End the silence
By Eyal Gross Published: 08.03.09, 00:54 / Israel
“If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.” That was the political legacy of Harvey Milk, the first politician to come out of the closet in the United States and a member of the San Francisco city council; the movie about his life, which ended in murder as he predicted, was one of the most important films in recent times.
If the murder of the two young people at the gay center was indeed motivated by their sexual orientation, this is the gravest hate crime ever carried out in Israel based on this motive. Yet we must keep in mind that this was not the first case. In the 2005 Jerusalem Pride Parade, Yishai Shlisel stabbed three participants. The latest incident ended on a graver note.
Anyone involved or active in the homo-lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in the Tel Aviv in the 1980s and 1990s is well familiar with the basement on Nachmani Street, the association’s home and the community’s beating heart for many years. With the passage of time, the community left the basement to embark on activity at various sites in the city and across the nation. In the past year, a significant part of the activity shifted to the gay community center in Tel Aviv’s Meir Park.