[Marxism] Fw: the gay community and zionist attacks on palestine, iran

[adgagne at yahoo.com]

From: adgagne at yahoo.com <adgagne at yahoo.com>
Subject: the gay community and zionist attacks on palestine, iran
To: "annette gagne" <adgagne at yahoo.com>
Cc: "Bill Bateman" <liberator401 at cox.net>, "kevin dejesus" <kdejesus at yorku.ca>, gayatheists at yahoogroups.com, marxism-request at lists.econ.utah.edu, peace-ri at yahoogroups.com, radicaldykes at yahoogroups.com, "wally sillanpoa" <walsil at cox.net>, "David Walsh" <davidrail68 at yahoo.com>
Date: Friday, May 1, 2009, 11:52 AM


dear friends,

this is an approach that the queer left needs to fight for within the very mainsteaming glbt organizations.

best wishes,  -A             

"if they give you lined paper, write sideways."          

contact info for annette gagne:  
po box 40573  providence, ri 02940     
adgagne at yahoo.com     
AIM ID - adgagne     yahoo IM ID - adgagne
_____________________________________________________________________

by: "Yoshie Furuhashi" critical.montages at gmail.com   yoshie_furuhashi 
Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:02 pm (PDT) 


Israel has been using the "Israel as gay oasis and refuge" campaign
against the Palestinians for some time: cf.
<http://www.advocate .com/letters_ detail_ektid8071 2.asp>
<http://repositories .cdlib.org/ cgi/viewcontent. cgi?article= 1145&context= csw>.

I don't know about Europe, but, in the US, this "Israel Is Gay" PR
offensive so far doesn't seem to have won the Jewish state many new
friends among ordinary gay men and lesbians, who still mostly lean to
the Left. Regardless, this offensive appears to be just extended to
the Iran front. Left to their own devices, the Iranians will probably
get to liberalize their sexual affairs eventually, but such a change
will surely take decades to make, and in the meantime there will be a
lot of problems that pro-Tel Aviv ideologues can exploit.
Yoshie

<http://www.arabisto .com/article/ Blogs/Amal_ Amireh/Israel_ Plans_to_ Use_Gays_ to_Bomb_Iran/ 35281>

Israel Plans to Use Gays to Bomb Iran
Amal Amireh
Published 04/25/2009 - 2:32 p.m. CST

Israel is so worried about the International community's willingness
to talk to Iran before bombing it that they are launching a new
"bomb-before- you-talk" public "relation" campaign.

Gay rights in Iran are at the center of this public "tarnation"
campaign. Israel is planning to use Iran's treatment of its
homosexuals to convince the world that Iran deserves to be bombed to
smithereens. They are planning to recruit western gay rights activists
to do their propaganda for them, according to this report in Ha'aretz.
[LINK: <http://www.haaretz. com/hasen/ spages/1079589. html>]

This is bad news for homosexuals in Iran and for those who care about them.

Ask the women of Afghanistan. Not long ago, they were mobilized for
another public relation campaign that wanted to sell the war on
Afghanistan to every American household. This is when CNN, Fox, and
Opera discovered Afghani women and were so moved by their plight that
they decided to bomb them to free them from their misery. And look at
the result! The Afghani government that was produced by years of war
has just decided that a husband has the legal right to have sex with
his wife every four days. No ifs, buts or headaches are acceptable. In
other words, the Afghani constitution legalizes marital rape now.
Afghani women, those who survived the bombing, had taken to the
streets to protest this new legislation and were pelted with stones
for their immodesty. But, hey, stones are better than bombs. So there
is progress after all.

You can also ask the gays of Iraq, who have been tortured and
assassinated by one militia or another after years of mayhem that
brought them a new "democracy." And while you are at it, talk to the
women, those who are starved, raped, sold, and beheaded in the new
Iraq.

The lesson from Afghanistan (and Iraq, and Gaza, and wherever the
bombs are falling) is that bombing a country does not improve human
rights in that country. Bombs do not make progress. In fact, the
weakest groups will be the ones to suffer most: the poor, children,
women, gays, minorities. They will pay the heaviest price of war and
militarization. Even if war does not take place, using gays in Iran
as pawn in the war rhetoric will increase their vulnerability to
violence and prejudice.

Israel knows this very well. But it doesn't give a damn about Iranian
gays. It's on the war path.

But for those of us who do give a damn, our work has just got harder.
International LGBT groups must distance themselves from the Israeli
agenda because it is the kiss of death for Iranian gays. And we all
must find ways to continue to advocate for human rights and at the
same time expose the cynical manipulation of these rights by
politicians and generals.

It is the only way.