Mideast Piece

From Ynet:

Some 400 Tel Aviv policemen train Wednesday for Thursday’s pride parade in Jerusalem, prepare for violence by protestors. Meanwhile, haredim continue to demonstrate against parade across country

Some 400 policemen of the Tel Aviv District police held drills Wednesday ahead of the gay pride parade, scheduled to take place in Jerusalem Thursday. The officers will join the Jerusalem police in securing the parade.

The police are taking very seriously the possibility that disturbances at the event will result in violence, and officers practiced the
use of clubs and shields in case this happens.

Meanwhile, despite an official notice published by the rabbis of the United Torah Judaism Tuesday calling on haredim not to demonstrate against the parade, violent protests ensued across Israel. Police arrested 12 haredim in Bnei Brak, including eight teens, for hurling stones at cars during the night. Two of them were later released.

Disturbances also took place at strictly-Orthodox neighborhoods in the capital, including Givat Shaul, Meah Shearim, Beit Yisrael and Bait Vagan. The Jerusalem police arrested seven people on suspicion of throwing stones and clashing with officers. Four policemen were injured in the incidents; three of them were evacuated to the hospital.

Today in 1566 King James I of England was born in Edinburgh Scotland. His father was bisexual, and murdered in bed with his lover. James, responsible for the version of the bible which bears his name, confined his love to “heterosexual” men.

Cheers!

In yet another attempt to force a Jerusalem Pride event to be halted, the city’s ultra-Orthodox have taken to the street. Last November this included extensive rioting and burning of municipal property, not to mention assaults on police and buses. Yes, these are the holy people, the ones who study the Bible all day.

Last night’s protests (above) were apparently mild, but are expected to heat up as this Thursday’s event draws closer. To me it’s all so sad and pathetic, because Jerusalem Pride is nothing like the flesh-show of other cities. Organizers have 100% respect for the conservative nature of the city, and the event - both visually and content-wise - could not be more focused on human rights, co-existence and equality.

Thanks for understanding, black hats!

John and I have been doing this blog since the end of January, and we’ve been on literally hundreds of gay-themed blogs, news sources, etc. This why I was quite surprised when - five minutes ago - I came across an English site for Iranian gays called “Homan.”

As you will see, the site is targeting gays who have left Iran and settled in the Los Angeles area, home to a tremendous Persian community. It excites me that the site seems to have similar goals to ours, i.e., community-building, human rights awareness, and GLBT culture, all aimed at this very specific community.

“I do not want a crown, I do not want a throne. I only want to rub my forehead in the dust and dance with abandon over the earth. If the Sultan would show me favour, then I might be allowed to dance even upon the winds… Because those who denounce me are not real men in the spiritual sense, they cannot accept love with all its consequences in their hearts. Oh my love, there a thousand snares in every form; oh my love, one who is not a real man can never experience true love!”

-Sufi mystic Akhi Jamshed Rajgiri defending himself before the Sultan of Juanpur

Here’s the buzz on the Tel Aviv International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival or TLVFEST opening on June 8.

Film director, producer, and manager of the Berlin Porn Festival, Jurgen Bruning, is scheduled to arrive in Israel as a guest of the Tel Aviv International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (TLVFEST) which will open June 18.

For the Tel Aviv festival, Bruning edited a special collection of films from the Berlin Festival which explore, he said, the fine lines differentiating porn, art and politics.

The festival program includes works from around the world and deal with a variety of subjects: the world of cyber-sex, same-sex relationships, a tribute to Divine and sado-drag.

“Some of the films contain explicit sex scenes and disturbing violence,” says Yair Hochner ,the Tel Aviv’s Festival’s director of programming.

“The festival particularly aspires to present Israeli audiences with important and world-renowned Queer works that are still unfamiliar to the local scene, to examine boundaries between art and pornography, to investigate social issues and to shed light on those who live their lives on the margins.”

Okay, I know there’s probably more than a few of you who think all I post about are human rights and activism and homophobia. Well, you’re kind of right if you think this, because from my point of view, the world doesn’t need another X-rated gay website.

So next time you see an entry of mine you’d like to take a pass on, I have a satisfying alternative: check out “Fake Gay News” to feel like you’re still part of the world at large but not hovering over its sad, much-abused surface.

Fake Gay News. Because real gay news is too damn depressing.

The Middle East have been sexy longer than…
Well, this picture of fishermen at Eilat dates from 1951.

You might know that GLBT youth are at far higher risk for suicide than their “straight” peers. I just read a story about a 15-year old Welsh boy who placed himself on train tracks last week to kill himself.

According to Jonathan Reynold’s family, the boy killed himself due to homophobic tauntings at school. In a final text message, the boy wrote, “Tell everyone that this is for anybody who [ever] said anything bad about me, see I do have feelings too. Blame the people who were horrible and injust [to] me. This is because of them, I am human just like them.”

Read more here.

Yesterday’s Tel Aviv Pride was not at large as past years when some 200,000 would attend (quite large when one considers there are only 7 million Israelis!). Corporate sponsors - the mainstay of any Pride event - stayed away in droves because of the ultra-Orthodox community’s threat to boycott them if they supported the event.

When all was said and done, reports put the number of participants at 15,000, with 500 police officers and volunteers posted for protection. Several dozen right-wing activists were on hand to tell participants they are bringing disaster on Israel, blah blah blah.

The day began with a rally near the spot where Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin was murdered in 1995. I found this ironic because the same forces responsible for the incitement leading to his murder (ultra-Orthodox, anti-democratic extremists) also advocate for the murder of gays (i.e., reward posters in Jerusalem’s religious neighborhoods).

The parade itself was rather tame, and ended at the beach for a slightly less tame party. “I am wearing a girdle, and I haven’t been able to breathe for an hour and I’m almost suffocating,” said one participant who came from Paris to show off his Marie Antoinette costume.

Here are some photos of yesterday’s event, the largest Pride in the Middle East (kind of goes without saying, no?):