 20s, so I’m aware that how engaged we are is different.
These youths are engaged heavily, being involved in the Palestine protests, and very vocal about the war since it began. I’ll admit I’ve known about the settler issue in Palestine for the better part of a decade now, so I did find it upsetting that at the beginning it felt like there were a number of people “jumping on the bandwagon” of protesting, but after a little introspection I remembered that I was young and didn’t know about these things, and it had to be taught to me too.
A few of my older friends who identify as gay though also had a similar hesitation of getting involved in the protests. I think there’s a subset who have been harassed by the religions communities (and I don’t just mean palestinian religions, Christian and others as well) and would prefer that the pride parade stays a reminder of what they fought for in the generations before, and have overcome to have a much more free society for them today. Liberation does mean liberation for all, just that some people don’t feel like that group wants them to be liberated. I think the difference in age gap is what has interested me about this difference (is dichotomy the right word?
All of this to say, I just didn’t attend. I was happy that the people attending felt seen or heard, and I went on with my day. It’s a reminder that while I had an opinion and didn’t agree how things were handled, it’s not the end of the world and doesn’t really affect me that much.
I know you exist and you have my full support
However
If tomorrow Palestinians get their state, their freedom and everything, I think it EXTREMELY doubtful that queer Palestinians, or gay Palestinians, or just Palestinians that want the western freedom, will be welcome there. I’m not trying to be a dick but come on, does that even need explaining?
As long as Palestine would be a Muslim country, none of that would happen. That is a simple consequence of religion, and Islam specifically.
Don’t think for a second that the current genocide will teach people to be better, have better morals. Jees quite famously went through (arguably) a lot worse for a lot longer and how is Israel making the world better? Oh, yeah, they are the ones committing this genocide and this too is mostly due to religious influences
If you disagree, and or down vote because you don’t like the message, do me a favor: what Muslim country welcomes queer people with open arms?
do me a favor: what Muslim country welcomes queer people with open arms?
The countries listed below seem to be legally neutral on gay relationships, that’s the best queer people can get.
- Bahrain
- Kazakhstan
- Turkey
- Azerbaijan
- Niger
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Djibouti
- Tajikistan
- Albania
- Kosovo
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
Iran is homophobic but at least they fund gender affirming care.
If tomorrow
tomorrow in 24 hours things won’t be perfect…
Meanwhile Israel exists since 1948 and still NO gay marriage NO secular marriage in fact
The truth is we don’t know what the nation of Palestine would do because it has been subject to genocide for decades. Everything that you say is puuuure conspiracism.
this too is mostly due to religious influences
wrongzo. Political
what Muslim country welcomes queer people with open arms?
what theocratic country welcomes queer people with open arms?
Israel, a theocratic country, certainly does fucking not.
I will downvote, cause you called war against hamas terrorists — a genocide. Other than that, fully agree. Radical islam religion is the solo reason of all that shit that going on there. Any reasonable human being would found a solution by now, not like they didn’t had a choice instead of war. And yet, all those hamas-assholes come up with — to attack nearby country and took hostages. Focking genius solution. Attack the guys who provides you finance, humanitarian and health aide, while other countries around like Greece so fed up with your shit, that don’t even wanna deal with you. What can possibly go wrong?
…war against hamas terrorists
Israel killed 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers one by one…
