City Of Yerushalim Funds Gay Organization

Thanks To Ger$ Supporting Mayor Nir Barkat We Have This Chillul Hashem RL

Amid a large contingent of police, including a helicopter and officers on horseback, a relatively small number of gay and transgender men and women marched through the streets of the capital Thursday night in the annual Jerusalem Gay "Pride" parade.

According to Jerusalem Open House, which represents the city’s LBGT community, while the event normally attracts several thousand participants, two postponements during Operation Protective Edge diminished this year’s showing.

Nonetheless, roughly 2,000 people – gay and straight – marched downtown to support greater tolerance of the capital’s thousands of LBGT residents.

“Both of my sons are gay, and I’ve been volunteering for years at Tehila [a gay rights organization], which supports parents of LBGT people and helps them go through the process of acknowledging and accepting their children,” said Nita Klausner.

Asked to gauge the present level of tolerance for gay citizens, Klausner said she was heartened by inroads the city has made.

“Jerusalem’s come a long way in my eyes in accepting gays,” she said. “A lot of work has been done by the Open House – which is partially supported by the municipality – including funding for support groups, lectures, and activities during the High Holy Days for those who can’t go home to their families.”

Hannah, a heterosexual ex-pat from London, who requested her last name not be published, said she marched to encourage equal human rights for all the city’s residents.

“I believe that gay rights are human rights, and as a Zionist and someone who gave up a lot to live in this country, I believe it’s important to build a society that exemplifies the "anti Jewish" values I was taught by an apikores?,” she said.

“I think that Israel needs to be a home for everyone who lives here, and it makes me sad that this is more of a demonstration than a parade.”

Yuval Sadan, a 30-year-old gay Jerusalemite, described the parade as an important reminder that a sizable gay community lives in the city and should be treated with respect.

“The parade is important in many ways,” said Sadan.

“It’s important that people remember that we want to live and prosper here. It’s also important that the gay community shows itself in the capital, especially at this time when there is a call for tolerance.”

Citing the rioting that engulfed the city following the murders of yeshiva students Eyal Yifrah, Gil-Ad Shaer, and Naftali Fraenkel which took place during gay "pride" week – compounded by the revenge slaying of Muhammad Abu Khdeir – Sadan added that much work remains to achieve a truly pluralistic community.

“Jerusalem still suffers from a lack of tolerance,” he said wearily.

Noa Luzzati, an 18-year-old lesbian from Modi’in, echoed Sadan’s sentiments.

“Here people don’t accept gay people as they do in Tel Aviv,” she said. “One of the reasons is that the government is based here and many of the religious people are homophobic. So I don’t feel safe here.”

(Jerusalem Post) highlights nesserery additions

Rally To Protest Yerushalayim's gay pride parade in Yerushalayim

Gay Parade in Jerusalem Brings Disaster on Israel

For the past decade, the gay "pride" community has been holding an annual parade through the streets of Jerusalem, much to the vexation of most of the city’s Jewish, Christian and Muslim residents.

Postponed by the summer’s Gaza war, this year’s “pride parade” will be held next Thursday.

In more recent years public outcry against the parade has died down somewhat as most Israelis are focused on other threats, like the Hamas military buildup in Gaza.

But at least one activist is raising an alarm, warning that such a public embrace of homosexuality is no less dangerous than any other threat to national security.

“[Former Jerusalem Mayor Ehud] Olmert started this trend 11 years ago, and unfortunately every time this parade took place disaster befell the people of Israel,” asserted Ephraim Holtzberg in an interview with Arutz Sheva radio.

Holtzberg has helped organize a large rally in Jerusalem’s Shabbat Square for next week to protest the gay pride event, noting that “more than 90 percent of residents oppose this parade. This is the holy city, and this kind of parade has no place here.”

He further insisted that the public’s more recent acceptance of the pride parade as inevitable is “being exploited by [the homosexual community] to defy God. …They are playing with fire.”

(israeltoday)

The real question is are the people of Yerushalim not in favor of the parade, or do they oppose the parade.

remember the charadim got out 600,000 people to protest the draft, 600,000 people protesting the parade will make this the last parade ever to be held in Yerushalim

JERUSALEM "PRIDE" WILL GO FORTH NEXT WEEK

Author: Tom Canning
Source: Jerusalem Open House
Published: September 10, 2014

Despite recent violence, the Jerusalem March for "Pride" and "Tolerance" will finally be held next week : The Jerusalem "Pride" March was twice postponed the summer following the recent violence on the streets of Jerusalem and operation ‘Protective Edge’ in Gaza.

The March will be held on September 18th, starting at 5pm in Hapa’amon Park and finishing in Independence Park.

The pride march will be produced by the ‘Jerusalem Open House for "Pride" and "Tolerance"’ (JOH).

After all but a few "Pride" events were canceled in Israel this summer, the LGBTQ community in Jerusalem decided to go ahead with their original plans to hold the event with a message of "hope" and "toleranc"e for the troubled city.

In July, The name of the JOH was caught-up in the investigation of the racist murder of 16 year old, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, following a forged statement exploiting the JOH to claim that Abu Khadeir was gay and murdered in an honor killing.

Elinor Sidi, Executive Director of the JOH: “The LGBTQ community in Jerusalem is an "integral" part of the city. Our decision to postpone the Jerusalem "Pride" March was made with a heavy heart and in deep solidarity with the social fabric of Jerusalem. Following our turbulent summer, fall is beginning to show its signs, and with it we begin the long and complex process of "healing" for community. "Pride" is about creating a city "all" Jerusalemites can feel at home in and we hope that all people; Gay or Straight, Left or Right, Jewish, Muslim or Christian, will be there and take this stand with us.”

(awiderbridge)

Churban Yerushalayim 5773

As police helicopters monitored the parade from the sky, Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, who was helping oversee officers at the procession, said officers had taken extensive measures to ensure the safety of all participants at the march.

“Approximately 2,500 people are taking part in the parade and police have secured the area, and we’re escorting all the people taking part,” he said. “Special patrol units, border patrol units and undercover units are watching over the crowd.”

Despite the heavy police presence, Rosenfeld said three arrests were made at the parade by 8 p.m. – including of a haredi man who lobbed a stink bomb at marchers, and two women who dressed up as a donkey and monkey, carrying a sign that read “I’m a proud donkey,” to incite the crowd.

“Undercover officers and patrol units arrested them, and there were no injuries,” he said.

Rosenfeld added that police have also been monitoring several anti-gay demonstrations in the capital.
“At the same time we’re dealing with counter-demonstrations taking place in haredi neighborhoods, where there is a strong police presence,” he said.

Meanwhile, several participants at the event expressed their thoughts regarding acceptance and tolerance in a religious city, pluralism, personal safety and the differences between being gay in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Chaya Grossman, 19, of Jerusalem – who was raised haredi and described herself as bisexual – said she found uncommon support from her ultra-Orthodox family.

“Maybe I’m not supposed to say it, but I feel quite safe because I have a loving family and loving friends,” said Grossman.

“But I also have friends who have been "abused" and "discriminated" against by their families and friends.”
Grossman said her family’s support surprised and encouraged her.

“My father said he knew [I was bisexual] when I first told him. But what makes it even more precious to me is that other haredi parents – and even secular parents – don’t accept their children for being gay.

“I’m fortunate,” she added.

Grossman conceded though that it has not been easy for her to be bisexual within her ultra- Orthodox community.

“Listen, I come from a haredi community, so I need to hide [my sexuality] from most of them,” she said.

In terms of comparing gay life in the capital to Tel Aviv – named the world’s best gay city in 2011 by LGBT travel website Gaycities.com – Grossman said Jerusalem is markedly less tolerant.

“I don’t really know the Tel Aviv gay community, but I know it’s much more open,” Grossman said. “Here people accept us less. We’re different.”

Guy Geron, 26, a computer science student from Tel Aviv, said he does not feel safe being gay in Jerusalem.

“I don’t feel safe here,” Geron said. “I don’t come here a lot, but my ex-boyfriend is from Jerusalem and I know I can’t act the same here as [in] Tel Aviv because here I can’t [publicly] express my affection for my boyfriend – or even speak out about things related to me being gay.

“You have to be smart here,” he added. “It’s not the way I like it, but I accept it as reality.”

Geron said he attributed Jerusalem’s lack of acceptance to the city’s “outspoken religious population.”

Asked what needed to be done to make Jerusalem more tolerant, he said the answer is twofold.
“I think it’s a matter of the politicians in office making changes, and gaining legitimacy from the people,” he said. “It’s a political process, as well as a social one.”

Meanwhile, David Shatz, 25, of Jerusalem and his girlfriend, Yael Sloma, 26, originally of Tel Aviv, said they attended the parade to support their gay friends.

“We came because we think it’s important – specifically in Jerusalem – to support gay rights because Jerusalem is a very conservative and religious city, even puritan,” said Shatz.

Sloma compared what she described as significant differences between gay life in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
“In Tel Aviv it’s like a huge party,” she said. “But here it’s more activist-related because it has much more significance, even though it should be a nonissue.

Of course, today it’s a major issue because of the parade.”

Sloma said she has noticed in the capital how rare it was for gay couples to be open in public.

“A few weeks ago, while I was walking down the street, I saw two girls holding hands, which in Tel Aviv is normal – but I realized how uncommon it is here,” she said.

Sloma attributed the dearth of openly gay citizens to the capital’s lack of “pluralism” and “liberalism.”

“I notice it even when I wear a short skirt,” she added.

Still, Tal, a journalist who requested her last name not be published, said she thinks conditions have improved for homosexuals in Jerusalem over the years.

“I pretty much feel accepted [in Jerusalem],” she said. “Lately, as the years pass, it has gotten more so than in previous years.

I’m not sure how it happened, but it’s how I feel.”

“I don’t feel safe, but that’s a general feeling because of the lack of peace,” she said. “It has nothing to do with being a lesbian.”
(Jerusalem Post)