Gay leaders from Israel snubbed by Seattle's gay commission

[Mosby]

Bowing to pressure from some gays outraged by Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, the city of Seattle commission that represents gays canceled a Friday reception at City Hall for a visiting delegation of Israeli gay leaders.

Commission members, some City Council members and local gay-community leaders had been invited.

The Seattle LGBT Commission had previously agreed to host the meeting, one of several the six-member Israeli delegation had scheduled on the West Coast — with stops in San Francisco and Los Angeles — to exchange ideas on advancing gay rights.

Only in Washington state, however, did the team encounter pushback from fellow gays.

At a heated commission meeting Thursday, a small, vocal group spoke out against the Jewish nation, saying Israel is masking what some call its poor treatment of Palestinians by promoting its positive record on gay rights — a phenomenon that has become known as "pinkwashing."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017771557_israeligays17m.html


Seattle LGBT Commission

http://www.facebook.com/seattlelgbt

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. This is a theme here in WA, and its really frustrating.

There's been so much outreach from the Israeli left, from publications like Tikkun Olam to the American left. But they get dismissed, while the American right wisely embraces the Israeli right, and therefore have formed a powerful coalition with the power to direct events in the middle east in all the wrong directions.

We on the left in Washington need to realize the facts: Israel isn't a monolithic force anymore than America is: rather its a dynamic country with all kinds of views working out its politics, with both positive and negative influences on the inside. In the unfolding of world events, there is almost nothing more important right now than our ability to identify and work with those positive and progressive forces in Israel to help push the future of the middle east in the right directions. Working with these forces is in no way anti-Arab or anti-Persian, because the fact is that wise policies are supportive of their long term best interests as well.

PEace

[BigDemVoter]

2. I hate to see this. . .

It makes me think of how I'd feel about being ostracized for something the Bush administration did---an administration I found appalling and which many members should still be charged with war crimes.

[mitchtv]

3. It sounds counter productive to me

Israeli Gays are our allies, shunning them is not good for anyone.

[Behind the Aegis]

4. I hate to see this, but it isn't really all that unexpected.

It goes to show how deep some bigotry is.