Of Dykes and Men

To hear the organizers of the Chicago Dyke March describe it, their exclusion of three Jewish marchers for carrying a rainbow flag with a Star of David on it was a victory for inclusiveness.  Those brave souls who stood up and threw out the Jews were defending the rights of oppressed Palestinians.  After all, how can one defend a certain group of oppressed people without defending them all?  Doubling down on their actions, the Dyke March leaders issued an Official Statement, proud that their cause stood up to world “Zionism.”

The fact that the Jewish Star is primarily a religious symbol, that it predates the Israeli flag by thousands of years and that the Jewish marchers’ flag bore as much resemblance to the Israeli flag as a cross on the rainbow would bear to Finland’s flag meant nothing to the Dyke March organizers.  By enforcing exclusion, they struck a blow for inclusion.

Gay Pride is only the latest well-intentioned cause to degenerate into Orwellian doublethink.  Ask the students and faculty at Evergreen State University in Washington, where all white people were told to leave campus.  Gay Pride however, is heading dangerously toward a state where a civil rights movement produces its own codified racism.

The Jewish marchers were ordered out for one reason, they were Jews.  They wanted to show their pride in being both Gay and Jewish.  The Dykes (their word) declared that the Dyke March, and the entire “Dyke” movement, were pro-Palestinian.  This despite the fact that the Palestinians’ record on Gay issues has been deplorable.  To the Dyke leaders, the Jewish Star is on the flag of Palestine’s “oppressors”.  Therefore the star becomes a symbol of that oppression.  There can be no room for discussion, differentiation or nuance.

It’s easy for the Dykes to hate Jews.  Jews are history’s eternal villains.    And of course the Dykes claim they don’t hate Jews.  They hate “Zionists”.  That’s even easier.  Anyone hating “Zionists” gets all the cover s/he needs from the United Nations and many other causes, including many that, like the Dykes, call themselves “progressive”.  Simply frame anti-Semitism in the form of anti-Zionism and you’re golden.   More than that, you’re virtuous.

As with so many others’ Jew hatred, there is no need for consistency in the Dykes’ stance.  The crescent moon symbol of Islam is on the flag of many Islamic nations.  As a rule, their record on Gay rights is terrible.   Some of these nations illegally occupy other lands.   Any guesses as to what the response from Dyke March organizers would have been if the Islamic Crescent were asked to be treated the same as the Jewish Star?

Invariably “inclusive” movements like the Dykes collapse in on themselves.  The Dykes suffer from the same disease that afflicts so many causes that start out seeking social justice.  They can’t stay focused on what they’re trying to accomplish.

Fundamentally, the Dykes support Gay rights.  Israel’s Gay rights record is good; far and away the best in the Middle East.  Logically one would assume the Dykes support Israel.  One would be wrong.

Not only do the Dykes not support Israel, the radical fringe of the Gay rights movement has developed a term – “Pinkwashing” – for describing why one should hate Israel.  To this fringe, Israel’s strong Gay rights record is not something to be proud of.  To the contrary, it represents a smokescreen for disguising Israel’s larger human rights abuses.  Anyone who supports Gay rights and also supports Israel is being fooled.  Consistent with this twisted logic, the Dykes’ commitment to Gay rights is manifest by their support of a Palestinian nationalist movement led by men who trample on Gay rights.  Up truly has become down.

Unfortunately for the Dykes, no one can be sufficiently doctrinaire.  The more causes like Gay rights link themselves to disparate issues such as Palestinian nationalism, the less anyone can come down on the “correct” side of all of these causes.  Indeed the Dykes post-march Official Statement reads less like Gay rights advocacy than Palestinian propaganda (“Zionism is an inherently white-supremacist ideology…We welcome and include people of all identities, but not all ideologies…Palestine is being occupied by Israeli military forces, and at the time of writing, Gaza is currently being bombed…”)

Radical Gay rights advocates such as the Dykes now have excluded all supporters of Israel.  Who comes next?  Any Gay woman who works in the fossil fuel industry?  Liberal icon Robert Kennedy Jr. and actress Jenny McCarthy believe vaccines produce autism.  Many progressives have jumped on this bandwagon.  Is any Gay woman who wants to be a parent allowed to vaccinate her child?  Would she be allowed to march?

As always, Jews are the canary in the coal mine.  Gay rights is now linked with anti-Semitism as causes “right-thinking” radical progressives should uphold.  True civil rights advocates should be mortified – and wary.  Little could be worse for the long-term strength of the Gay rights movement than to inject it into the complicated Middle Eastern mess – and certainly not on the side of oppressors of Gays.