This Year's Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem

I'm pretty ticked off at both sides of this issue. I cannot swallow the claims of those who oppose the event on the grounds that it will "defile the Holy city". The three religions that dominate the city all consider each other anything ranging from run-of-the-mill heresy to vilest idolatry. And yet they somehow manage to tolerate each other's public demonstrations. Why is walking down the street holding a placard saying "It's OK to be gay" so much more despicable to Jewish sensibilities than monks marching through the Old City on Xmas carrying effigies of their messiah on life-sized crosses? I flatly disbelieve the complaint that the parade is a gross immodesty. If modesty was the real basis for opposing a parade, then the opponents would lobby for enforcement of public lewdness laws and for reasonable controls on the behaviors sanctioned among the parade's participants. They would not be trying to nullify any and every public expression of queer identity. I cannot respect a party that refuses to tolerate the respectful expression of opposing viewpoints.

On the other hand, the organizers of the Pride event can't pretend that they don't know from past years that this kind of vitriolic reaction would be provoked. Perhaps they are too full of their desire to prove a point of principle to care whether or not their actions help or hurt our cause in the long run. I certainly don't think that a bill in the Knesset to ban pride parades everywhere in the country is a step forward. (Unless the intention is to highlight how Israel's commitment to Democratic principles is a farce. But that's a whole 'nother rant.) I agree that it's a tragedy if queer people can't publicly support each other as a beleaguered minority in the capital of our nation. But it's a greater tragedy to lose the patient because you were attacking the symptoms instead of the root causes of the disease.

I don't have much respect for this dispute right now because I don't see that either side is having much respect for the other. If the queer and religious factions in this fray would actually enter into a dialog with the intention of finding a way for the GLBT community to publicly affirm their right to exist but without offending the tender sensibilities of certain religious factions, I think it could be done. But it would require serious compromise on both sides, and thus serious maturity on both sides. I'm not overly optimistic in the short term.

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