How do you feel about an LGBT person who supports an organization whose co-founder has described gay people as being “a minority of perverts and the mentally and morally sick”? Does that sound religiously inspired? Of course it is, and when Maggie Gallagher, Michael Marcavage, Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell make a similar statement, we label them homophobic.
So why are some in our community suggesting we support an organization with that idea at its core? The organization is Hamas, whose co-founder, Mahmoud al-Zahar, made that statement about LGBT people.
Some members of our community want to support Hamas and boycott Israel since they wish to show solidarity with the Palestinians — and they did so long before this current conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
While anyone who has a centrality of humanity cares about the horrific bloodshed in this current conflict, especially among civilians, the issue for us in this community to remember is history. And I’m not saying that to be flippant, especially as our work on our turf is not yet completed.
But about that history … Early in this movement, we began to look at the ways in which the LGBT community was oppressed. Those discussions reached a fevered pitch during the time of Gay Liberation Front in New York City from 1969-71. As a part of those discussions, I can tell you that about the only one item — and at times those discussions were heated — that everyone in the room(s) could agree upon is that the very root of all oppression came from religion. And fighting that oppression and the organizations and individuals who preach it has been what this community has done. With various religions willing to modernize their oppressive ways, we have move towards equality.
One can easily condemn the bloodbath in Gaza, but you don’t have to go so far as to support Hamas’ existence as a legal government. If you do, you are supporting a regime that uses the same words as are used in Uganda today.