Yasser Arafat and his alleged homosexuality make more headlines today as Out journo James Kirkchick delves into the pesky queer chatter.

Rumors of Arafat's dick digging have been circulating since even before the former Palestinian leader croaked three years ago. The gay gossip recently gained new adherents, however, when leftist leader Ahmad Jibril told the press that Arafat did, in fact, die of AIDS.

Of course AIDS does not equal gay, Jibril's but definitely added to the 'mo myth.

As Kirkchick explains, Arafat's contentious sexuality helps further more than just Marxist propaganda, particularly Hamas, who recently seized Gaza, effectively splitting that Palestinian region in two. Of course, many Palestinians rebuff the trash talk, calling Arafat a hero and elevating him to nearly godlike status.

This denial, says Kirkchick, only perpetuates Palestinian's regressive political culture:

The Palestinians' denial that Arafat might have been gay is indicative of a broader self-delusion on their part to deny uncomfortable realities, the most prominent of which is the fact that a sovereign Israel is not going away.
…
At the very least, the Palestinians ought to have the honesty to accept that the father of their nationalist movement might have been gay. Once they do—and reflect that realization in their culture—perhaps Palestinian gays will no longer feel the need to seek refuge in the monstrous Zionist entity.

Kirkchick's obviously gone about this all wrong: he's thinking with his brain – an organ the fundamentalists in Israel and Palestine rarely employ.