Gays Attacked at Palestinian Protest

One might think that oppressed minorities would tend to stick together and support each other, but that isn’t always the case — especially when one of those minorities is the gay community. During a recent demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London, members of the gay rights groups OutRage and Queer Youth Alliance were verbally abused by both Muslims and Christians.

365Gay reports:

As soon as they arrived at the square members of the two groups were surrounded by an angry, screaming mob of Islamic fundamentalists, Anglican clergymen, members of the Socialist Workers Party, the Stop the War Coalition, and officials from the protest organizers, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). They variously attacked the gay activists as “racists”, “Zionists”, “CIA and MI5 agents”, “supporters of the Sharon government” and accused the gays of  “dividing the Free Palestine movement”. PSC organisers asked the gay activists to “stand at the back of the demonstration”, and when they refused blocked their placards with their own banners and shouted down the gay campaigners as they tried to speak to journalists and other protesters.

They were there to voice their support for the Palestinian cause — sure, they also wanted to protest the treatment of gays by the Palestinian Authority, but that hardly seems like a justification for calling them “racists” or “Zionists.” And what is with the screaming “Anglican clergymen” joining Islamic fundamentalists? Were these evangelical Anglicans who normally can’t vent that sort of anger against gays because of social pressure?

Fortunately, most of those at the demonstration “expressed no hostility” towards the gay participants — a fact you might not see mentioned in the reports of some of those who are simply looking for an excuse to bash Palestinians and “leftists.”

Read More:

• Southern Baptist Convention
• Evangelicalism
• Evangelical Christianity & Homosexuality
• Palestine and Israel
• War on Terrorism