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Home Front: Culture Wars
DC Dyke March bans Jewish Pride flags
2019-06-07
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian banner permitted at event, but symbols of ’nations that have specific oppressive tendencies’ are banned; coalition of LGBTQ groups demand apology.

The DC Dyke March is returning after a 12-year hiatus, with a new request: no "nationalist symbols," including flags and banners that represent "nations that have specific oppressive tendencies."

This includes the Jewish Pride flag of rainbow colors with a white Star of David in the middle, which organizers say too closely resembles the flag of Israel.

Paleostinian flags will be welcome, however.

The march will take place on Friday, a day before the annual Capital Pride Parade. Its theme is "displacement."

Yael Horowitz, a Jewish organizer of the DC march, told the Washington Post that "pro-Israel and pro-Jewish are very different things."

She said in a Facebook message "Jewish stars and other identifications and celebrations of Jewishness (yarmulkes, talit, other expressions of Judaism or Jewishness) are welcome and encouraged. We do ask that participants not bring pro-Israel paraphernalia in solidarity with our queer Paleostinian friends."

The decision to ban Jewish Pride flags comes two years after three women were asked to leave the 21st annual reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,...
Dyke March after being told that their rainbow flags with a white Star of David in the center would be a "trigger," or traumatic stimulus, for people who found them offensive. The women reportedly were asked to leave after they started defending Israel and Zionism.

A coalition of LGBTQ, Jewish and feminist organizations on Wednesday in a statement called on the DC Dyke March "to apologize to the community, and reverse course by allowing Dykes wishing to carry all Jewish and Israeli symbols to march as their full, authentic selves."

"The DC Dyke March should know better than to stoke the flames of division and pain by driving a wedge between Queer Arabs and Jews at a time we must stand united against homo- and transphobia, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia
...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do...
. We hope that they will do better‐‐for the sake and advancement of all of our communities," read the statement signed by A Wider Bridge, JCRC of Greater Washington, and Zioness.
Posted by:trailing wife

#1  The Times of Israel has an explainer:

What is the DC Dyke March?

The DC Dyke March is an alternative parade to the main LGBTQ parade taking place this weekend in Washington, DC. Its politics have traditionally been to the left of more mainstream pride marches. It’s one of a movement of Dyke Marches that have taken place nationwide.

The Dyke March’s description on its fundraising page says it’s focused this year on combating gentrification and displacement.

“Our goal is to encourage activism within our community and center transwomxn, queer womxn, nonbinary, lesbian, and other dyke identities who are oft-marginalized by the mainstream LGBTQ movement,” the webpage says, using an alternative spelling for “woman.”

“We believe Dyke is not a sexuality, but a political identity centered on solidarity in each other’s struggles and a belief that none of us are free until we all are,” the site says.

How is the Jewish LGBTQ community responding?

Many groups are aghast. While the Jewish star is a central symbol of Israel, it’s also a longtime symbol of Judaism that long predates Zionism or a modern Jewish state. And LGBTQ leaders said placing the central symbol of one’s community at the center of a rainbow flag is standard practice in the queer community.

Local and national Jewish organizations have also released statements criticizing the flag restriction. And the National LGBTQ Task Force withdrew as a partner organization from the march due to the policy.

“The Jewish Pride Flag is a symbol that represents the greater LGBTQ Jewish community — around the world and of many perspectives,” the Task Force said in a statement. “Additionally, we are disappointed that this action distracts from the appropriate and needed focus on DC residents and housing policies that favor gentrification.”

So what’s going to happen at this march?

A contingent of people plans to march with the Jewish Pride flags anyway. A.J. Campbell, one of the first marchers to inquire about the policy, said she feels it is making her choose between her Jewish and queer identities.

“The march belongs to all of us,” she said. “I’m hoping for something like a reconciliation here. I actually hope that we can, after the march, talk about this and see if there’s some ground we can cover together.”

Zioness, a women’s group that demonstrates openly as pro-Israel activists in progressive spaces, will be organizing a contingent.

“[T]here will always be individuals seeking to drive artificial wedges between coalitions of solidarity,” Zioness said in a statement co-signed by the Jewish Democratic Council of America and A Wider Bridge, an organization that supports Israel and its LGBTQ community. “Today, those individuals seek to undermine queer, Jewish and Muslim voices working to advance all of our communities, using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a pretext for division.”



Raney said that if people do bring the flags, there will be a group of “trained marshals who are Jewish” who will ask the marchers to put the flags down and, if necessary, leave the march, though Raney added that they will not use force to remove the flags or marchers.


So it might get interesting. A matter of whose dykes are buller, I s’pose.
Posted by: trailing wife   2019-06-07 23:19  

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