Queers Against Israeli Apartheid

Vindicated by a City of Toronto report, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid will hold its Pride Week activities outside of the parade, in a challenge to Mayor Rob Ford.

TORONTO — Following this week’s report from City of Toronto staff concluding that the term ‘Israeli apartheid’ does not violate the city’s anti-discrimination policy, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid is announcing new plans for Pride 2011 that will pose a challenge for Mayor Rob Ford.

“Last year’s struggle was around censorship and our right to march in our community’s Pride parade,” says QuAIA spokesperson Tim McCaskell. “With the City report settling that debate, now is the time for us to move beyond the parade to build our community’s response to Israeli apartheid.”

Instead of marching as a contingent in the parade this year, QuAIA will focus its Pride Week activities on hosting a community event to raise awareness of Israeli apartheid, and how LGBTQ communities can pressure the Israeli government to comply with international law through the campaign for boycotts, divestments and sanctions. QuAIA will also continue to contest Israel’s “pinkwashing” campaign, which attempts to use LGBTQ human rights to obscure Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights.

QuAIA’s new plans will pose a challenge for Mayor Rob Ford, who announced that he would cut more than $100,000 in city tourism funding for Pride Toronto if QuAIA continued to march.

“Rob Ford wants to use us as an excuse to cut Pride funding, even though he has always opposed funding the parade, long before we showed up,” says Elle Flanders of QuAIA. “By holding our Pride events outside of the parade, we are forcing him to make a choice: fund Pride or have your real homophobic, right-wing agenda exposed.”

Media inquiries: quaia.toronto@gmail.com

Rob Ford’s record on Pride funding and other LGBTQ issues:

2005: Then-councillor Rob Ford said during a council debate, “I don’t understand a transgender… is it a guy dressed up like a girl or a girl dressed up like a guy?”

2006: Ford argued against city funding for AIDS prevention programs, saying, “If you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you wouldn’t get AIDS probably, that’s bottom line.” He also voted against such programs in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010.

2006: Ford was the lone vote against putting up three welcome banners over roadways for the 2006 International AIDS Conference being held in Toronto that year. The city did not require any extra funding to install those banners.

2010: Ford endorsed council candidate and fundamentalist pastor Wendell Brereton, who said, “My kind of Toronto doesn’t parade immorality and call it pride.” In endorsing Brereton, Ford said, “We’re together. We have the same thoughts.”

2010: During his mayoral campaign, Ford said, “I support traditional marriage. I always have.”

While trying to distance himself from homophobic attack ads, Ford called homosexuality a “lifestyle choice.”

2011: In February, Ford was the only member of council to vote against accepting $100,000 from the province to establish screening programs for syphilis and HIV.

Rob Ford’s record on Pride funding and other LGBTQ issues:

2005: Then-councillor Rob Ford said during a council debate, “I don’t understand a transgender… is it a guy dressed up like a girl or a girl dressed up like a guy?”

2006: Ford argued against city funding for AIDS prevention programs, saying, “If you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you wouldn’t get AIDS probably, that’s bottom line.” He also voted against such programs in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010.

2006: Ford was the lone vote against putting up three welcome banners over roadways for the 2006 International AIDS Conference being held in Toronto that year. The city did not require any extra funding to install those banners.

2010: Ford endorsed council candidate and fundamentalist pastor Wendell Brereton, who said, “My kind of Toronto doesn’t parade immorality and call it pride.” In endorsing Brereton, Ford said, “We’re together. We have the same thoughts.”

2010: During his mayoral campaign, Ford said, “I support traditional marriage. I always have.”

While trying to distance himself from homophobic attack ads, Ford called homosexuality a “lifestyle choice.”

2011: In February, Ford was the only member of council to vote against accepting $100,000 from the province to establish screening programs for syphilis and HIV.

Last week, The Center, New York City’s LGBT community centre, cancelled the March 5th “Party to End Apartheid” to be held as part of Israeli Apartheid Week, after The Center was targeted for a defunding campaign by Israel lobbyists and self-promoting homo-socialites. Led by extremist Israeli-supporter and porn mogul Michael Lucas, who has done porn shoots in ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages, this bullying campaign threatened The Center’s funding and put at risk all those who depend on the The Center’s services.

This is only the latest instance of Israel lobby groups threatening the funding of LGBT organizations who allow speech that is critical of Israeli policies.  Here in Toronto, Supporting Our Youth and Pride Toronto have also been targeted by similar bullying campaigns. Last year, Toronto’s queer communities fought back and forced Pride Toronto to reverse its decision when it caved to ban Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) from the Pride parade.

Anti-censorship campaigns have been at the heart of many queer struggles: censorship has always been the tool of those who would keep us silenced.  Queer struggles for justice must be founded on solidarity. The majority of those who continue to struggle against homophobia, transphobia, and gendered violence cannot do so without also struggling against the intolerable conditions of racism, colonialism, economic oppression and state violence they live under. We cannot base our measure of justice on the comfort of the most privileged. By censoring the “Party to End Apartheid” over threats from major donors, the Center is allowing those with the most power to censor the voices of the queers who continue to face these injustices.

It’s past time for queers to call out Michael Lucas for his years of virulent anti-Arab racism and Islamophobic commentary, the most recent example of which is his column opposing democracy for Arab countries in The Advocate.  Are these the values that should be influencing the programming decisions at a major LGBTQ Centre?

If our queer institutions are to remain relevant to any but a handful of elites, we need to come together and battle this censorship.  We did it in Toronto, and we can do it in New York.

QuAIA calls on The Center to stay true to its values, and to reverse its decision and allow the event to continue as scheduled.  We know that IAW events have been held at The Center in the past, with great success.

QuAIA also offers its full support to the Siegebusters Working Group, Existence is Resistance and all Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) organizers fighting back against bullies like Lucas.  As queers, we’re here to say that the party must ALWAYS go on.

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Judith Butler, Sherry Wolf, Cleve Jones, and Sarah Schulman wrote a petition to save The Center, which we encourage you to sign:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savenyclgbtcenter/

QuAIA joins people across the globe in solidarity with the popular uprisings happening in Egypt, Tunisia and across the Middle East and North Africa. We are inspired by the energy and movement building against state repression, and we encourage our allies to follow what is happening and offer support in whatever way they can.

Queer Activism Across Borders

Thursday, November 18 · 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Beit Zatoun (612 Markham St. Toronto, ON)

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=159008674134331

Queer activists around the world have been organizing in opposition to homophobia, gender- and  sexuality-based violence both locally and across borders. We often hear about the work of large-scale NGOs, yet we don’t often hear about the queer community organizing that happens outside of the NGO system.

This panel features activists who work on queer issues in India, Canada and the Caribbean at both local and transnational levels. It will highlight the tensions that activists face when their work puts them in contact with local governments, legal systems, international relations, and even popular culture.

Speakers:
Ponni Arasu, queer activist (New Delhi, India)
The Future of Queer Activism in India

Akim Larcher, Stop Murder Music Campaign (Toronto, ON)
Working Against Homophobia in the Caribbean from within Canada

Scott Clarke, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (Toronto, ON)
On “Solidarity with Palestinian Queers”

Moderated by:
Dina Georgis (Toronto, ON)

Ponni Arasu is a queer feminist activist from New Delhi, India. She has worked with the Alternative Law Forum in Bangalore, India, as well as with the Law and Society Trust in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Her work involves a range of human rights issues including gender, sexuality, labour and conflict. She co-founded a number of collectives that work on a range of issues relating to gender and sexuality including the Nigah media collective that is based in Delhi. The collective has organised the annual Nigah Queer Fest in Delhi for the past three years.

Akim Adé Larcher, is currently the Director & Senior Consultant at The Larcher Group, a boutique consulting firm specializing in a variety of strategic directioning, capacity building and policy development services. Akim is a current board member of the International Lesbian & Gay Association (ILGA), a member on the Advisory Committee for the LGBT Program with Human Rights Watch, and the founder of Stop Murder Music (Canada). His primary focus and concern lies in the discussion and development of sexual citizenship through transnational advocacy interventions. Akim is also a 2008 Gordon Global Fellow sponsored by the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation. This fellowship is awarded to emerging young Canadian leaders who have proven their commitment to and passion for enhancing Canada’s role in global politics.

Scott Clarke is a queer community activist in Toronto, Ontario. He currently works with Queers Against Israeli Apartheid.

*We apologize, this venue is not wheel-chair accessible.