Politicizing Gay Pride Toward Antisemitism

"Capital Pride is supposed to be an inclusive event where anyone can show up and feel safe, to protest and celebrate LGBTQ+ history and the struggles."

"It's a place where everyone should feel welcome, but it feels like they're asking Jewish people to leave their history and religion at the door."

"[At this juncture I feel] targeted and unwelcome [fear for my safety amidst the anti-Israel messaging by Capital Pride leading up to its August 25 parade]."

"I don't understand it. It creates division. Everyone wants peace and the war is a difficult topic for a lot of people, but I don't know what it means for the safety of the Jewish community."

"What was the point? Capital Pride can't achieve peace in the Middle East, but this opens the door for nasty rhetoric."

Dan Pujdak, LGBTQ, member of Jewish Federation of Ottawa

"By portraying itself as a protector of the rights of queer and trans people in the Middle East, Israel seeks to draw attention away from its abhorrent human rights abuses against Palestinians."

"We refuse to be complicit in this violence. Indeed, to withhold our solidarity from Palestinians in the name of upholding 2SLGBTQIA+ rights betrays the promise of liberation that guides our work."

"We join our voice to the calls for greater protection of civilians and reject any attempts to use a devastating conflict as a pretext to advance hate."

Capital Pride Instagram political statement

Over 230 different groups and floats took part in the largest Pride Parade to hit the streets of Ottawa, Sunday, August 27, 2023. Photo by Ashley Fraser /POSTMEDIA

Capital Pride appears to have aligned itself alongside those within Canadian Society who profess concern over the human rights of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, where gays and trans dare not reveal their sexual status for fear of the very real potential of becoming a target of violent repercussions in a culture and a society that rejects any deviation from the heterosexual experience of 'normalcy'. In a conflict where the Jewish State was forced to pivot from a state of quiet ceasefire to one of full-scale conflict.

A situation brought to bear by the October 7 full-scope atrocities that thousands of Islamist terrorists inflicted on border towns and kibbutzim in southern Israel, dispatched by Hamas in a planned mass atrocity that included serial mass rapes, mutilation, massacres of children, the elderly, entire families whose homes were torched as they hid in 'safe rooms', and the hunting down and slaughter of hundreds of young Israeli civilians attending a music festival. Capping it all off by the abduction of 250 Israelis from infants to septuagenarians, to add to the 1,200 mostly civilian deaths.

This barbaric event appears to have been overlooked by the planners of Capital Pride, while accusing Israel of genocide, failing somehow to recognize that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PLFP and Fatah have an unfortunate habit of protecting themselves from expected IDF responses to missiles fired into Israel from Gaza by installing themselves within the civilian population as both insurance that such responses will be retarded for fear of mass casualties resulting, and as a goad, while making propaganda use of civilian casualty numbers to impress upon Israel's detractors that Palestinians are innocent and Israeli responses to barbaric assaults are unforgivable.

Dan Pujdak's point is that Capital Pride, in ingesting and adopting that propaganda is airing its inclination toward Jew-hate and by so doing adds fuel to the volatility of tensions involving the conflict in the Middle East. At a time when hate crimes against Canada's Jewish population have increased significantly since the conflict began in October of 2023. The vast majority of all hate crimes across Canada target Jews, the effect of domestic Islamist slander working overtime.

An additional dimension of puzzlement to the Jewish community is that Capital Pride has been in touch with the Jewish Federation in an exchange of emails for the direct purpose of avoidance of socially conflicting public messages. The need for this type of outreach is abundantly apparent in viewing other such parades in Canada and the U.S. which had seen rising levels of hateful antisemitism included. Capital Pride had committed to measures to be taken to ensure security of all parade participants.

In Vancouver last weekend, the Pride parade was aborted when masked protesters hoisting banners and Palestinian flags interrupted the parade partway through its route. Pride Toronto in July cancelled its annual event which is the largest in Canada, when pro-Palestinian groups blocked its parade route. That same month in Fredericton, organizers of Pride chose to cancel their parade when board members were harassed after they excluded the University of New Brunswick and the Canadian military unless ties to Israel were disclosed.

When a last minute resolution restored the parade, the mayor of Fredericton and New Brunswick's lieutenant-governor chose to opt out of participation in the parade in recognition of the political tensions surrounding the event.

Ottawa CTV News

 

"What I really hope is that Capital Pride is focused on building solidarity and ties to help people come together in fighting all kinds of hate."

"Ottawa Pride has always been an amazing day and the Jewish community has been a part of that, but I don't know if that will be the case if there's this rhetoric front and centre."

Dan Pujdak