The idea that Israel can be LGBTQ-friendly while committing crimes against humanity is nonsensical. A nation that has no regard for human rights will never respect LGBTQ lives.
LGBTQ rights are Palestinian rights, for the right to love and be yourself applies to Palestinians just as much as it does to everyone else. So too are the rights of Palestinians human rights. These issues are interconnected, and as long as discussions of Israel and Palestine center on support for Israel and not how to support a safe, stable, and democratic region, it's hard to see how LGBTQ people, Muslims, Jews, Christians, or anyone else in the area will truly know peace.
The connections between civil rights and human rights have been long understood, even by those who may disagree with me on Palestinian rights. On Dec. 6, 2011, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton famously stated in a speech to the United Nations that “gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights.” It was an homage to her 1995 UN speech on women’s rights. Both are important statements about how we cannot separate the two because civil rights cannot exist in a situation absent human rights.
This truth is pretty simple. So it has not surprised me to see LGBTQ activists stand up for Palestinian rights over the years. When I was a staffer for The National LGBTQ Task Force, I saw LGBTQ activists frequently protest in support of Palestinians, even rushing the stage at the Creating Change Conference, long before the recent conflict in Gaza. The latest crisis has only brought more members of our community out to stand up against this violence. So I find it incongruous to read in OutSFL how incredible it is that LGBTQ people keep standing up for Palestinians, especially since “the Jewish State [Israel] is the only place in the Middle East where queer people can live our lives without fear of violence or death.”
It is always troubling when someone wants us to disregard the bad actions of a celebrity, corporation, institution, or nation-state because they support LGBTQ people. Not being a bigot is as deserving of applause as not violating child labor laws — it is a basic expectation. Yet, what makes this particular use of it so disturbing is that it shows a disregard for the LGBTQ people living in fear of death at the hands of Israeli forces in Gaza, displaced in southern Lebanon, facing missile strikes in Iran, or attacked by Israeli extremists in the West Bank.
Claiming Israel is safe for LGBTQ people also forgets that LGBTQ people in Israel face a far-right government that refuses to grant marriage equality and may even take their rights away, as well as possible death from an Iranian strike in a conflict the United States and Israel started. In fact, not just LGBTQ people but Israelis in general have faced such deteriorating conditions from Israel’s actions that Tel Aviv University found that approximately 270,000 Israelis left the country in the last three years, far more than at any other time since 2009. Of course, Israel’s treatment of its citizens isn’t the worst problem, since the country’s actions in Gaza have gone well beyond a proportional response to the Oct. 7 attack and have become a genocide.
This crime is precisely why so many have turned against Israel, and why the nation is not safe for LGBTQ people, Jewish people, or anyone else. For if a government believes it could displace over a million people in Lebanon this summer — with 360,000 still displaced and another 700,000 still affected by damaged infrastructure and homes — then it certainly could do the same to others. So too can a government that committed a genocide against one group do it to anyone. This is to say nothing of the instability Israel has likely created for itself or the trouble it may have getting help since public support for the country in the United States, its chief ally, has collapsed.
Some may want to debate what is and is not a genocide. The International Association of Genocide Scholars found Israel’s actions in Gaza to be a genocide. If one wants to split hairs on crimes against humanity or claim they know better than the leading scholars, one can, though I find the words of the late openly gay Jewish Congressman Barney Frank apply here: “Trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table; I have no interest in doing it.”
Instead of trying to argue that military actions may only be heinous but are not a genocide, or distract with claims of support for LGBTQ people, we need to acknowledge what happened and start supporting an end to the violence. Then perhaps we can start discussing building new paths forward that ensure the human and democratic rights of all in the region, including those who are LGBTQ, Jewish, or Palestinian, are respected regardless of what borders are drawn.
Alex Morash is a Wilton Manors resident and the former press secretary for the Florida Democratic Party. He also appears as an anchor on Queer News Tonight.
