The "lol, Queers for Palestine" distraction, and how it serves anti-LGBTQ+ actors

Unlike what much of the online and legacy media commentariat would have you believe, queer/LGBTQ+ people supporting Palestinians is entirely logical, morally important, and a case of intersectional solidarity, while standing in the face of the establishment united in telling you it's wrong.

Since October 8th, when Israel started their "self-defense" following Hamas's attack on the country, which saw somewhere around 1200 people killed, alongside many other Leftist, progressive, anti-war and anti-ethnic cleansing groups, who have agitated through protest against the aggression, that has led to an unknowable number of people being killed in Gaza (given the massive, widespread, destruction that has been wrought to buildings and infrastructure, as well as the following breakdown of civil function and society), one group that has been prominent, and has captivated the media class (in a disparaging way) is the loose collective known as "Queers for Palestine".

On its face, it is obvious why they would. In both the West Bank and in Gaza, homosexuality is mostly seen in a negative light, and violence is committed against LGBT Palestinians. Many of them do flee (if even possible) for the relative 'safety' in Israel. But the underlying message that is being portrayed by the "lol, Queers for Palestine" narrative, is that you should not care about anyone there who is, maybe even that there aren't any in the first place, because the conditions are so hostile to an existence, and you should of course be supporting a state that allows and 'accepts' gay people, and are a 'progressive democracy', even as they're destroying all infrastructure, which leads to that unknowable number of deaths, exerted at the hand of the Israeli bomb (and of course with the full support of the United States and other Western countries).

I have had this put to me too online, even on the 'lefty hug-box' Mastodon. I should actually support the state mercilessly bombing and killing these 'savages', when if they got the chance to, they'd kill you.

As a gay guy, I should 100% without question support the country that puts out the likes of this below, even as they extinguish the lives of other humans.

A screenshot of the official Israeli state Twitter account, on November 6th 2023, endorsing an anti-LGBTQ+ pastiche, aimed at queer people supporting Palestinians at Columbia University (by the way. the added H is of course Hamas - and notably, with no added 'K' sound before it).

The first case came out following the first student campus protests at Columbia University in November, when in mocking them, they decided to push a skit that uses stand-ins for queer people, to show just how stupid they are. By this point in their 'self-defense', Israel had already killed 10,000 people.

Why would this 'progressive, pro-LGBT utopia' turn around and do this? Something that would not be out of place in regressive, reactionary outlets of the hard and far-Right? That's the whole point. The connection of the religious right in America with Israel is so important, that it wouldn't have in any way the same level of support and backing from almost all of the establishment in the USA, if it wasn't for groups like AIPAC and CUFI, and the evangelical fundamentalists - who require a state of Israel to exist, as a way to bring about the eventual rapture, where once it is destroyed, they all will ascend to God's table, alongside a few of their temporary bed-fellows, although most Jewish people, who are being currently used, will stay in hell with the rest of the infidels.

So of course they would follow alongside the rhetoric of the American Right, given the widespread support of the political and media establishment. Indeed, I reckon it could easily have been created in one of their many powerful 'think tanks' like the Heritage Foundation, as the sketch was performed in English, and not Hebrew, so I wouldn't be surprised if there was collaboration with one of these groups, with it clearly done to target to Americans, and the West more generally.

Only one week later - on November 13th 2023 - the same account posted about "the first ever Pride flag raised in Gaza" by Yoav Atzmoni, with two images - one with a Star of David boundaried top and bottom by pride colours, but the other with a pride flag with the disgusting text of "In The Name of Love", standing in front of an area of Gaza he along with others effectively had bombed into the dirt.

Then there was the disgusting image above, of a soldier in the Israeli Army gleefully flaunting a Pride flag, daubed in the text of "In The Name of Love", standing in front of a Gazan town that he has helped to turn mostly into rubble. Just fucking disgusting, and inhumane on its face. But let's say I support that, and that all those in Palestine are 'anti-gay vermin' or whatever. Now that image will be used to re-confirm to 'the enemy' that LGBTQ+ people are, by those in power who hate us - not only in Palestine, but in other countries, and that will be used to target those of us who do live in these countries, who often are persecuted and terrorised by state actors and wider society, to commit even more, and heavier, violence against them. This is not something that is 'helping us' - it's hurting us. You are now connected with these actions, that will be used by those who propagandise their populaces against our being.

But those pushing this don't give a fuck about that. Because it's all a game to them. A game of blood. And not of those who have the least to lose.

It's not even as if Israel is this LGBTQ+ utopia their pink-washing advertising suggests. Yes, it is of course better than all the other states surrounding it - it could almost not be, but unlike back here in the West, there is no path to same-sex marriage inside the country, forcing couples to elope to countries that do to then be recognised as such. And then you have a large number of members of the current right-wing coalition government led by Benjamin Netanyahu (who for this great 'democracy' somehow has spent over 16 years, across four decades, in power), who are openly and proudly anti-gay. This is also where 'Jerusalem Pride' has had its existence attacked by ultra-orthodox political and religious groups since it was formed, and directly by the same person in 2005 and 2015, and even in 2023, anti-LGBTQ+ attacks were committed against participants.

This of course is something we now see from the same political, media and religious sectors in the West as well, with the near-constant five year witch-hunt against trans people, and documents like 'Project 2025' that will end up reverting gay status to the margins if enacted. But I don't support that, so why would I support this, just because it 'looks' better? The halcyon days of gay rights in the UK and US were in the late 2000s and early 2010s. During that time, both countries were killing untold hundreds of thousands of people in Afghanistan and Iraq. Neither of those countries care for gay rights either, and as our governments and political bodies 'supported' them instead (however fleetingly that proved), I guess I should have supported those murders too?

I don't believe in this nation-state project - I think that it has been one of the most violent endeavours enacted on people, where lines on a map, drawn up by our ruling over-lords, have led to wars, violence, consolidation and seizure of power, and the tribal nature of pitting one country versus another, that has led to our loss of morality against fellow humans, that we now see, and are told to, as an 'other'. I support people, not states. That's why when I see others, who like me as a gay person, are being systematically oppressed by the violent arm of a state, I will stand by their plight - even if they, today, believe in doing me harm. Because that is also our history (and judging by current projections, our future also).

And that is why you will see LGBTQ+ people support Palestine, alongside many of us already being in the progressive and Leftist spaces where we have trust and kindship from our fellow humans (unlike the flimsy nature of liberal 'allyship', and when it is time, the hostility of conservatives), that leads to understanding of the intersectional struggle of humans as mentioned above. And that hand extends to most of us, even at home amongst those who have been told their life is actually being made worse by 'blue haired freaks', and fallen to the reactionary right-wing ecosystem. The 1% isn't just some glib meme. It really is the powerful, who are looking almost solely after their own interests, against the rest of us. In this case, it is an occupying ethno-state that is indiscriminately wiping a whole area that they have encircled and captured, off the map, along with the lives of thousands of people. That, unlike what the "lol, there's no 'queers' in Palestine" lot will have you believe, under societal threat and oppression, includes LGBTQ+ people.

And when you begin to think about why the world is like it is, as you will do as and once you leave the status quo 'liberal/conservative' bubble, you will see the connections and mirrors of oppression against groups of people, are not limited to just being gay here, or being Black here, but they are everywhere in every country. Because this global hierarchical system called capitalism needs in-groups and out-groups to even function. The system promotes 'dog eat dog' as the only way to 'climb the ladder', so of course we both turn against each other to 'get a leg up', but also those who hold the power over us, will use that to create enemies and villains, both externally and eventually, even more insidiously, internally. Once you see that, you gain back that humanity and morality stripped from us, and see those who struggle under this system like you as your 'friend' (even if again they've been told to hate), and not your 'country' and those who have ruled over it.

Here in the West, we have a 'settled' society of perceived stability and abundance, so of course we can become more liberal and relaxed against groups of people who are 'different' and 'threaten the social norms/fabric, and traditions'. Although as we see today, when that is threatened by economic and environmental collapse, the ruling class will manufacture a re-occurrence of the same aggression against those minority communities, so they can maintain their stranglehold on all of the rest of us, even if we're white, male, cishet, like they themselves mostly are. But no wonder that a society is repressive and regressive when they are having the boot shoved on their neck by an expansionist power, that leads to violence both against them in the form of the support for Hamas in Gaza, as well as within to the 'other' amongst them. Material conditions matter in bringing about social liberalism. And of course, on both sides, we can't also remove the religious component that gets used in their political rhetoric. Though again that is seen even more clearly and noticeably in a global sense by the American evangelical Right, and how they have economic and structural power to push that over a much wider plain of the Earth than just at home.

Those of us who know, or are now going through, state-sanctioned violence and oppression for our identity, know what it will feel like for others in a similar fate around the globe. Because that is what it is, a global resistance to fight for long-lasting (not waning on the whims of the powerful) emancipation for all of us. So we should, must, extend that olive branch to those elsewhere in the same plight and fight, even if they have been told to reject it. Because one day, that hand won't be 'chopped off for your sodomy', but returned in solidarity. And why would I leave my morality and support because of their individual disgust today, when there are plenty of others in our own 'liberal and enlightened' lands who proudly and are openly platformed, using the same kinds of language and rhetoric to try to agitate for the same kind of oppressive order?

Finally, the whole "lol, Queers for Palestine" distraction is both illogical, as I've mentioned already, but is extremely destructive if you take this twisted logic to its end. It is in fact a very close fit with the more regularly trotted out by pro-Israeli sycophants line, that being anti-Israel is really antisemitism, which given the fever pitch of it now in the chattering class, will lead to real antisemitism going unnoticed and unchallenged. With instead now "everyone and everything - from student anti-war protesters, all the way to the United Nations General Assembly - is Khamas", and the real antisemitic people, mostly in the hard and far-Right ecosystem, getting away scot-free to continue spreading their anti-Jew hate into more and more heads, as they're convinced by the media and political establishment of their overall grand plan that will improve their life, despite not having any interest in doing so, but grabbing even more power and wealth from you than they have now, along the way. By equating Israel to simply being Jewish, like mentioned earlier with the Pride flag in front of a bombed out town, you are now tied with all the actions that a hard right-wing government and state apparatus are doing, just because of your personal belief and religion.

So, if either LGBTQ+ folk in the occupied Palestinian Territories 'don't matter' if they are killed by a war machine, or if even worse there is 'no such thing as them there', then that will be seized on by anti-LGBTQ+ actors here at home in the West - and this time it will have been gift-wrapped to them. "Oh, you are so worthless you can be killed without any backlash? Maybe we can do some of that to you 'degenerates' here too". Or "oh, if there is no Palestinian/Arab/Muslim gays, then I guess that proves that being gay is indeed a 'lifestyle choice' (and not something innate as you 'groomers' have been lying to, and 'cancelling', us for telling 'the truth') and so we can actually go back to removing your human rights, driving you from society and repressing and criminalising your existence". And again, if you don't believe that will even happen, it's already being done in the US in red states, and by reading the Heritage Foundation-led 'Project 2025' agenda you can see just how far these right-wing ghouls want to go. After the anti-trans hysteria was manufactured within these lobby groups and then disseminated by media and politicians around the Western world, why wouldn't you think that won't happen again?

So those are the reasons why myself, along with many other LGBTQ+ people support Palestinians against Israeli aggression, despite the purported incoherence of that position. We don't get our rights in a vacuum of circumstances - and if we can't support those in a similar position to our fight and plight because 'they would want you dead', then you can't expect support to you to not drain away too, when there will always be people and groups looking to trap you as well.