Jewish group slams anti-Israel gays
ANTONIA ZERBISIAS If there is one group that well understands oppression, it’s the gay community.
So understanding is it of the need for diversity that, according to Pride Toronto, it is the "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, intersex, queer, questioning and two-spirited" community.
LGBTTIQQ2S for short.
After attending 14 Pride parades - not in any official capacity but certainly in a drunken one - I have seen all kinds of groups participate. Some carry banners identifying members as everything from Catholic gays to Cambridge gays. Some groups have political affiliations. Some are controversial. Some are not.
Even though it’s now become a glitzy event, sponsored by banks and beer companies, and, except for some hairy "bears" and their dangly bits, totally family friendly, it has never abandoned its grassroots.
Those roots lay long buried through many years of prejudice and persecution.
Never forget, in Nazi Germany, when Jews were forced to wear yellow stars, gay men wore pink triangles and lesbians black triangles. All were sent to the camps to perish together.
Indeed, gay pride marches began exactly 40 years ago in New York City, after a brutal police raid on the Stonewall Inn.
So it’s pretty rich when the language of gay oppression is used against Toronto’s Pride parade, to be held June 28, by another group that purports to champion human rights.