SHOULDN’T QUEER PEOPLE BE CHALLENGING HOMOPHOBIA?
We are! Queers Against Israeli Apartheid aims to address homophobia, and other forms of oppression experienced by queer and trans people, in our actions and education. Queer Palestinians do face violence and discrimination and it is unacceptable. We oppose homophobia in Palestine, but we oppose it everywhere because it exists everywhere, even here. Queers in Canada have achieved some rights and many people have dedicated their lives to fighting for those rights. Despite what Canadian nationalists want us to believe, we didn’t get these rights because we live in the enlightened, tolerant west — it was not simply the natural course of history here. Social movements achieved these changes through struggle. Anyone engaged in activism knows how hard it is to mobilize people even under the best of circumstances. Now imagine trying to organize under military occupation and apartheid — these are the enormous additional challenges facing Palestinian queer social movements. Just take for example
