In the West, the LGBT movement is dead

First, let me acknowledge that I am too old or perhaps too lazy to look up the latest combination of letters, digits, and special characters used in place of the good old LGBT abbreviation. And frankly, I don’t care. The LGBT movement was once a serious movement. I don’t recognize it today.

The LGBT movement was once about stopping police violence against gay people. Now the police no longer persecute gay people, and they even have special units to fight anti-LGBT crime, as it should be.

It was once about ending anti-LGBT discrimination in the workplace. It was about allowing gay couples to live safe and normal lives, get married, adopt children, and hold hands in public.

The LGBT movement was once composed of a bunch of rebels with a cause. What is their cause now?

In Ottawa, Canada, where I live, the pride events this year have turned into a farce after the pride committee issued a blatantly anti-Israel declaration that horrified our Jewish community and led the Mayor of Ottawa and several prominent organizations, including the Ottawa Hospital, the University of Ottawa, and the Liberal Party of Canada to withdraw from the pride events.

In Toronto, Canada, the pride parade was cut short after the parade was blocked by anti-Israel rioters.

In fact, this year, one would be hard-pressed to find any pride events anywhere in the Western world that were not spoilt in some way by anti-Israel activists.

One has to wonder whether the LGBT movement has become so desperate for a cause that it would adopt any cause that comes along, no matter how antithetical to the original values of the LGBT movement.

It is no secret that Israel is the only place in the Middle East where LGBT people hold pride events. Is it because there are no gay people elsewhere in the Middle East? Of course not. It’s because it’s the only place in the Middle East where LGBT people have the right to express themselves publicly without being thrown in jail or worse. LGBT activists should logically be celebrating Israel, not demonizing it.

Ironically, the Western LGBT movement has a cause right in front of its nose, the rights of LGBT people in the non-Western world. Arab and Muslim countries, of course, but also Russia, most of Africa, and many other places. In fact, a world map shows that outside of North America, most of South America, South Africa, Western Europe, Australia, and of course Israel, simply being gay can result in jail or even the death penalty.

But while most of the LGBT people in the world are being beaten, jailed, and murdered, the LGBT movement in the West is flirting with the worst anti-LGBT ideologies. It no longer cares about LGBT people.

As someone who has fought for LGBT rights all my life, I am beyond disgusted by today’s sorry crop of LGBT activists. I supported LGBT rights before Ottawa even had pride events. I supported same-sex marriage before any Canadian political party did. But it was a necessary fight. LGBT people needed to be safe, and they needed to be recognized as full and equal members of our society. And we won that fight. In Canada and the rest of the West, even conservative parties now support LGBT rights. I am proud to say that old LGBT activists like me have won.

But the fight is far from over in the rest of the world. This is the fight that we in the West should take on. Until that awareness happens and as long as the so-called LGBT movement is co-opted by haters, it cannot logically be called an LGBT movement. The LGBT movement that once fought for LGBT rights against hatred is now dead.

Until that awareness happens, I am staying away from pride events. I will make an exception for Israel if I ever happen to be there at the right time. I would proudly walk in a pride parade in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, or anywhere else in Israel. But I will stay away from parades where hatred is on the menu.