Israeli LGBTQ+ Community Verbally Attacked

When a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government verbally attacked the country’s LGBTQ+ community on June 20, it did not go unnoticed in the North American Jewish LGBTQ+ community.

Yitzhak Pindrus, a senior member of the United Torah Judaism party, claimed the LGBTQ+ community is “the most dangerous thing to the State of Israel – more than Islamic State, more than Hezbollah, more than Hamas,” referring to organizations that Israel considers enemies and threats to its security.

This was only the latest controversial attack against the LGBTQ+ community by Pindrus, or by other members of Netanyahu’s government. Bezalel Smotrich, who leads the Religious Zionist Party and is finance minister, calls himself a “proud homophobe.”

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“As Jews, we know that too often when people say bad things, other people do bad things,” said Ethan Felson, CEO of A Wider Bridge.

Pindrus also stated, “I don’t just have to prevent the Pride march; I have to prevent the entire movement.” And he is not the only government member who wants to cancel all Pride parades. So does Avi Maoz, who leads the Noam party. Diaspora affairs minister Amichai Chikli has called the Pride parades “vulgar.”

So, it’s not surprising that the U.S. organization that advocates for Israel’s LGBTQ+ community, A Wider Bridge, sponsored a mission of 25 people to Israel in time to join the Jerusalem Pride parade on June 1. According to Ethan Felson, CEO of A Wider Bridge, two Atlantans participated in the mission: State Rep. Sam Park, the first LGBTQ+ state representative, and Malik Brown, who works in the office of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.

Felson, who joined A Wider Bridge three years ago after working for the Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said he is more than familiar with these kinds of controversial remarks by Israeli government officials.

GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said, “Targeting people for who they are, or their race or faith, is an attack on fundamental freedoms and the health and well-being of all.’”

“We are keenly aware that there’s been an increase in not just LGBTQ+ rhetoric but also in violence that inevitably follows,” Felson told the AJT. “As Jews, we know that too often when people say bad things, other people do bad things.”

According to Felson, “there is a sad toxicity to public discourse globally and far too often it is directed at the LGBTQ community. It’s a global phenomenon,” but when it happens in Israel, it is “particularly painful because we love Israel. We hold the Israeli LGBTQ community close to our hearts.”

Not only did A Wider Bridge recently send a mission to Israel, it is in the midst of a campaign to raise funds for several LGBTQ+ organizations in Israel. As of June 22, the New York-based organization raised $100,000 towards its goal of $180,000. “We are giving impact grants to 18 different LGBTQ organizations.”

Felson noted that the LGBTQ+ communities in Israel and in the U.S. are in alignment. “We face similar threats,” he said.

In fact, the Anti-Defamation League, in partnership with the national LGBTQ+ organization GLAAD, just released its “first-of-its-kind” report that identified more than 350 acts of harassment, vandalism and assault motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ hate and extremism from June 2022 to April 2023 in the U.S.

In his statement announcing the report, ADL CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt said, “This report provides a sobering snapshot of the deluge of hatred and extremism that the LGBTQ+ community faces every single day. This hatred of the LGBTQ+ community is not isolated, and ADL understands the interconnected nature of extremism. Over a third of these incidents also involved antisemitic tropes and dozens also included racist tropes.”

Malik Brown, who works in the office of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, participated in the mission to Israel sponsored by A Wider Bridge as did Georgia State Rep. Sam Park.

He added that “roughly half of these incidents involved individuals associated with extremist groups.” As GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis notes, “this new report makes abundantly clear that extremism is escalating against LGBTQ+ people. Targeting people for who they are, or their race or faith, is an attack on fundamental freedoms and the health and well-being of all.”

GLAAD is a non-profit organization focused on LGBTQ+ advocacy and cultural change.

Among the trends the report noted were the target types of attacks on the LGBTQ+ community. These included 138 incidents relating to drag events and performers, 33 incidents relating to schools and educators, 23 incidents relating to healthcare facilities and providers, and 22 incidents relating to government buildings and elected officials.

“The baseless ‘grooming’ conspiracy theory was the most cited anti-LGBTQ+ trope, with at least 191 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault making explicit references to ‘grooming’ or ‘pedophilia.’”

Referring to the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community in Israel and the U.S., Felson added that “thankfully, we live in a society that rejects this brutal and bigoted approach to their lives and loves.”