As someone who supports Gay Rights and believes that Gay marriage is a good thing, I'd say this item from the satirical The Onion, though meant as a spoof, makes some very valid points. The same stuff was going on at Toronto`s Pride parade:
"I'd always thought gays were regular people, just like you and me, and that the stereotype of homosexuals as hedonistic, sex-crazed deviants was just a destructive myth," said mother of four Hannah Jarrett, 41, mortified at the sight of 17 tanned and oiled boys cavorting in jock straps to a throbbing techno beat on a float shaped like an enormous phallus. "Boy, oh, boy, was I wrong."
The parade, organized by the Los Angeles Gay And Lesbian And Bisexual And Transvestite And Transgender Alliance (LAGALABATATA), was intended to "promote acceptance, tolerance, and equality for the city's gay community." Just the opposite, however, was accomplished, as the event confirmed the worst fears of thousands of non-gay spectators, cementing in their minds a debauched and distorted image of gay life straight out of the most virulent right-wing hate literature.
Pride Toronto had maintained the lie that they included the hate group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, not because they were interested in promoting anti-Semitic message of the fanatical activists, but because they did not want to 'censor' the Pride Festival.
Toronto Sun reporter Sue Ann Levy has long maintained that Pride Toronto`s supposed neutrality when it came to Queers Against Israeli Apartheidwas a sham. Now, with the commitment from Toronto City Council to deliver almost $150,000 in cash plus provide far more in services like Police support to the annual event, the veneer has fallen and Pride Toronto has shown its overt support for the anti-Israel group, promoting its most recent event on the official Pride website.
The heads of Pride Toronto and the representatives of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid were discussing and coordinating strategy between them.
However, Pride Toronto`s involvement with Queers Against Israeli Apartheid should be of serious concern, and not just because it is an affront to every taxpayer in Toronto who is subsidizing the festival.
Pride Toronto has chosen to promote a group whose senior members have shown support for countries and individuals that promote the persecution and even murder of Gays because of nothing other than their sexuality.
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid`s spokespeople have supported and held banners at Toronto`s al Quds Day rally, which along with its goal of eliminating Israel is also a show of solidarity with the Islamic Republic of Iran, where the persecution and execution of homosexuals is entrenched policy. The rally is largely driven by one of Iran`s chief acolytes in Canada, the notorious Islamist hatemonger Zafar Bangash.
Bangash has called for Muslims to dominate what is now Israel and impose Sharia Law there. Given his outspoken devotion to the Khomeinist leadership of Iran, it is safe to assume that the version of Sharia Bangash wants for Israel would be the same as Iran, which he describes as representing `the true values of Islam today. They make us proud of Islam!`
Israel is the only country in the middle east to recognize Gay marriage and have laws protecting Gay Rights. The values of the nation admired by the man who holds rallies that Pride Toronto-promoted Queer`s Against Israeli Apartheid`s leaders attend in support include hanging Gay men from cranes as punishment for their `sins.` Pride Toronto nor even the vapid hatemongers of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid are likely to condone the persecution of Gays. But in the case of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, they are a group comprised of fanatics who are devoted to an anti-capitalist, anti-western ideology and they are willing to make common cause with virtually anyone they see as allies.
Their interest is not Gay rights, but taking down America, and America's allies, of which they consider Israel to be particularly vulnerable, and therefore a ripe target.
Making the fatuous argument that Israel, where Palestinians enjoy more civil rights than in virtually any Muslim country, is an apartheid state, is transparent bigotry as well as absurd propaganda. But Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, as the preposterous name of the group suggests, are not comprised of particularly intelligent individuals. Many of them have obvious psychological problems. They make the absurd, narcissistic claim that Israel's support for Gay rights is not based on respect for Human Rights but is what they call "pinkwashing". From the appearance of the ratty group of unkempt clowns in Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, "pink" isn't the only type of washing they oppose. These HamasSexuals might better describe themselves as Queers Against Personal Hygiene. These idiotic, posturing radicals blame Palestinian persecution of Gays on Israel. So how do they explain the persecution of Gays throughout the Muslim world that is so closely linked with the Palestinian cause? Is the persecution of Gays in Iran, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia also all because of Israeli Apartheid? In the unlikely event that Queers Against Israeli Apartheid ever got their way, that same murderous oppression would extend into the one sanctuary that Gays have in the Middle East. At last month's Toronto Executive Committee meeting, a Gay physician, Dr. Paul Druzin, saidhe does not want his "Gay tax dollars" to fund Pride if it includes a hate group like Queers Against Israeli Apartheid. The fact that Pride Toronto supports such a group is an insult not just to Gays in Toronto like Dr. Druzin, but to anyone who is concerned about the persecution of Gays throughout the world. This obscene cooperation between the so-called Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and Pride Toronto not only discredits Pride's leadership, but calls the suitability of Toronto to host the World Pride Festival next year into question. UPDATE: Blogwrath was there, enduring the whole tedium. You see the videos he put up of the entire lecture HERE
