Recently, I took part in the World LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) Youth Leaders Summit in Tel Aviv. Wahoo! Yes, my friends, the very same controversial and not-so-controversial summit you just may have read about on the news and/or Facebook. The event was hosted by IGY (Israel Gay Youth). There were over forty participants from around the world, including the USA, Chile, Iceland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Mongolia, India, Singapore and Mayalsia, just to name a few. There were also a handful of Israelis and an Iranian queer refugee who now lives in Canada. I came as a volunteer at Hoshen (Education & Change: The Educational Center of the LGBT Community in Israel) and as a general young queer leader/activist. Yay activists!
It was pretty cool. OK, that was an understatement. It was one of the most fascinating and amazing weeks of my life. Take forty young LGBTQ leaders from around the world, each from different backgrounds and each active in different projects, bring them together for a week of learning, sharing, educating, meeting, visiting and collaborating. Throw in a little bit of human rights and controversy, and the magic is just bound to happen. Perhaps also a little faith, trust and fairy dust? Not to mention a year of heart-drenched planning on the part of IGY and other LGBTQ activists in Israel. In a word: fabulous.
Of course, we had our summit seminars and workshops. I even got to share my very own “LGBT Youth Literature Project,” an online library for sharing LGBT literature for children and young adults – now to be even more international and multilingual! But that’s just the beginning! On Monday we met with Ron Huldai, the mayor of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, proud supporter of the LGBTQ community in Tel Aviv and the new Municipal LGBTQ Community Center, and there was much talk of Tel Aviv, the “Pink City.” Did I mention that Tel Aviv is trying to promote itself as a top LGBTQ tourist destination and an international city? We queers are so cosmopolitan! And popular! Well, I suppose the efforts are somewhat mutually beneficial. Our community gets support, Tel Aviv looks good, more queers come to Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv looks good … you get the picture.
And, after our lovely meeting with the mayor, a group of us were cordially invited to an “unofficial” “alternative event” hosted by local left-wing radical Queer activists (among them a number of notable transgender and Palestinian activists) who had chosen to boycott the summit. We listened to alternative narratives and discussed the controversial (and rather a la mode) topic of Israeli pinkwashing. Is Israel using the LGBTQ community as a “model minority” to tout its human rights, in an effort to turn eyes away from its human rights abuses and questionable behavior in other spheres (e.g. Arab/Palestinian, women, religious)? Were we, as summit participants, being used as ambassadors of pinkwashing, or rather even, little lab mice of pinkwashing for Israel and the Israeli media to show the world? I’m gonna let these questions hang for a minute, and come back to them in just a bit. (I know, suspense.) In the meantime, I’ll share just a few more highlights of the summit:
On Wednesday we visited Jerusalem, where we had one of the most unique tours I have ever done in the holy city. In about one hour, we covered holy sites of Jerusalem’s three main religions: Christianity, Islam, Judaism. (Anyone ever wonder, by the way, why they tend not to take you to Christian and Muslim sites when you’re on a “Jewish” tour? Just saying…) We also went to the Knesset, where we met with Knesset members from the Kadima, Labor and Meretz parties, as well as members of the Knesset Committee against Homophobia and Transphobia and other advocates of human rights and women’s rights. The message was clear: we cannot speak of LGBTQ rights without speaking of human rights and vice versa. That message resounded in a different way when we visited Yad Vashem. I have been to Yad Vashem many times, but being there with a group of 40 international queer activists – most of whom were not Jewish and/or had never been to a Holocaust museum before – was an entirely different experience. (Has anyone ever wondered, by the way, about the very little mention at Yad Vashem given to LGBTs and the other minorities persecuted in the Holocaust? Just saying…)
Thursday was International Human Rights Day. We had a special human rights event with various European ambassadors. They like the human rights. They like the gays. Again the message was clear: LGBTQ activists must be a part of the broader struggle for human rights, and human rights activists must include LGBTQ rights. We are all human after all. Oh how we tend to forget that…
So were we all part of a big pinkwashing project by the Government of Israel? Perhaps. Is Israel wrong to take pride in its recent track record on LGBTQ rights? Maybe. Are LGBTQ rights in Israel perfect? No. But can we use Israel’s declared pride in LGBTQ rights to push toward a broader discourse of human rights, and stand up for basic human rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for all residents of Eretz Israel and Palestine? Oh yes! Do we each have an obligation as Jews and/or as LGBTs to fight for the rights of all human beings and all those oppressed everywhere, including in our midst? You betcha! That’s the thing with human rights. Once you start, you just can’t stop. So you can hold on to your little bottle of pinkwash, ‘cause I got a whole bucket of rainbow and I’m gonna paint the world!
Elliot Glassenberg is currently participating in BINA Tikkun Olam in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, one of Masa Israel’s 200 programs.
