Gay Tel Aviv : Cleveland IMC (((i)))

Tel Aviv welcomes gay tourists

It's not the first image that comes to mind when you think of the Middle East.

Thousands of gay people and their supporters marching through streets decorated with rainbow flags to a beach packed for a gay pride festival. But that was the scene last weekend in Tel Aviv as Israel's Mediterranean metropolis greeted its 11th Pride celebration that is coinciding this year with the city's 100th birthday.

Tel Aviv is one of the most gay-friendly cites in the world. Although there are no official numbers, estimates put the gay population at anywhere from 15 percent to 30 percent. The city's population is estimated at 391,000.

That political clout has translated into the city building and fully funding its LGBT center and footing the bill for the Pride parade. Tel Aviv's mayor, Ron Huldai, told the Bay Area Reporter last week that his city very much welcomes gay tourism.

When hearing that this reporter was from San Francisco, Huldai said, "You are the capital of the [gay] community."

When asked if he had ever been to San Francisco, Huldai, said, "Yes, I like San Francisco very much."

Gays in Tel Aviv are not only protected by the city government, but by the Israeli government.

Lesbians and gay men in Israel have significantly more rights than they do in the United States. Unlike the U.S., same-sex marriages are recognized in Israel if they are performed in another country. Israel does not have civil marriages. Only marriages performed in a synagogue, mosque, or church are recognized. But Israel's common law marriage also applies to gay couples, granting them virtually all the rights of married couples. Gays also serve openly in the military and are allowed to adopt children. Gay characters and celebrities are commonplace on Israeli TV. Israel has an openly gay Knesset member, its third since Marsha Freedman came out as a lesbian in the mid-1970s.

Israel is showing no signs of retreating from gay rights. To coincide with Tel Aviv Pride this year, a group of 20 students from Tel Aviv University organized a series of panel discussions and tours over five days to show off the country's strong record on gay rights. The organization, dubbed iPride, invited LGBT community members from all around the world to attend. The project was part of a fellowship program with StandWithUs, a U.S.-based Israel advocacy nonprofit organization that has the stated goal of promoting a better understanding of Israel through an examination of diverse issues. The students came up with the idea for the project. Perhaps indicative of the widespread support for gay rights among youth in Israel, they are all heterosexual.

The iPride organizers did not steer away from controversy. The students said they invited representatives from gay Palestinian organizations but they declined to attend after learning that there would be media present.

A handful of Israeli pro-Palestinian protesters showed up outside iPride's first panel last Thursday, June 11. They also were invited to be part of the panel discussion but they declined out of concern that they would be seen as endorsing the program. But organizers allowed them to attend as part of the audience and to ask questions of the panel.

"I think it is exploiting LGBT issues to do PR for Israel," Ayala Shani, one of the protesters told the B.A.R. Shani is an Israeli transgender woman.

When asked by the B.A.R. why she doesn't also go to the Palestinian territories to protest the absence of gay rights there, Shani said that it would not be her place to do so because Israel is the occupying power in the territories.

After the speakers were asked a series of pointed questions by some of the protesters, a panel member, Mike Hamel, drew applause when he responded, "Being oppressed does not give you the right to oppress. If you want human rights you have to fight them in your own backyard first."

Hamel is the head of the Aguda, Israel's LGBT organization. Hamel also chastised the protesters for not being part of the panel and telling them that it is counterproductive when opposing sides boycott discussions.

One of the speakers was openly gay Israel Defense Forces Major Yoni Schoenfeld. He was given permission by his superiors to participate in the panel in uniform. The former combat commander is currently the editor of the Israel Defense Forces official weekly newsmagazine. He proudly showed off a recent cover of the magazine that depicted two soldiers on the ground in a kissing embrace. He said the issue was warmly received by both the military brass and rank and file.

Another iPride panel took place in Jerusalem, about a 45-minute drive from Tel Aviv, but in some ways a world apart in gay rights. Unlike Tel Aviv, the city's LGBT center, Jerusalem Open House, currently does not get any city funding and has to rely on public donations, much of which come from the United States. Jerusalem's Pride Parade will take place on Thursday, June 25. Organizers say they don't want to alienate the city's Jewish Orthodox, Muslim, and Christian populations. They are encouraging participants to be respectful and dress modestly. They said they consider the parade to be a political parade, not the party-type of parade that Tel Aviv and other cities around the world host.

Jerusalem no longer has a full-time gay bar. The last gay bar, Shushan, closed in November 2007. A bar called the Edge opened in its place. It has a gay/drag night on Mondays. By the way, the documentary, City of Borders, by San Francisco filmmaker Yun Suh, is based on Shushan and Jerusalem's gay community. It will be shown as part of the Frameline film festival on Tuesday, June 23 at 7 p.m. at the Roxie Theatre. [See coverage in the arts section.] For more information on the gay scene in Jerusalem visit Jerusalem Open House's Web site, http://www.joh.org.il.

While Jerusalem's gay-specific offerings are very limited, Tel Aviv, as you might expect, is the direct opposite. In general, the scene is very late. Nothing gets going until after midnight. Nightclubs are allowed to stay open around the clock. The most popular full-time gay club in Tel Aviv is Evita. It was recently closed for renovations but will be open later this month.

The best bet for visitors to Israel is check out the site http://www.glbt.org.il and click on the gay tourism section. The biggest gay dance parties move between different nightclub venues.

The site also has a great map that you can print out and take with you. Russell Lord, of Kenes Tours, will also be happy to e-mail his gay guide to Tel Aviv if you contact him at Rlor at kenes.com.

Tel Aviv's gay beach is just north of the Hilton Hotel. There are no gay hotels in Tel Aviv, but most are very gay-friendly.

June is Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender Pride Month. parades are happening all over the world celebrating the advancement of civil rights for the LGBT population and demanding full equality. Israel is one of the most progressive countries on LGBT issues in the world, even while it sits in a neighborhood of some of the worst offenders

LGBT Rights in Israel
-Gays have full rights to serve in the military
-Sodomy laws were struck down in 1988
-Full civil rights for LGBT people established in 1992
-Partner benefits for all governmental employees, including the national airline, El Al
-Partner adoption rights
-In 2007 the State agreed to recognize same gender marriages preformed abroad, similar to its recognition of other civil marriages from other countries
LGBT Pride in Israel

* Pride parades take place annually in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Eilat and Haifa. Attempts by Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious groups to stop the parades, mostly in Jerusalem have consistently been blocked by the Israeli Supreme Court.
* The first transgender person to win the Eurovision contest was Israeli Dana International in 1998 with her song, "Diva". Eurovision is watched by hundreds of millions of people through Europe, Asia and Africa.
* Openly gay singer Ivri Lidder is amongst Israel's most popular entertainers
* Openly gay movie producer Eytan Fox has become one of Israel's most important film exporters to the world, with his movies "Yossi and Jagger", Walk on Water" and "The Bubble".
* Openly gay politicians have served in the Israeli Kenneset and on the city councils of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem

For more information
The Agunah, Israel's main LGBT civil rights organization
http://www.aguda-ta.org.il/

Jerusalem Open House, the LGBT community Center of Israel (also serving the Palestinian territories)
http://www.worldpride.net

Gay Middle East, covering Israel and the entire Arab world
http://www.gaymiddleeast.com

Go gay (Hebrew language portal)
http://www.gogay.co.il

more propagannda from the zionazis.
if Arafat was here the queers would be
put in there place.
Ima fuckwat.

No dancing and no gays if Hamas gets its way

A VISION of an Islamic society that bans mixed dancing and sternly disapproves of homosexuality has been given by Mahmoud Zahar, the most senior leader of Hamas in Gaza.

After controversies when a Hamas-led council halted a dance festival and Islamist gunmen stopped a rap band performing in Gaza, Dr Zahar defended the enforcement of a strict interpretation of Islam.

“A man holds a woman by the hand and dances with her in front of everyone. Does that serve the national interest?” Dr Zahar said on the Arabic website Elaph. “If so, why have the phenomena of corruption and prostitution become pervasive in recent years?”

Because of successes by Hamas in municipal polls and its likely strong showing in January’s parliamentary elections, secular Palestinians fear that it will try to impose its ultraconservative vision on them. Its Gaza heartland has no cinemas or bars, yet the West Bank has a brewery and Ramallah restaurants serve wine.

Dr Zahar condemned homosexual marriage, saying: “Are these the laws for which the Palestinian street is waiting? For us to give rights to homosexuals and to lesbians, a minority of perverts and the mentally and morally sick?”

He denied that Hamas wanted a puritancial regime, and said its political and social institutions included women.

If it looks like ubbermenschen / superior beings propaganda, it probalby is.

Oooooh, some people say that because Zionists are such better people, that somehow, Zionists are supposed to have some sort of ill defined birthright of murderous theft of Palestinan lands. Because the Palestinians are such untermenschen / sub humans. And somehow, that is supposed to make the Democrap's and Republitrash's support of the Zionist's bloodsoaked crusade somehow less of an offense.

And you thought that crap went out of style when the OTHER brand of NAZIs got their assed kicked into the history books. But here, and in many other ways, the Zionist and their enablers get their ricks off by pushing the ubbermenshen / superior beings rant to rationalize their chosen war of conquest of Palestinian lands.

My God, a terrorist fellating sack of shit finally tells the truth!

Both fight over sucking rights to Arafat's corpse, neither can post one line that's coherent, and both couldn't spell their way out of the cemetery. And neither remotely share the same ideals of the indymedia, in this case the rights of homosexuals.

So, which pile of fecal matter is which?

"If it looks like ubbermenschen / superior beings propaganda, it *probalby* is.

Oooooh, some people say that because Zionists are such better people, that somehow, Zionists are supposed to have some sort of ill defined birthright of murderous theft of Palestinan lands. Because the Palestinians are such untermenschen / sub humans. And somehow, that is supposed to make the Democrap's and Republitrash's support of the Zionist's bloodsoaked crusade somehow less of an offense.

And you thought that crap went out of style when the OTHER brand of NAZIs got their assed kicked into the history books. But here, and in many other ways, the Zionist and their enablers get their *ricks* off by pushing the ubbermenshen / superior beings rant to rationalize their chosen war of conquest of Palestinian lands."

Arafat was a collaborator. To HELL with that piece of shit.

But as long as you FAIL to trash anything I write and ALL you can come back with is pointing out my poor spelling, I am fine with your shit ( good enough for Cleveland tools) responce.

Cleveland must be a real toilet of a town if the Zionists and their enabler shillSS can load you up with their inane crap.

WHAT? People in Cleveland don't like being exposed as mindless tools??? Since when???

You gotta love how just another appeaser acts like such a badass. I guess it thinks it's important.

Fuck Palestine. They're all wastes of skin.

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