The Pride That Was
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?):
June 9th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
I have mixed feelings about pride events. While I agree with their celebration of who we are, I think that they often play into the stereotypes of our detractors, as opposed to causing them to see what we have in common.
June 10th, 2007 at 6:02 am
I actually was thinking JUST that at the Tel Aviv Pride on Friday. In the end I am favor of them because sometimes I think a community needs to get in the public’s face before they are “granted” rights and seen as actually existing. With that said, I am much more in favor of those Pride events (i.e., Jerusalem ones) that are real human rights demonstrations and not flesh parties.
June 12th, 2007 at 2:45 am
yeah, it is hard to argue to be treated like adult full fledged members of society when we act like perverted teenagers…
June 17th, 2007 at 9:01 am
I disagree. We are who we are and we need to be seen, at least once a year, in all our color and glory. Our detractors will detract anyway. And quite frankly, I’m not even terribly interested in showing my detractors what I have in common with them. Why should I be? So that they’ll like me? But they won’t.
Because let’s face it, what our detractors dislike about us is not that we prance around in gold lame (with an accent) g-strings, but that we like to have sex with members of our own sex. That’s what it boils down to. They’ll still hate us even if we “appear” normal. The important thing here, is not *how* we appear, but *that* we appear, and that we appear in large numbers. Not to show how “normal” we are, but simply to show how numerous we are.
Pride, even when it’s a party, is always a political event and a demonstration of gay rights.
August 12th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Wow - how classy…we’ll definitely win the respects of our Orthodox brothers and others dressing in daisy dukes and furry pink boots! NOT! Geez! I mean, this is just disgusting! Seriously, how do we expect to be given the right to have children (among other things) when we are acting worse than children. This is the Holy Land! Ugh, good grief!