FAQ for "Occupy the LGBT Center!"

• Why are we protesting against the LGBT Center?
• What do we want from the LGBT Center?
• Queer liberation and Palestinian self-determination? Aren’t these separate issues?
• What is “pinkwashing”?

NYC Queers Against Israeli Apartheid: queersagainstisraeliapartheid.blogspot.com
For info on Israeli Apartheid Week: newyork.apartheidweek.org

Why protest the LGBT Center?!
In March 2011, New York’s LGBT Community Center banned queer groups, or any others, organizing for human rights in Israel/Palestine from renting meeting space. The Executive Director justified this action alleging that if the Center is to be a ‘safe haven,’ then the Israel/Palestine conflict cannot be discussed. In censoring these issues, the Center’s board gave a nod to avowed anti-Muslim Zionists who threatened a donor boycott if the Center allowed criticism of Israel. The ban mandates that queer Palestinians/ Muslims/Arabs must promise not mention an issue deeply affecting their communities—the conditions of Israeli occupation, inequality and exclusion that Palestinians confront daily in Israel/Palestine.

The Center's “haven” then is for Zionist, not Arab, Muslim or especially Palestinian, queers as the ban brands anyone who even discusses the racism and violence of the Israeli government as a terrorist sympathizer, and a threat to the safety of “good” and “normal” queers. The Center’s Board has hidden behind closed-door meetings, flatly ignored calls, letters and requests to dialogue, and has refused to come forth with a promised policy on who can rent rooms at the center. They have failed the diverse LGBTQ communities and must be held accountable. A year has passed and it’s time to renew our action.

What do we want from the LGBT Center?
The Center must end its ban on queer organizing for Palestinian human rights and it’s moratorium on any discussion of the Palestinian struggle. We demand that all who support the stated mission of the Center be welcome there: we call for an end to the Center's actions that have alienated so many Palestinian queers, immigrant queers, queers of color, progressive and activist queers. We demand transparency from the Center; the Center must open its board meetings and decision processes instead of excluding the community.

Queer liberation & Palestinian self-determination? Aren’t these separate issues?
In Palestine, they're inseparable. LGBT Palestinian groups like Al Qaws, Aswat, and Palestinian Queers for BDS have sent a clear message to queers worldwide: to support queer liberation in Palestine, stand against the apartheid that denies all Palestinians' human rights. As Palestinians, they can not separate sexuality and gender from the ethnic, religious and racial discrimination that controls movement, access to education, employment, housing, etc. There is no queer freedom without Palestinian self-determination, without the power to create conditions of freedom for all. As allies of queer Palestinians, we recognize that our solidarity includes opposition to Israel’s occupation.

What’s “pinkwashing”?
In 2005, the Israeli government launched a multi-billion dollar public relations project called “Brand Israel," painting Israel as “progressive” and “democratic” for the purpose of deflecting criticism of its inhumane treatment of Palestinians. The Israeli government touts itself as a gay haven, and tells queers that Palestinians (and Arabs and Muslims universally) are our enemies. In fact, queers in Israel struggle with the religious right just as in other countries and cultures. But queers in Israel are additionally subject to apartheid laws, which deny Palestinians basic rights and restrict relationships between Israelis and Palestinians of any gender. In the words of one queer Palestinian organizer, “It doesn’t matter to queer Palestinians if the soldier at the checkpoint is gay or not; it matters that he’s there at all!”

NYC Queers Against Israeli Apartheid: queersagainstisraeliapartheid.blogspot.com
For info on Israeli Apartheid Week: newyork.apartheidweek.org