Israeli ministry recruits queers and "diverse" flight attendants as pitchmen

Israel has stepped up its campaign to innoculate American liberals against critiques of its apartheid laws. The effort centers on queers and other minorities (just as New York's Jewish Community Relations Council specifically recruits NY City Councilmembers and other leaders from communities of color for its carefully-scripted junkets to Israel.) Although the campaign is reportedly sending "ambassadors" to in response to invitations to speak, it looks like the ambassadors are being packaged as a tool for Israel lobby...

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Queer voices are being co-opted for racist, anti-gay attacks. Where are our advocates?

Going forward, QAIA's blog will include opinion posts like this one from individual activists, marked with an "Opinion" tag. These are not QAIA statements. This is an op-ed written in July 2011, just after QAIA and other anti-apartheid queers had populated Pride marches across New York City. It was never published. Gay City News seemed fatigued of constantly covering the issue, but hadn't (and still hasn't) covered the intense implications of queer institutions' complete failure to respond to a racially- and politically-loaded...

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New threats and silencing from the LGBT Center

Below is a reportback from December 1st at the Center, when QAIA was invited to speak briefly at the screening of the Starlite film (which looks really great, by the way.) The upshot is that the Center is still actively silencing and coercing queers who try to use Center space to discuss queer stuff that the Center finds "controversial." The Center is also still apparently content to silence communities of color without concern for the particularly disturbing implications of that. And the ban on queer discussion...

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Documenting "Brand Israel"

In the wake of the NYT Pinkwashing op-ed, Sarah Schulman and the folks at PrettyQueer.com posted this handy Documentary Guide to Pinkwashing. It tracks Israel's perverse queer-oriented PR campaign to cloak apartheid in LGBTQ rights, from 2005 to the prese...

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Pinkwashing hits the New York Times!

Queers have known about pinkwashing for a good while. But because queers are now the sacred darlings of liberals (or at least, nice queers are) it's been hard to crack through the well-meant mainstream's idea that Palestinian queers are better off with Israel. Sarah Schulman's op-ed in the New York Times finally gets pinkwashing the huge exposure it deserves. She hits not just the pinkwashing of Israeli apartheid, but the use of queers to demonize Muslims and Arabs far beyond Palestine. And not too soon: QAIA's...

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'The Center Cannot Hold' - Jasbir Puar on queer anti-occupation activism (not at the Center.)

Jasbir Puar writes about why Palestinian queers are not devoting resources to fighting the LGBT Center's ban, and how the Center controversy has helped exposed both pinkwashing and deep conservatism in the queer community "leadership." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jasbir-k-puar/the-center-cannot-hold-th_b_991572.html "Calls for free speech and equal access for all groups sound democratic on the face of it, but they leave unquestioned the default political positions of those running the Center; worse, it does not address...

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Lambda Legal: Don't endorse Lucas' right-wing, anti-speech campaign

Last week, Lambda Legal sent around invitations to a Fire Island Pines party -- co-sponsored by Michael Lucas and his boyfriend Richard Winger (former president of the LGBT Center's board.) Queers for an Open LGBT Center asked Lambda: really?!Kevin M. Cathcart, Executive DirectorLambda Legal // 120 Wall Street, Suite 1500New York, NY 10005-39047 July 2011Dear Kevin,Lambda Legal is one of the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organizations in the country, and it is because...

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At NYC Pride, Israel contingent attacks LGBT Palestine supporters

Will the Center provide safe space for queers under attack? So far, it's just providing safe space for attackers.NYC's Pride March saw a scary escalation of the effort to squelch queer political speech -- this time with violence. Pride marchers carrying Palestine-related signs were physically attacked by marchers from the Israel contingent. Facebook posts on "Queer support for Israel" (now apparently removed) indicated that the attack may have been aimed at Queers Against Israeli Apartheid.This attack comes directly...

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Article on QFOLC, QAIA and more: "Protesting apartheid at Pride"

Here are some excerpts from "Protesting apartheid at Pride" by Frankie Cook (June 22, 2011)http://socialistworker.org/2011/06/22/protesting-apartheid-at-pride"While QAIA received a surprising amount of support and interest at the first two New York City-wide Pride parades, the same cannot be said of NYC LGBT Center, which has kicked pro-Palestine queers to the curb. ...The center essentially took the same position as the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs by saying that it's illegitimate and illegal to call...

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QFOLC Tells Garden Partiers: Stop Censoring Viewpoints of Groups that Meet at Center

Patrons of the LGBT “Community” Center’s Garden Party at Pier 54 on Monday evening, June 20, were greeted by an informational picket urging them to tell Center board members that their policy of censorship and exclusion is unacceptable. About 45 members of QFOLC, QAIA and their supporters joined the picket.Board chair Mario Palumbo briefly stopped to speak with us, but reiterated his refusal to have a meeting between QFOLC and the board, which is one of our demands. Palumbo kept parroting what are now the Center’s...

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QFOLC Garden Party protest: some photos!

About 45 people turned up to protest the LGBT Center's censorship and general bad behavior yesterday, delivering 600 flyers to partygoers and a strong message to the Center: "you can't avoid controversy by slamming the door on the queer community!" More to come on the protest. Meanwhile, here are a few pics from Pauline Park. (Full album on Facebook her...

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Trans Day of Action takes on the Center, links queer/justice struggles

The NYC Trans Day of Action takes place next Friday, June 24th. This year, as every year, it makes strong links between the rights of trans people and other queers; demands to end racism, anti-immigrant  and "war on terror" policy and repressive policing, and battles on other social and economic justice fronts. This year, the points of unity include specific support for the push to open the LGBT Center back up to the community, and end censorship there.In the wake of protests against the Center's exclusion of...

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Protest the Center, and Protest its Welcome to Mayor Bloomberg.

by Andy Humm, Queers for an Open LGBT CenterWe're protesting the LGBT "Community" Center's lack of transparency and openness at its Garden Party on Monday from 5:30-7:30 PM with an informational picket at 14th St. and the Hudson River. But now we have another reason to protest as the Center is welcoming Mayor Bloomberg to his first Garden Party and hailing his "incredible support" for LGBT rights. The fact is, Bloomberg's record on LGBT rights and civil liberties in general has been a disgrace.Yes, Bloomberg is putting...

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QFOLC slams censorship @ NYC LGBT Community Center

Statement from QFOLCJune 16th, 2011(QFOLC has called a protest at the Center's annual Garden Party! Monday 6/20. Btw, it's NOT at the Center -- instead, at 14th St. & West Side Highway.)• Lift the Ban Against Siege Busters & Queers Against Israeli Apartheid• Open Board Meetings• Free Speech at the CenterNew York's LGBT Community Center has served as an indispensable resource since its founding in 1983. But now, something has gone very, very wrong at the Center. Its Board has turned the simple matter of...

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Reporter stumped by pretzel logic of censorship.

From Duncan Osborne's blog:http://herdandscene.blogspot.com/2011/06/can-someone-please-explain.html'I was struck by one thing on June 11. Lucas and the folks who joined him in pressuring the Center to give these two groups the boot prevented them, or tried to, from meeting and talking among themselves. When I asked Lucas if he had any plans to challenge the participation of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid in the gay pride marches in Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, he said “I don’t care. They can do whatever the hell...

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Protest @ the Center's Garden Party! Mon 6/20 @ 5:30pm

RSVP on Facebook!We're trying to put the community back in NY's LGBT Community Center. Please join us at a protest at the Center's Garden Party on Monday evening. Mayor Bloomberg is attending for the first time and being greeted by the Center as a "strong supporter," despite his terrible record on LGBT rights and civil liberiti...

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GCN on QAIA & Queens Pride: Queer speech in queer space, what's the big deal?

Another vote against censorship, this one from the Queens Pride Committee and Councilmember Danny Dromm. From Gay City News: The World, Again, Comes to Queens.'...Queens Pride also played host to Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QAIA), a group who used the parade to loudly voice their opposition to the Jewish state’s policies toward Palestinians....[Councilmember Danny] Dromm voiced uncertainty about the specifics of QAIA’s stance, but said he had no doubts about their right to participate in the parade.  “I...

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LGBT Center sit-in: weird success, failure & pix.

This evening's sit-in by Queers Against Israeli Occupation and Siegebusters, with support from QFOLC, went oddly unchallenged by the LGBT Center. About 60 people gathered in the lobby to hold the scheduled-then-banned QAIA meeting, since the Center had refused to allow QAIA to rent a room.The meeting went on for about 90 minutes and broke just about every rule the Center has ever enforced about the lobby: meeting attendees sat on the floor, blocked the flow of traffic (not on purpose, but because there were so many...

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For tomorrow's LGBT Center Sit-In: the flyer.

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Village Voice: LGBT Center's self-imposed "public humiliation."

This VV post speaks for itself. And for a lot of us.http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/06/gay_center_now.php"This is not particularly shocking, but it is the most blatantly embarrassing example of how both the Center's Board and its executive director, Glennda Testone, have been willing to placate Lucas and publicly humiliate themselves. It also shows how thoroughly they are willing to turn their backs on the Center's 28-year history as a locale of controversial free speech in order to become just another...

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QAIA calls Sit-In at LGBT Center - Wed 6/8

In response to the LGBT Center's second (or third) refusal to rent space to anti-Occupation groups -- and its announcement that such refusal is now the Center's policy -- NYC Queers Against Israeli Apartheid is calling a sit-in this Wednesday, 6pm at the LGBT Center.Many other cities have queer groups organizing around Palestine, in some cases actively supported by queer institutions like Pride Committees. In Toronto, where the city's Pride march was threatened with de-funding because of the participation of Toronto's...

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Siege Busters statement on exclusion of all Palestine organizing groups

Siege Busters Statement - June 4, 2011Regarding LGBT Center Exclusion of all Groups Organizing in Support of PalestineIt is with deep disappointment that we, the members of Siege Busters, receive the news that the Executive Committee of the LGBT Community Center has decided to extend the ban of our group to all of those organizing for justice in Palestine. It is clear from the established pattern that this decision reflects capitulation to an exceedingly small number of financially influential donors who have threatened...

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Gay City News sifts through the wreckage of the LGBT Center fiasco

Gay City News tries to sort out who exactly is pushing the Center to slam the door on queer political organizers. The verdict: a whole lot of Lucas' friends, Retail Workers Union leader Stuart Applebaum, maybe some elected officials (but maybe not.)Also, GCN's Osborne asks, how much is the Center spending on a consultant to sort this out instead of actually talking to the community? (Way too much! Since bringing on the consultant, the Center's handling of the situation has just gotten worse. It's taking a major beating...

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Lucas: Out against truth and history on more than one front.

Queers for an Open LGBT Center has not focused on Michael Lucas. He's vile, but it's the NYC LGBT Center that's the point. That said, Lucas' deliberateness in snatching away progressive queer political space -- and the huge latitude he's been given by queer institutions to do it -- is worthy of notice, if only because it's  a surprise to many of us who believed that even queers who deeply disagreed probably shared some common ground. Now that it's not necessarily radical to be queer anymore, do we still share...

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NYC Queers Against Israeli Apartheid: statement on the Center's ban of their meetings

Statement from NYC Queers Against Israeli Apartheid:Pro-Israel pressure machine is shutting down NYC queer community organizing.June 2, 2011This afternoon, the NYC LGBT Center summarily cancelled all future meetings of NYC Queers Against Israeli Apartheid -- and all LGBT groups organizing around the Israel-Palestine conflict. The Center claimed in a press release that it has been diverted from its "primary purpose of providing programming and services" by the protest and rhetoric around the question of meeting space.We...

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LGBT Center strikes again: another queer group banned.

The LGBT Center is amazing... they've done it again. They've completely given in to right-wing demands to cancel the meetings of anti-Occupation groups (and no other groups, btw.) This time they're saying it's just too hard to stand up for queers' right to organize, and it's impinging on their provision of "programming and services" -- as if queer organizing is marginal. What horrifyingly short memories.The LGBT Community Center Calls a "Time Out" In Renting to Groups Organizing Around the Israeli-Palestinian ConflictThu,...

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How fire spreads: Jerusalem Post jumps on the "Center is anti-Israel" message

A new article from the Jerusalem Post calls the LGBT Center "anti-Israel" and says that anti-occupation queers are just providing "a fig leaf for Arab homophobia." Wait -- it just reports that other people are saying that. But you'd have to do some real filtering to understand that the JPost isn't endorsing that view.In truth, the Center's board and staff are the farthest thing from anti-Israel: if anything, they appear to be so apolitical that they default to "shh, don't say anything about the Occupation!" And...

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Summary of the LGBT Center/Palestine drama so far: Pauline Park

Pauline Park (of Queers for an Open LGBT Center, among other groups) blogged a how-we-got-here history of the LGBT Center's ridiculous floundering that has resulted in their alienation of queers of color and progressive queers, and the suppression of queer political organizing. It's a sad read.http://www.paulinepark.com/index.php/2011/03/israelipalestinian-conflict-breaks-out-at-the-nyc-lgbt-community-center/Within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, the slogan “we are everywhere” is not only...

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QUEER VICTORY! Today's action is still on!

Dear friends,Pressure works! Yesterday afternoon, the LGBT Center reversed itself, and offered Queers Against Israeli Apartheid a meeting room for tonight's meeting. Thanks for all your very effective emails, calls and action RSVPs.But the huge problem at the LGBT Center is not fixed.The Center is clearly still panicked over queer political organizing -- they jettisoned their whole space request process because they didn't like the name of a queer group.The Center board is still refusing...

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Michael Lucas kicks up again.

This email from Michael Lucas circulated after the LGBT Center announced that it has approved meeting space for Queers Against Israeli Apartheid. Terrifyingly, it proposes that the Center is not allowed to host any political group meetings, and that the Center is itself an "anti-Israeli nest." (What does a pro-Israel nest look like, then?!)If ever there were a time to shore up the Center's principles of openness and commitment to queers' long history of political organizing, it's now.From: Michael Lucas Date:...

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LGBT Center's press release on Queers Against Israeli Apartheid

Here's the LGBT Center's press release on giving Queers Against Israeli Apartheid some meeting space.It's something of a mystery that the Center did not send this statement to any of the folks who wrote from Queers for an Open LGBT Center, nor the folks who send them emails about QAIA. So whom were they talking to with this press release?And second: really, it was worthy of a press release?! Then we still have a problem...May 25, 2011Statement on Decision to Allow Space Use by Outside Queer Identified GroupThe Center...

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Join the QFOLC mailing list.

QFOLC email updates and action alerts. Infrequent emails! Subscribe to Queers for an Open LGBT Center Email: Visit this gr...

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Action Alert! Thursday 5/26 - come out for an open LGBT Center!

ACTION ALERTWHAT:  LGBT group that is being denied meeting space at LGBT Community Center will show up to try to take it.WHEN: Thursday, May 26 at 6:30 PMWHO: Queers Against Israeli Apartheid supported by Queers for an Open LGBT CenterWHERE: LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., ManhattanMEDIA CONTACT: Pauline Park, Queers for an Open LGBT Center at (718) 424-4003 (phone); (718) 662-8893 (cell); e-mail: paulinepark@earthlink.netHOW TO SUPPORT:Join a support action at the Center on Thursday, May 26 at 6:30...

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Statement to the Community: Stonewalled by the Center -- Enough is Enough

STATEMENT TO THE COMMUNITYQueers Against Israeli Apartheid to Meet at LGBT Center May 26 at 6:30 PMRequest for Space Stonewalled by CenterQueers for an Open LGBT Center Say, “Enough is Enough”Queers Against Israeli Apartheid will hold a planning meeting for participation in New York-area Pride marches on Thursday, May 26 at 6:30 PM at the LGBT Community Center at 208 W. 13th St. Queers for an Open LGBT Center is calling on community members to show up on Thursday in solidarity with their request for meeting space.Queers...

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