After the New York LGBT Community Center canceled on Israeli Apartheid Week’s organizers after Michael Lucas raised a stink about how the March 5 event was offensive to the Jewish State, the Center went and booked Lucas himself on March 24.
Yes, Lucas, the proud Islamaphobe who went so far as to claim Muslims “have not contributed to civilization in any way, in any fieldâpolitical thought, science, music, architecture, nothing for century after century,” is now a welcomed guest at the place he just threatened to boycott.
Politics makes strange bedfellows. Then again, so do Lucas’ movies.
Chris
The answer to hate speech is not less speech, but more speech. Let Michael Lucas throw his kooky event, and let the Siegebusters throw their kooky event. It’s a COMMUNITY center, and both groups are part of the community.
One thing I’ll say is that probably 100-200 people would have been aware of the Siegebusters event if it hadn’t been for Michael Lucas’ censorship, but now it’s been all over the LGBT media. If raising awareness about the plight of Palestinians was the point, then Michael Lucas has done wonders for Siegebusters.
Cam
Not a Michael Lucas fan, but I’m interested to see if Queerty has statements from any Muslim groups supporting gay rights and equality. That would go along way towards making me care. If there is an official mainstream Islamic group out there speaking to gay rights, that would be great to know. If there isn’t, then what you’re asking is for me to get all up in arms because a “Hater” is hating an organization that “Hates” me.
I care as little as I would if he was screaming about the Vatican, or the official LDS church. I’ll care more when those organizations stop trying to send me back into the closet, to jail, or to an early grave.
justiceontherocks
Why does anyone care what a trashy smut peddler thinks about anything?? See me see me see me.
Kieran
C’mon queerty, you can’t really be surprised by this kind of hypocracy can you? You lived in the United States. You should be used to this kind of stuff by now.
Pete
Michael Lucas is an ageing he-whore, a real has been. He looks like he has a new mortician doing his face.
Rick Gold
Michael Lucas gives thousands of dollars to this NYC community center,
Michael Lucas also knows that the terrorist group Hamas, which is currently in charge of Gaza, routinely targets and executes gays and lesbians, as do MOST Islamic states.
MoMan
Say what? You people are defending Islam? Seriously? Are any of you aware that the Muslium religion would rather you be dead—that’s right, DEAD—than engage in any type of civil discussion with you? That’s how they feel about homosexuality; they are not your allies. Are you truly so desperate for inclusion that you would embrace a group that prays for your extinction? I can understand my gay brethren being PC, hoping for others’ acceptance, but be careful who you extand a hand to, for you might just come away with nothing but a bloody stump.
David
Michael Lucas should not be allowed at the Centre. His bigotry is as unacceptable as homophobia. Call the Centre threatening a boycott if this bigotted prostitute \is booked.
gay-m
@MoMan: Hey, it is great that Queerty is taking a stand on this. As a gay man who is muslim, it is refreshing to see this.
I am not saying that the majority of the muslim community does not hold homosexuality in high regard, but that does not mean we throw muslims under the bus when it comes to discrimination.
Actually, even though many muslims have the “kill or shun” mentality about homosexuality if you look into islamic teachings there is nothing that really says “kill gays”. Much of that talk comes from hadith (which can be “weak” or lack much credibility in some cases). You know how people view homosexuality, especially in 3rd world countries.
There are many muslims that think we should not ultimately “get rid of” homosexuals, but promote at least “tolerating” them (I know, not that much bettert, but many Christians have similar opinions).
Muslims have been discriminated in this country for years, even more after Obama came into office. This is not a time to say “we don’t defend them because they don’t like us”. Both gays and muslims face the same hateful people, and we should not turn on each other (say whatever you want, don’t care if it sounds naive).
Jon B
It’s the LGBT Center… not the jewish or muslim center. They shouldn’t have been hosting an anti-Israel event in the first place. And since Michael Lucas is gay, he should speak there… I don’t get your problem.
Cam
@gay-m: said…
”
Muslims have been discriminated in this country for years, even more after Obama came into office. This is not a time to say “we don’t defend them because they don’t like us”. Both gays and muslims face the same hateful people, and we should not turn on each other (say whatever you want, don’t care if it sounds naive).”
___________________________________________
Turn on each other?
I don’t see gays going out to pick these fights. What I see is the Catholic Church, the Mormon Church and Islamic groups claiming that we are attacking them by demanding our rights.
I’m not pro-discrimination, what I am is sombebody who can’t be bothered to care when a group that overall wants me shunned or dead gets called out on their bigotry of my group. If for instance the Mormon church did a 180 and came out in support of gay rights, I would jump in to defend them if somebody was discriminating against them, but if, for instance, the IRS goes after them for their questionable politicial activities now…I just see it as somebody going after somebody who hates me and is actively working to harm us.
J. R. Braden
Michael Lucas is a tool, but the least of the reasons why is his so-called Islamophobia.
I don’t hate Muslims, but I do hate Islam. I don’t hate Christians and Jews, but I hate Christianity and Judaism. Why are you folks bending over backwards to protect the fragile sensibilities of giant oppressive groups whose doctrines state that all of us are inferior, and whose “infallible” holy books call for the mass murder of people like us.
Fuck Islam. Seriously, fuck Islam. Is that offensive to you? I find it offensive when, in the false name of multiculturalism, people who would be the victims of Islamic violence in the Middle East seek to protect and nurture Islam elsewhere. That’s just mad!
Rick Gold
This “article” also mentions Michael Lucas’s alleged “overt racism.”
Praytell, what “race” is Islam?
jay_max
Last time I checked, just being physically present in some Islamic countries as an open gay man is risking arrest, imprisonment, and death.
Peter
Go Lucas! Support to you!
for all muslim supporters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-IOAPA8wco
Codswallop
The porn industry has been more directly involved in the destruction of more young US gay people via drugs, HIV, and suicide than Islam has. I’m only talking about the US here. So WTF is Michael Lucas doing lecturing ANYONE at an LGBT center anywhere?!
I’m not defending Islam or its homophobia at all, but questioning the decision to place a porn-peddler in the position of community leader. What’s next, Chi-Chi Larue on CNN debating Maggie Gallagher?
The Questioner
@Cam:
Cam—you do know that plenty of Muslims are queer, right? Some of them are even religious Muslims, and some of them also live in Israel/Palestine.
I swear—the racist, transphobic, classist, misogynist, and Islamophobic claptrap I see in the queer community never fails to amuse me (where “amuse” reads “enrage to the upteenth degree”). Michael Lucas is a perrrfect specimen of the bigoted hypocrisy that infects too many of “our” people.
This queer Jew ain’t too impressed with Lucas or the LGBT Center right now.
the crustybastard
Harvard Law’s Human Rights Program visiting fellow Scott Long calls Lucas’s hatred of Islam “overt racism.”
One would assume that if you were smart enough to get into Harvard Law, you’d be smart enough to realize that Muslim isn’t a race.
Very impressive as usual, those Harvard fellows.
And I join Cam in refusing to defend the indefensible. Bigots being subjected to bigotry isn’t outrageous, it’s fucking poetic.
Ferchrissakes, this whole trainwreck reads like that Onion story where the ACLU defended the neoNazi’s right to burn down the ACLU headquarters.
Mario
Tell you what…Try walking down the street holding your boyfriend’s hand in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Afghanistan, any Muslim country really, just take your pick, and let me know how that goes for you.
You’ll probably have to get in touch with me using an ouija board or Whoopi Goldberg, but do try because I’d love to hear how it works out.
Codswallop
@Chupa Chups: Oh, well played! Your devastating riposte has left me reeling!
Has Zeb Atlas been giving you debating lessons? Elder statesman Jeff Stryker, perhaps?
David
Michael Lucas is an overt racist. He openly condemns Arab people. Arab people are not all muslims. As well as muslims, there are millions of Arab christians and atheists. Lucas should not be allowed spew his racism at the center. He’s an ugly man. On both the inside and outside.
Vito
So we shouldn’t listen to somebody’s arguments because they direct porn… argumentum ad hominem anybody?
christopher di spirito
The greatest threat to Israel is Iran — an Islamic nation busy developing the great, Islamic A-bomb.
Iran’s whacko president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in 2005, gave rousing speech titled, a “World Without Zionism,” he refuses to acknowledge Israel’s existence, and has said, “Israel must be wiped off the map”, should be “obliterate(d) totally”, and “destroy completely” and, must be “eliminated from the pages of history.”
Nevermind Ahmadinejad’s comments about gays and lesbians.
I know it feels good as an American to embrace multiculturalism and political correctness but, unless you walk the walk, and live with the knowledge your homeland and people are threatened by such a menace, I would at least try to understand where Lucas is coming from.
Rick Gold
@gay-m: It doesn’t matter what the Q’uran says as long as oppressive backwater regimes of hate like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Iran and Gaza still execute people for the crime of simply being what they are, which is gay.
I don’t know about you, but I, as a gay man, would rather live in a society based on the rule of law and respect for individual liberties than one based on Shariah law.
Gwegowee
Hatred of any flavor is toxic. As an American and a New Yorker, I am disgusted how the play of money and politics has saturated almost every aspect of our daily lives. When will people realize how reprehensible this behavior is?
David Ehrenstein
@justiceontherocks: You got it, Justice!
Codswallop
@Vito: If that’s how you want to reframe it, yes.
The gay porn industry has enough, mostly negative, influence in the gay community without elevating its actors, directors, and producers to community leaders. What, exactly, is Michael Lucas’ qualification to speak authoritatively on ANY subject other than perhaps cleaning up urine stains after a water-sports scene?
He certainly has the right to his opinions, but as an invited speaker at an LGBT Center on a topic other than porn, where at least he has some expertise? That’s a real stretch.
ChiGuy76
@J. R. Braden: Okay, so you are suggesting that we should hate the belief but not the believer.
Huh. Now, where have I heard something similar like that before? Hmmmmmm……..
Jamaq
Islamaphobia- or a phobia of any other religion or ideology- is not the same as, and dose not deserve the automatic discreditation we usually reserve for people who are homophobic, racist, or sexist. People who posses the later type of prejudices are harmful because the attack what is essentially human about us. A phobia of religion, such as isalmaphobia, can be a valid and defensible idealogical position.
ALL ideologies should be open to debate, criticism, acceptance and rejection.
It is very tragic that the inane editors at QUEERTY don’t understand this basic premise of a free and civil society.
michael
Makes youe wonder wether what’s wrong with the world when people go “what have they done for me”.Dr.king’s mesage was equality for all and his wife mentioned he would have supported gays he knew the world would accept each other but no group being discriminated aganist shouldn’t insult others.In a world full of hate the best way to appear better is to help someone else instead of saying they don’t accept each other.Muslim religon isn’t even as rough on gays as christain religon infact it doesn’t attack them at all.The people are angry and stuck in third world countries the idea is to educate not shun what’s wrong with the community?.
James
It’s funny that some people seem to think it ok to hate others but get mad when people hate us.All forms of hate should be fought.
jonny
Wow… the amount of anti-muslim, racist crap in these comments is quite disturbing. Among religous communities Islam is far from being the only one that ‘hates’ homos.
Shame on those who blindly assume all muslims are evil and equality of shame to those who blindly stand up for Israel.
Grow up people. Grow up and try to have respect for all variants of human life, whether they agree with you or not.
Gerda
Go Lucas!
TheRealAdam
@James: No one is saying it’s “ok” to hate others. It IS ok to be vigilant toward the groups that historically and currently hate you and want to see you disenfranchised and destroyed. Gays are REACTING to the bigotry and homophobia on the DEFENSE, we are not actively hating on the OFFENSE. So, don’t get it twisted.
@jonny: Oh, shut up and open your damn eyes.
@Jamaq: Exactly!
tony x
Last I heard Lucas does not ISLAMISTS who believe the entire world should bend to Islam. Not all Islam.
daveny
What is wrong with his lips?!
Nathan
NYC LGBT Center is garbage. They shouldn’t have canceled the Stop Israeli Apartheid group, especially to let a bigot like this speak.
Joe Clark
I was surprised it took a full 20 comments, half of them by pseudonymous cowards, to leap from Michael Lucas to transphobia.
Try harder, girlfriend! You can get that down to 15 without even smearing your mascara!
RedickkJohnson
It’s the Gay Center. Everybody in the world has their own bigotries which others might or might not agree with. Lucas is pro-gay. Of course he should be welcome there. Gay blacks who are bigotted against whites should be welcome there too, as should white gentile gay men who hate blacks and Jews. (Unless it’s an absolute extremist who refuses to even try to communicate with his “adversaries”. That said, the Gay Center in NYC is a load of b.s. It’s run by politically-correct old Manhattan gay ghetto types who dislike anyone who doesn’t follow their own brand of what “gay” means. So if you’re- God-forbid- “straight-acting” or appearing you’ll get the cold shoulder. You have to have a gay accent and mannerisms or you’ll get hostility.
Charlie
Smut peddler? We get “morning goods” photos all the time from Queerty.
I don’t think Michael Lucas’s diatribes against Muslims make the world a better place, but smut peddler? Can we refer to Queerty as a smut blog?
Ted
What does the LGBT Center have to do with Lucas speaking at the meeting of a group that just happens to hold its meetings there?
Drake
@RedickkJohnson:
GOProudling Michael Lucas is pro-gay? Really??? He is pro making money off the gay community’s lust, but how are GOProud and it’s ultra right wing members pro-gay????The far right is comfortable with all sorts of bigots.
Cam
@Nathan: said…
”
NYC LGBT Center is garbage. They shouldn’t have canceled the Stop Israeli Apartheid group, especially to let a bigot like this speak.”
_____________________-
Gays in the Palestinian lands are arrested, tortoured and soemtimes killed with full governmental assent and I’m supposed to be screaming in support of a govt. that wants me dead? Do you also tell battered women that they are bigots for fleeing from their abusers?
Nathan
@Cam: So you would support slavery as long as some of the enslaved were homophobic? Just because a group has its flaws doesn’t mean they deserve to be oppressed. It’s not like Israel does anything to help Palestinian gays.
RedickkJohnson
Drake : Yes. They are pro-gay ultra-right-wingers. That’s exactly what they are. What is so hard there to understand?
Jon B
How the fuck does it make any sense for a gay organization to host a stop israeli apartheid event? Especially in NY where a large percentage of the populace is jewish, and offended by the comparison between South African treatment of Blacks and Israeli treatment of Palestinians. One of those groups wasn’t constantly blowing up buses and nightclubs!
1844
Prejudice of all kinds is abhorrent to any thinking person. It does not matter if the prejudice is against Jews, Moslems, gays, or anyone else. Any organization that purports to support an anti-prejudice agenda should not let anyone promote prejudice on its property. While everyone in this country has freedom of speech, it does not mean that everyone should support what that person has to say. It also doesn’t mean that whatever Lucas has to say should be listened to. We have freedom of speech, not freedom to force others to listen to the hate filled speech of bigots.
Cam
@Nathan: said..
”
@Cam: So you would support slavery as long as some of the enslaved were homophobic? Just because a group has its flaws doesn’t mean they deserve to be oppressed. It’s not like Israel does anything to help Palestinian gays.
_______________________________
1. Palestinian gays are allowed to legally seek asylum in Isreal.
2. Your comparison doesn’t work. I’m talking about an official organized group, that has, as a platform, a position that would label it a hate group if it wasn’t classed as a religion. If somebody is attacking me, you don’t get to call me the bigot if I push them away.
As I said origionally, if as an organization they stop advocating my being arrested or killed for being gay, then I will care what happens. But what YOU are doing, is saying that black people should be marching in support of the Ku Klux Klan because since blacks don’t want to be discriminated against, they need to support other groups that are labeled.
John
@Cam: Agreed on all counts, although at least with the Catholic & LDS Churches I have no concerns about my life being in jeopardy just for being gay even in countries where these faiths dominate. Yet while Western Muslims aren’t a problem in my experience, I cannot say this about every single country in the world where Islam dominates.
John
@Rick Gold: Indeed. Surely Queerty isn’t engaing in stereotypes by equating being an Arab with being Muslim? I know quite a number of Arab Christians like the Maronites who would vigorously disagree with such thinking.
John
@David: I really don’t give a damn about Lucas one way or the other, but if the man is attacking Arabs in general as a race and not just expressing his dislike of Islam that would indeed be something the Center should bar him for. As has been noted here there are plenty of non-Muslim Arabs and being Arab has no more bearing on a person’s character than being gay does.
AC Walker
Wow. Just wow. When you read vacuous, self-absorbed nonsense like this on a gay website it becomes possible to understand why the right wingers think we’re asking for “special rights” rather than “human rights”- since clearly, a large part of the gay community doesn’t honestly have any real feeling for human rights at all beyond their own.
Saying that it’s okay to commit violence against a group simply because they would do the same to you, in violation of international and human rights law, and in violation of the principles of self-sovereignty and democracy, is just disgraceful. And I saw this as a Jewish gay guy who believes in Israel’s right to exist AND Palestine’s right to exist.
Justifications like the ones I’m reading here could just as easily apply to waterboarding evangelical Christians or ghettoizing Mormons. And I’m sure someone will immediately say that would be fine by him, so I’m just going to turn off the computer and give up.
By the way, “proud gay” Michael Lucas supports a political party that would also do harm to us if they had the chance, so I’m not sure of the distinction.
RedickkJohnson
I know this thread has taken on the larger subject of Israelis and Palestinians, homophobia, fair versus fascist governments, etc., so it’s really irrelevant to bring the NYC Gay Center into it. But, again, that’s a joke of a joint not worth taking seriously in any way. Discuss Israel, by all means, but don’t use the Gay-Gay-Goofball Center as any guage here.
jeff4justice
A gay Muslim guy broke my heart. He chose the closet over me.
Here’s my story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQdq6-60El8
Jay P
Gays being racist? OMG I’ve never heard of that!!! Someone tell Anderson Cooper quick!
Whatever, I’ve found gay men to be extremely overtly racist/bigoted, which is sad. Given the hardships many queer people face, one would think we’d be sympathetic, dare I say – empathetic even and lend a helping hand. This isn’t surprising one bit. Oh the joys of being Gay and brown…and I’m only 23. fuck.
RedickkJohnson
Absolutely, Jay P. Most gays just automatically go with the progressive stance that white=every evil in the world. But not only gays of color go with that, it’s self-hating white gays as well.
Jon
He’s Jewish why is that a surprise. I don’t care for the Muslim religion but they have controbitued to society and technology. I don’t care for any religion, but if one were to ask me what my opinion is I don’t like Islam because it’s too strict. All tolerance means is you keep it too yourself. Anyone says they have never been bigoted or prejudiced towards anything/anyone is a liar.
marc
i’m a white-Canadian, Irish background….my partner is Persian and muslim.
The most wonderful man I have ever met.
Jay P
@RedickkJohnson:
wait what?! I don’t think we’re on the same track…
White=evil is not a progressive stance, and I disagree that white is seen as evil in the gay community. Its actually the opposite in my opinion. White is considered perfection, and this is true for not only the gay community. To me, it seems you’re almost arguing white people are discriminated against? Which of course is a whole another argument on its own.
“Self hating” white people? Really?! That is news to me.
Anyway, Islamophobia is just sad and ignorant. Why do people always make broad generalizations like “oh well WE aren’t the ones blowing up people in buses” or “well at least [insert non-Muslim group] don’t have suicide bombers.” Every history, and I mean every history has violence in it. Its easy to forget it. But I don’t think our ancestors would be proud to see that we are simply repeating the cycle.
There are numerous consequences to Islamophobia including gay Muslims who commit suicide in the US, because they feel they will never be accepted by anyone. One would think society has come far enough to not be afraid of the “other.” Its depressing actually that the queer community is so hostile.
I guess for brown folk, “it kinda gets better.” No, I’m not asking for pity. I just would like people to realize the effects of what they say.
I just realized this is a long post and that no one will read it. But eh, maybe someone will start a conversation with someone else and change a few minds.
j
@J. R. Braden: This. THIS. Please everyone that thinks we should be pussyfooting around a monolithic machine of hatred and death, just read that. Lucas is right on this, regardless of his fanatical pro Israel stance. We shouldn’t be stoking the fires of our enemies.
David
So Michael Lucas – a Republican prostitute (he sells sex for money no?) who engages in open racism against Arab people is a welcome speaker at this Center. Truly disgusting. Lucas is an ugly individual on both the inside and outside.
Greg
Islam, the great defender of homosexuality. Oh wait.
mason
Wow. I finally found the blog for gay tea party members. Tea party hates the Muslims and anything else not them too. They stereotype everyone and are xenophobic. Talk to any young Muslim and they, like many young evangelical Christians don’t support anti gay policies. But when your a bunch of spoiled affluent gay men who probably don’t travel anywhere outside your gay urban ghetto, you are going to sound just like a bunch of tea party members or young Fox news watching relatives. Sad.
David
No Chupa Chups. There’s nothing wrong with being a prostitute like Michael Lucas. However he’s a racist, prostitute and therefore should not be at the Center. The only sppech he should be giving is called ‘Bad plastic surgery – it IS possible to continue working as a hooker afterwards.’
myka4hg
So am supposed to hate Muslims because they hate me?
Wow. Really great logic that is. & not at all discriminatory.
Sure some Muslims hate gays.
But let’s be honest. Does any religion really love the gays?
Am I suppose to hate Irish people now? Because most of them are Catholic and Catholics think gays should burn in hell?
Islam is no better or worse than any other religion. If you believe it is, you’re deluded.
Muslims deserve the same human rights as anyone else. Israel has been abusing these human rights for over 60 years. And the US has actively supported it. If you want to argue about something… argue about that. Not about all the bull$hit which serves only as a distraction to stop you focusing on the REAL issues here… An illegal occupation & siege which oppresses the Palestinian people and denies them justice and basic human rights.
Or you know, just keep on hating people you don’t even know…
wtf
Meanwhile, while you bitches are arguing about whether or not Muslims want us dead, evangelical christians, mormons, and cathlicks are the ones taking away our rights, barring our access to civil rights, CONSTANTLY peddling lies about us to the press and basically trying to make our lives miserable. Priorities people. Let’s deal with the talibangicals before we start bashing an ENTIRE religion, shall we?
Tom in Lazybrook
I’d like to ask BOTH sides to stop using the Gay community as a proxy in their pro/anti settlement pr campaign. Both sides are using our community. Exactly what does our community get for supporting Shas’ position on settlements? To the anti-settlement group I ask, what does our community get for siding with the PLO? How about letting the Israeli right wing (e.g, Shas) and the PLO-West Bank compete for our support?
I’d like for the Republican Mr. Lucas to attend a well publicized (in the Orthodox press) Gay pride parade (open to all Isrealis) in Mea Sharim or in an Orthodox West Bank Settlement and then report back as to how accepted he felt there. Just because liberals (many of whom want to be done with the west bank) in Tel Aviv support Gay rights doesn’t mean that the right wingers in the settlements (and their allies in the Knesset) support Gay rights. I’m not saying that Shas=Hamas, but c’mon guys, lets make Shas actually WORK for the support of the Gay community. And they have a LOT of work to due.
Isreal, on average, IS better than any Arab nation on Gay civil rights.
myka4hg
This has nothing to do with respect for gay people. Stop being so self obsessed. Palestinians are being treated like sub human scum. 1300 people were slaughtered when Israel invaded Gaza. Many of them women and children. The world stood by and watched. No UN resolutions to protect their civilians. No no-fly zones to protect the civilian population from Israeli bombardment. No declarations of restraint from the US Government. These people have been denied human rights for over 60 years. All because nobody wants to offend Jewish people.
Michael Lucas is a Zionist. He is pro-Israel to the point of extremism. No doubt the majority of you who support him are also right wing extremists & Zionists. Their propaganda is always the same, “hate Muslims because they hate gays.”
I seriously doubt hating gays is high on the list of the Palestinian people’s priorities. Ending the siege and illegal occupation and being allowed their own state I think might take precedence.
But I doubt Israel wants that. A two state solution where they have to give back land to the Palestinians? Do you really think they WANT that? No, of course not. So how can they demonize the Palestinian people so no-one will help or support them. Easy. Just say they hate gays…
Tom in Lazybrook
@Chupa Chups: Perhaps you might wish to ask Mr. Lucas GOProud buddies about their support for life as they support tax cuts over health care.
Tom in Lazybrook
@myka4hg: How is your support for the Gazans related to Gay rights? I fear you, like Mr. Lucas, seek to use the community for your own non-Gay rights related political agenda. Please stop it. Now.
You are, I’m afraid, no better than those liberal Democrats who constantly push Gay rights to the back of the agenda.
If you’d like to protest Isreal’s treatment of the Gazans, please feel free to do so in some relevant forum. How about this? Keep the LGBT community out of that fight until either side ASKS for our support in a way that is visible to their OWN communities.
Also, can you do me a favor and tell me why homosexuality is LEGAL in the PLO-controlled West Bank but ILLEGAL in Hamas-controlled Gaza? Don’t even think of asking me to support your use of the community for your purposes unless you represent with consistency (that means criticizing and condemning when necessary) the Gay community to the Gazan community.
Sexy Rexy
@Kieran: Hell, they perpetrate it themselves.
Peter
Is Michael Lucas really Jewish? He is obviously uncircumcised, and he says he’s atheist.
Soupy
Peter? Peter from the black party thread? What are you doing looking at penises?
Soupy
Peter? Peter from the black party thread? What are you doing examining male genitalia?
Jonathan
@Soupy: Just because he acknowledged the black party for exactly what it is, a twisted crack fest sero-conversion party, doesn’t mean he doesn’t like to look at dick. He’s gay for G-d’s sake. Porn, I will tell you, can save your life.
twilightofthedogs
@RedickkJohnson: Listing the fact you are gay does not make one pro-gay rights. This is the same game that Black conservatives who were brought out by the right used to do. They would claim to be about black equality, and then parrot everything the right said about racial equality. That’s all most “gay” right wingers do. They are against ending DADT, DOMA, etc. If you don’t believe me, look up the statements of GOP Proud on the subject. THeir official statements are pretty much in line with far right wingers and are against equality as “special rights.”
David
Anyway, Israel and Palestine.
Yawn.
Michael Lucas is still an ugly prostitute.
twilightofthedogs
@Tom in Lazybrook: You don’t even need to go to Israel. I would love for Lucas to parade his ass over in the Hasidim community over in Brooklyn to see how “supportive” they are of him. Anyone who thinks Judiasm isn’t as bigoted as the rest of the Abrahamic religions is living in a bubble reality.
Soupy
No Jon, he is ex gay through christianity. And looking at dicks could force a relapse.
twilightofthedogs
He’s a nutjob.
Jay
Who the EFF is Michael Lucas? Why is he having event at the LGBT center? Not like the center has useful events, but really?!
Yo Joe
Michael’s partner, Richard, was the Executive Director of the Center for many years.
Brian Miller
@Cam: I’m interested to see if Queerty has statements from any Muslim groups supporting gay rights and equality
Too easy.
http://www.al-fatiha.org/
http://www.muslim-refusenik.com/
http://news.change.org/stories/muslim-and-pro-gay-marriage
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/02/muslim-mayors-gay-rights_n_225255.html
http://www.theglobalexperts.org/comment-analysis/muslims-plea-gay-rights-2
Of course, I know it’s unlikely that you’ll actually read any of them or consider them, since you’ve already made up your mind about all Muslims fitting your uneducated and ill-informed caricature. Such is the way of those who embrace hatred.
I’d like to ask BOTH sides to stop using the Gay community as a proxy in their pro/anti settlement pr campaign.
Agreed — on this and so many other relevant issues. Just because one is gay doesn’t mean he has to have a single point of view on international affairs, economics, business, politics, or any other controversial issue.
ewe
@Yo Joe: People have been silently rolling their eyes ever since Richard left.
Ricky
The irony here is a gay community that is as intellectually lazy as it is politically lazy not bothering to figure out that Michael Lucas isn’t even Jewish. I’m flattered that he’s chosen Israel and the global Jewish community as his personal identity, but he’s Russian with a Russian Orthodox mother. At least pay attention to his schlong, guys. Sheesh. Of course, he’ll tell you that not all Jews are circumsized and you will believe him because you will believe anything you are told by a hot man.
Ricky
@Peter: He is not Jewish. I used to know him in the early 90’s. He has never practiced the religion and his mother is Russian Orthodox and under Jewish law his father’s background is irrelevant.
twilightofthedogs
@Ricky: No one cares what you or anyone else thinks on this. The point is he’s a nut bag. But for you its about whether he’s jewish. He’s not different than any other Jewish Fundamentalist whether you count him as your own or not.
tomas
He is 100% Jewish if that matters. His mother was a Jewish women. She past away from cancer in 2008 and is buried in a Jewish cemetery in Long Island . Her last name was Treyvas. His fathers last name is Bregman. Most of Jews born in communist Russia are uncut. True, he does not practice Judaism and is a jewish atheist.
Soupy
Green monkeys?
ewe
Many Jewish people who are not religious strongly identify as Jewish. Jeez.
twilightofthedogs
Most of the non-practicing, but culturally Jewish people, that I know aren’t nuts like the fundies are. Nor are the Reformists. They tend to have a more balanced view of the Middle East.
I mostly see that kind of virulence from the Jewish fundies/conservatives/neocons.
But, then again, someone mentioned that he’s Russian Jewish- that may explain the crazy part. My experience prior to moving to NYC was with Reformist and liberals of the Jewish faith and culture. Then I moved to Brooklyn, and met a lot of conservative and Russian Jewish people.
Sounds like the Randian types that I would meet. Totally Ayn Rand Libertarian nuts. They favor Israel, but not typically this strongly pro-Israel nuts. Sounds like he’s overcompensating.
twilightofthedogs
@Soupy: My guess is “green monkey” is a reference to the argument that religion is all make believe. That Judaism along with all religions isn’t anything more than fantasy. One may as well believe “green monkeys” or “little green monsters in the sky.” While I try to respect different belief systems, it is a bit much to be told that one should be condemning one faith while supporting another when they both are essentially the same faith in a lot of ways down to much of the same laws that define Conservative/Orthodox Judaism can be found in Islam. Along with Christainity, the three constitute the Abramhamic religions, which explain why there is so much homophobia because many other religions until the influence of colonization had a much more complicated view of human sexuality (not necessary cream and roses, but different that would not necessarily see homosexuality as a sin). When people often discuss homosexuality being a sin, they are discussing the Abrahamic big 3 or the influence of the West on the rest of the world through colonization. Anyway, this is off topic. The point is that its a little hard to get worked up with the idea that Judaism is better than Islam when one realizes they are essentially the same roots. Interesting thought experiement- compare Hailal (spelling?) to Kosher.
twilightofthedogs
@Max Campbell: I try to respect all faiths, but it really is hard to respect the Abrahamic tradition. Its pretty much the same shit, different page with the fundamentalists of all the variants.
Soupy
You just never know who or what will pop out of the russian clown car.
twilightofthedogs
@Max Campbell: Since you have a post saying “Go Lucas” one can only assume you are as much of a nut job as he is. Therefore, I doubt anyone outside of the porn industry will be kissing your ass.
Soupy
I just don’t think it’s beautiful. I’m guessing that it is very hairy and dirty. And that toilet paper is in short supply.
Queer Supremacist - Stop The Illegal Gentile Occupation on Earth
Michael Lucas doesn’t go far enough.
Any gay man or woman who stands up for the rights of a death cult is a quisling.
Right on this very blog, I read someone state their opinion that “anyone who denies life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness forfeits those rights for themselves.” I agree with that statement. The war criminal cults NazIslam and KKKristianity do just that. And there are people claiming that gay bashing camel fuckers and Jesus freaks have human rights? God help us if Hitler had skin slightly darker than a brown paper bag. You pro-camel fucker Uncle Toms would be wearing jock straps with swastikas on them.
The P*l*st*n**ns are war criminals. They are the illegal occupants of Israel, a land that existed years before the racist, anti-semitic, homophobic child rapist Muhammad was even born. In fact, all land owned by Muslim and Christian heretics is illegally occupied. No anti-semite and/or homophobe has any rights a Jewish or gay person is bound to respect, and no country that makes homosexuality illegal has the right to exist. As for the ongoing blood libel that members of this middle eastern Ku Klux Klan are being slaughtered by Israel? It’s not true. But if it were, I would shed no tears. It would be what they deserve. And I would hope that KKKristians get the same.
I am calling right here and right now for the execution of anyone who is anti-gay and the outlawing of any religion or ideology that practices homophobia. Whether it’s John Joe Thomas, Sally Kern, Pope Nazikraut, or, the war criminals Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mahmoud Abbas. Even Orthodox Judaism should be suspect for its homophobia, but even they couldn’t keep Israel from offering more legal protections to gays than the US (unlike Israel, a country built on land stolen from Indians by limey Jesus freaks). They legalized homosexuality 15 years before Lawrence V. Texas, and their anti-gay laws were a relic of British Civil Law from the British Mandate of P*l*st*n* And there is no such thing as “cruel and unusual punishment” when used against a homophobe. The Krauts got off too easy. They should have been shoved in the gas chambers they used to kill innocent Jews, Poles, Slavs, Gypsies, Communists (who were even bigger mass murderers), and yes, gays, as punishment for their complicity in the Nazi Holocaust (anyone who was not actively fighting Nazis was accessory to a crime).
Jews are the reason there is Western Civilization. Gays are the only reason it is Civilization.
I despise Barack Hussein Obama, but I will swallow my disdain and support the US against Libya because Gadaffi is a homophobic, anti-semitic monster. He should have been taken out 30 years ago along with all the other heretic gay bashing war criminals.
twilightofthedogs
Well, the right wing groups are out in force I see. I don’t honestly get what you get out of monitoring and spamming sites like this.
Soupy
I smell a nobel peace prize!
Soupy
Bec? what is bec? I have never eaten at McDonalds, I don’t eat hamburgers or drink cola, and I have never had a happy meal. You must stop pooping christina crap!
Tarek
You know, it’s a common joke nowadays where I live about how stupid and ignorant americans are, (interesting fact, and hopefully a wake up call)
I live in an arab country and I’m just wondering off the top of my head, have any of you ever BEEN to an ‘evil islamic terrorist’ country or have you just lapped up all the bullshit war-mongering propaganda your imperialist government has spewed out over the last few years?
I’m homosexual, but my world doesn’t end there. I won’t support ‘the mormon church’ because it’s ‘okay’ with my homosexuality. I mean what does that even mean? It’s okay with what sort of homosexuality? My battle isn’t against homophobia, it’s against heteronormative and, recently, homonormative, systems that have been put in place to coerce me into a life that isn’t mine, in particular a brain-dead depoliticized consumerist gay stereotype that cares more about nail polish than the death and delocalization of an entire NATION (ahem…the definition of genocide) in one part of the world.
Screw the gay agenda, people who are homosexual (which is just one of my characteristics, and not my entire world view) especially ones who have suffered for years at the hands of oppressive systems should stand in the way of oppression, not reinforce it. This doesn’t mean that I’m siding with ‘Islam’, I strongly detest all systems of control, and organized religion particularly, but I’m not going to oppress, or even sit back and watch, an entire population suffer and die out because my only indicator of an ally is whether they give me their permission to express my sexuality or not.
I’m angry by what’s happened to Apartheid Week, and I do hope for an uproar. I strongly suggest people also read what Helem, a Lebanese-based NGO (www.helem.net) has said on issues of the occupation (and I hope you notice the BDS badge on their website too) though I’m disappointed also that they haven’t said anything yet about this either.
Jay
Children, the homophobia of Islamist states was the homophobia of Christians and Jews not so long ago. After all, they’re all religions of the Old Testament. The only reason Christians and Jews aren’t running around slaughtering ‘mos is because of liberal, secular rationalism that has swept religious mumbo jumbo out of government. If the Christians of Alabama and Utah could have their way, we’d be back to being pariahs similar to Muslim gays in Islamistan. Instead of talking sh*t about Islam, this dumb, ugly man should be trying to reach out to gay Muslims all over the world.
Jay
@the crustybastard: Bigots being subjected to bigotry is fine? So you’re saying that if someone subjected Michael Lucas to overt homophobia or anti-semitism because of his Islamophobia, it would be just fine and dandy?
Do grow up.
mike128
I’m another gay new yorker disturbed by the racist bullshit I’m reading here.
Drake
Michael Lucas has already produced “Piss” and “Farts”. His ideas belong in “Vomit”.
Ken
Freedom of religion is all fine and good until somebody has their head chopped off.
I think this is one of those cases were queerty-folk might want to be very careful: If the Salafi based forms of Islamic law ever became a truly powerful force in the US (and thanks to the House of Saud they currently dominate the discussion of the secular interface of Islam in a modern world, even among rival Sunni and Shi’a scholars who would sooner slit their own throats rather than admit how much they have drawn from modern Salafi interpretive texts on Sharia)….
Let’s just say I would not wish to live in a world where ISPs would dutifully hand over there log files to the local mutaween so they could round up all the homosexuals thus found for a nice public beheading.
Soupy
Jeffree, we should be flattered that the russian mob has taken on our screen names. Of course, they still can’t properly use the definite or indefinite article, which gives them away. You would think that they had enough identities to manage.
Soupy
Now that’s not Jeffree. He doesn’t use profanity in such a blunt fashion. Is is Max? Olga? Peter? Jason? Tim? John1? Melanie? Or the Chupa chup?
Gary
It’s sad that Queerty has surrendered to a knee-jerk political correctness that says “White Jews Bad!” “Brown Muslims Good!” — the idea that “queers” would support cultures that stone homos to death against the open, tolerant, democratic Israel is repulsive.
Soupy
The russians are coming! The russians are coming!
Peete
Michael Lucas is the Larry Flynt of the gay community. Both should stick to their porn and forget about playing politico or philosopher. A brain is required for that.
twilightofthedogs
@Gary: See this is the thing that kills me about nutjobs. You misunderstand our point. You aren’t bad because you are Jewish. You are bad because you are fucked in the head. Judaism is just the dressing you use to justify. It could be anything really. Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Atheism. It doesn’t matter. Its not the belief or even the culture that makes you nuts. its how you choose to use that culture as an excuse to attack others. I know this going to fall on what ar elikely to be crazy deaf ears, but I think this has to be said again and agai- you are nuts.
Jeffree
@twilightofthedogs: Right on! Fundamentalist religion in any form seems to be a strict binary: good/evil, right/wrong, etc., with no sense of nuance. People resort to their holy books to justify their own pre-existing prejudices, saying Gawd is on their side, while conveniently ignoring the parts of the book that doesn’t suit them.
And ultimately it becomes a tussle between “my gawd is better than yours”
Walker
It would be just as easy for me or anyone else to put up a bunch of links to YouTube news reports about Matthew Shephard, Fred Phelps, The KKK and numerous other people who have participated in hate crimes and hate speech and say “This is Christianity.” I could also link to numerous news articles and video reports of war crimes committed by Israel in the name of its own defense. To only “notice it” when it happens to be a group you’ve decided to vilify makes you no less a bigot than if you were making it up. There isn’t a single fundamentalist religion that isn’t guilty of this stuff. The difference is that intelligent people acknowledge that there are non-fundamentalist sects of religions, while the bigots out there conveniently lump them all together.
The principal of America (which sadly, neither the government nor the people it represents have ever completely lived up to) is that ALL people have rights. Even minorities, and yes, even bigots. They have the same right to free speech as anyone else, and that’s really what this is about. But the solipsistic gays on this thread don’t know the meaning of human rights past the end of their own noses. And that’s sad.
james_from_cambridge
I’m biracial and as left-wing Socialist as one can be without actually being Karl Marx himself but anyone who thinks Islam is a gay man’s friend (or a Woman’s for that matter), has their head buried in the sand. The Christian Dominionists suck balls but they don’t have power over us like the Islamists do over their gays and Women in the Middle East and Africa and they’re now bringing their religious madness to secular Europe too (in the U.S. though, Muslims are admittedly well assimilated. But their number here are miniscule compared to Europe.) One of many examples is how Moroccan immigrant youths have turned Amsterdam, which was once the gay capital of the world, into the gay bashing capitol of the world (http://www.actup.org/forum/content/media-criticized-silence-over-islamic-gay-bashing-amsterdam-2110/). And even a hundred years ago, we never executed gay people for being gay like they do regularly in Iran and Saudi Arabia now (including little boys by the way.) The lesson here is, Religion sucks and is destructive to every society that embraces it in a fundamentalist way. It literally sucks the life-blood from a society and destroys not just people but scientific progress and enlightenment.
Lucas is a hypocritical pig, not because he’s wrong about Islam (in fact, he’s dead right) but because instead of learning from the crazy Muslims and renouncing religion, he embraces Zionism. Stop the religious insanity!!!
james_cambridge
I’m biracial and as left-wing Socialist as one can be without actually being Karl Marx himself but anyone who thinks Islam is a gay man’s friend (or a Woman’s for that matter), has their head buried in the sand. The Christian Dominionists are beyond horrible but they don’t have power over us like the Islamists do over their gays and Women in the Middle East and Africa and they’re now bringing their religious madness to secular Europe too (in the U.S. though, Muslims are admittedly well assimilated. But their number here are miniscule compared to Europe.) One of many examples is how Moroccan immigrant youths have turned Amsterdam, which was once the gay capital of the world, into the gay bashing capitol of the world (http://www.actup.org/forum/conâŚ..rdam-2110/). And even a hundred years ago, we never executed gay people for being gay like they do regularly in Iran and Saudi Arabia now (including little boys by the way.) The lesson here is, religion is destructive to every society that embraces it in a fundamentalist way. It literally takes the life-blood from a society and destroys not just people but scientific progress and enlightenment.
Lucas is a hypocritical moron, not because he’s wrong about Islam (in fact, he’s dead right) but because instead of learning from the crazy Muslims and renouncing religion, he embraces Zionism. Stop the religious insanity!!!
james_from_cambridge
I’m biracial and as left-wing Socialist as one can be without actually being Karl Marx himself but anyone who thinks Islam is a gay man’s friend (or a Woman’s for that matter), has their head buried in the sand. The Christian Dominionists are beyond horrible but they don’t have power over us like the Islamists do over their gays and Women in the Middle East and Africa and they’re now bringing their religious madness to secular Europe too (in the U.S. though, Muslims are admittedly well assimilated. But their number here are miniscule compared to Europe.) One of many examples is how Moroccan immigrant youths have turned Amsterdam, which was once the gay capital of the world, into the gay bashing capitol of the world
(http://www.actup.org/forum/conâŚ..rdam-2110/)
rachel
@Cam: well said
james_from_cambridge
I’m biracial and as left-wing Socialist as one can be without actually being Karl Marx himself but anyone who thinks Islam is a gay man’s friend (or a Woman’s for that matter), has their head buried in the sand. The Christian Dominionists are beyond horrible but they don’t have power over us like the Islamists do over their gays and Women in the Middle East and Africa and they’re now bringing their religious madness to secular Europe too (in the U.S. though, Muslims are admittedly well assimilated. But their number here are miniscule compared to Europe.) One of many examples is how Moroccan immigrant youths have turned Amsterdam, which was once the gay capital of the world, into the gay bashing capitol of the world ( http://www.actup.org/forum/content/media-criticized-silence-over-islamic-gay-bashing-amsterdam-2110/ ). And even a hundred years ago, we never executed gay people for being gay like they do regularly in Iran and Saudi Arabia now (including little boys by the way.) The lesson here is, religion is destructive to every society that embraces it in a fundamentalist way. It literally takes the life-blood from a society and destroys not just people but scientific progress and enlightenment.
Lucas is a hypocritical pig, not because he’s wrong about Islam (in fact, he’s dead right) but because instead of learning from the crazy Muslims and renouncing religion, he embraces Zionism. Stop the religious insanity!!!
ohrllynow
I was raised Muslim (deist/agnostic now), and I live in Pakistan, I can honestly tell you that what this guy is saying is utter stupidity. For one, apart from a few terribly backward states in the Muslim word (insert Saudi Arabia, Iran here), life isn’t overly horrible here. Sure, I can’t walk outside with my boyfriend’s hand in mine, but nobodys out to superglue my anus shut. You have don’t ask don’t tell in the military there-we have it in society here. I’m out at both my highschool and to my parents, and even though it’s not discussed, it’s by and large accepted – FACT. Another fact, Islamic law isn’t applied in many ‘Muslim’ countries – Pakistan uses secular, British derived laws.
Secondly, I’m shocked that somebody who’s gay, and no doubt has had to face discrimination based on his identity in the past, could so blatantly discriminate against others based on their identity.
ALL of my friends are practicing Muslims, and don’t care what I do as long as I don’t mess around with their beliefs.
Lastly, you shouldn’t just discriminate against Islam when it comes to homosexuality – all Abrahamic religions say it’s wrong, it’s just that Muslim countries are generally poorer and less developed, hence more conservative.
And if this stupid asshole needs evidence of Islam’s contribution to the world, he need only look at the remains of Islamic Spain, beautiful Moorish buildings in Grenada, nearly all advances in science and mathematics from 700-1400 and even the Taj Mahal – built by a Muslim and adorned with verses from the KORAN.
tallskin2
@ohrllynow- “ALL of my friends are practicing Muslims, and don’t care what I do as long as I don’t mess around with their beliefs.”
And what would happen if, I as an atheist, were to ‘mess around’ with their beliefs and tell them there is no sky pixie, that they are delusional for believing in such nonsense?
ohrllynow
@Tallskin2, they’d probably just try engaging you in a logical discussion to prove you wrong. I do fuck around with their beliefs sometime, but apart from that annoying them and them asking me to stop, nothing much happens.
You probably assumed that if you mentioned the sky pixie they’d tie you down and behead you. That, however, is not the case.
tallskin2
@ohrllynow- well, we do read of christians being murdered for “blasphemy” and govt ministers who support them being murdered (is it two now??) and all the policemen and legal officers throwing flowers at the murderers!
So, unless these news reports are incorrect then pakistan is a very strange religiously afflicted country, worse than the USA.
(I am english, btw, not american)
/////they’d probably just try engaging you in a logical discussion to prove you wrong
****Logic and religion do not mix really, do they??
Walker
None of which has anything to do with anything. Do I believe in Islam (or any religion)? No. Does that mean I have the right to discriminate against people I don’t think are logical? No. Stupidity (whatever your personal definition) is a protected human right unless it directly harms someone.
I am completely disturbed by the number of people on this thread who continue to dehumanize those they are against. For sake of argument, let’s say we are at war with Islam- the entirety of it. I don’t think we are, but let’s all agree for the sake of argument that we are. Well, it has been established in international law over centuries at this point that war does not excuse certain behavior. Combatants are still humans. They still are entitled to their inalienable human rights. When we fought against the Vietnamese (a war that some people still consider justifiable) did it excuse the My Lai massacre since they were our “enemy?” When we fought Germany, was the Dresden bombing excusable? Do none of you know anything about history, and what tends to happen to countries that conveniently “forget” about some people’s rights?
Armand
I’m all for Michael Lucas.
Muslims haven’t contributed anything to western civilization since the 10th century where they stayed in a backwards time warp.
Think Muslims are gay friendly? Try living in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
I can be gay and fabulous and SAFE in Israel.
Bobby the Four Year Old
Wow, who knew there were so many right wing racist faggots in this country. Long live Palestine. Fuck Israel. And racist faggots can do to hell.
Bobby the Four Year Old
The gay rights movement is dead. Rich racists now dictate who is allowed to use the “community” center. And working class white gay folks spew racist filth and don’t see anything wrong with it. If you’re wondering why LGBT people will NEVER have equal rights in this country (but they might in Egypt), look no further than the trash on this page.
Will wealth squelch dissent in New York?
Michael Lucas’ efforts to shut down an event at New York City’s LGBT Center threaten to make the center a venue where wealthy voices can censor the rest.
March 7, 2011
WHY WOULD a gay-porn star and mogul, Michael Lucas, want to squelch the right to free speech at a sanctuary for the oppressed and marginalized, New York City’s LGBT Center?
Lucas’ wealth and fame as an entrepreneur in the gay adult entertainment industry would be inconceivable without the right to free speech, including for those with controversial opinions. Yet on February 22, he used his money and connections to slander groups of social justice activists in order to pressure the center to cancel an Israeli Apartheid Week event and ban a small group of pro-Palestine activists, the Siegebusters Working Group, from ever meeting there again.
This is an outrageous abuse of power and influence that should be opposed by everyone who believes our community centers must remain liberated spaces of democracy and debate. Keep in mind, the LGBT Center has hosted a range of non-LGBT-related groups in its 28-year history–from Overeaters Anonymous to antiwar organizations–so the stated excuse about the political content straying from the “mission of the center” is just a ruse.
Besides, what could be more within the mission of a haven for diversity than groups of Arabs, Jews, Blacks and whites of every sexual orientation gathering to challenge a humanitarian crisis?
Which brings us to the crux of the matter–Lucas’ odious charge that people who argue that Israel is an apartheid state are “anti-Semitic.” Lucas is welcome to his own opinion, but not his own version of the facts.
Please, don’t take my word for it–here is the former Israeli attorney general, Michael Ben-Yair, describing Israel’s history and laws in 2002:
We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities. Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one–progressive, liberal–in Israel; and the other–cruel, injurious–in the occupied territories. In effect, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture. That oppressive regime exists to this day.
In 2005, Israel’s former education minister Shulamit Aloni argued that Israel is “no different from racist South Africa.” Jewish South African leaders in a famous “Not in Our Names Declaration of Conscience” state, “It becomes difficult, particularly from a South African perspective, not to draw parallels with the oppression experienced by Palestinians under the hand of Israel and the experienced in South Africa under apartheid rule.”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
AN INTERNATIONAL campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel has global support, including diverse voices from queer theory icon Judith Butler and South African archbishop Desmond Tutu to Auschwitz survivor and International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network spokesman Hajo Mayer.
Are they all anti-Semites too? This charge, more so than almost any other–including the charge of homophobia–has destroyed careers, eviscerated university departments and now, tragically, has our LGBT Center turning its back on Palestinians and kicking good activists to the curb. It is a form of “intellectual terrorism,” as BDS leader Omar Barghouti puts it.
Barghouti, by the way, is being prevented by the Israeli government from getting a visa to the United States to tour for his new book, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights.
Lucas and other shills for Israel’s crimes keep touting that country as “the only democracy in the Middle East,” and they promote Israel’s LGBT-friendly policies as if those laws can “pinkwash” away the racism and inequality. Palestinian queers who just toured the United States are unequivocal on this question. “There is no magic pink door in the Apartheid Wall,” Sami Shamali explained. Israel doesn’t treat LGBT Palestinians any better than it does their straight counterparts.
As a longtime anti-Zionist Jew and member of Siegebusters as well as the author of Sexuality and Socialism, I am accustomed to occasional rants from right-wingers. I honestly couldn’t give a crap that some Michael Lucas has mobilized his “troops” to fill my in-box with nasty inanities. My line on being called a “self-hating Jew” is the same as journalist Max Blumenthal’s: “I may occasionally hate myself, but it has nothing to do with being Jewish.”
The real crime here is that money and power now threaten to transform an institution where ACT UP was born into yet another occupied, homogenized venue where wealthy and powerful voices can squelch all the rest. Don’t let it happen.
First published at Advocate.com [2].
Ohrllynow
@Tallskin2, there’s a lunatic fringe in every country, and unfortunately it’s worse here-that doesn’t mean that there aren’t tolerant people willing to accept you anyway. It really just depends on which strata of society you belong to, I don’t personally know many people with religious views that radical because I’m privileged enough to belong to the miniscule middle class (also, the anti sodomy clause in our law was inserted during the british era..just saying đ )
@Chupa Chups, while you’re probably correct in believing that Israel isn’t a bad place to be gay, that does not exonerate it from the kind of racial apartheid and discrimination it enforces against the Palestinian people (a ‘law of return’ allowing Jews who have only one Jewish grandparent to come and be citizens from places as far flung as Russia, but not letting Arabs who’s own parents were born not miles from their refugee camps to come home amounts to nothing less than outright racism). Try being a gay Arab Israeli and see how much action you get.
Sam
Islam is a lifestyle choice.
I’m not for Israel and how they are no better than the Nazis with their “settlements” for Palestinians that are just like the ghettos the Jews were forced into; but people who practice Radical and even moderate islam are against GLBT people.
This is not to say that Israel is the perfect place to be GLBT as it is not and Orthodox Jews are very homophobic/biphobic and against GLBT people as well.
Pete
Does Michael Lucas have lip implants?
Koral
I don’t really care what this aging wh….e. thinks. This guy will do anything for a buck. I hate him.
socalholls
Muslims havent contributed to Humanity?
Astronomers and astrophysicists[edit]
Ali Qushji (Ali KU?ĂU 1403 – 1474)
Ibrahim al-Fazari (d. 777 CE)
Muhammad al-Fazari (died 796 or 806)
Al-Khwarizmi, mathematician (c. 780 â c. 850)
Ja’far ibn Muhammad Abu Ma’shar al-Balkhi (Albumasar) (787 – 886 CE)
Al-Farghani (mid-9th century)
Ban? M?s? (Ben ..Mousa) (9th century)
Al-Majriti (d. 1008 or 1007 CE)
Muhammad ibn J?bir al-Harr?n? al-Batt?n? (c. 858 â 929) (Albatenius)
Al-Farabi (c. 872 â c. 950), (Abunaser)
Abd Al-Rahman Al Sufi (903 – 986)
Abu Sa’id Gorgani (9th century)
Kushyar ibn Labban (971 – 1029)
Ab? Ja’far al-Kh?zin (900 – 971)
Al-Mahani (9th century)
Al-Marwazi (9th century)
Al-Nayrizi (865 – 922)
Al-Saghani (4th century)
Al-Farghani (9th century)
Abu Nasr Mansur (970 – 1036)
Ab? Sahl al-Q?h? (10th century) (Kuhi)
Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi (940 – 1000)
Ab? al-Waf?’ al-B?zj?n? (940 – 998)
Ibn Yunus (950 – 1009)
Ibn al-Haytham (965 – 140) (Alhacen)
Ab? Rayh?n al-B?r?n? (973 – 1048)
Avicenna (980 – 1037) (Ibn S?n?)
Ab? Ish?q Ibr?h?m al-Zarq?l? (1029-1087) (Arzachel)
Omar KhayyĂĄm (1048 – 1131)
Al-Khazini (1115 – 1130)
Ibn Bajjah (1095 – 1138) (Avempace)
Ibn Tufail (1105 – 1185) (Abubacer)
Nur Ed-Din Al Betrugi (12th century – 1204) (Alpetragius)
Averroes (1126 – 1198)
Al-Jazari (1136 – 1206)
Sharaf al-D?n al-T?s? (died 1213/4)
Anvari (1126-1189)
Mo’ayyeduddin Urdi (died 1266)
Nasir al-Din Tusi (1201 – 1274)
Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (1236 – 1311)
Ibn al-Shatir (1304 – 1375)
Shams al-D?n al-Samarqand? (1250 – 1310)
Jamsh?d al-K?sh? (1380 – 1429)
Ulugh Beg (1394 – 1449), also a mathematician
Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma’ruf (1526 – 1585), Ottoman astronomer
Ahmad Nahavandi (8th and 9th centuries)
Haly Abenragel (10th and 11th century)
Abolfadl Harawi (10th century)
Biologists, neuroscientists, and psychologists[edit]
Further information: Islamic psychological thought
Ibn Sirin (654â728), author of work on dreams and dream interpretation[1]
Al-Kindi (Alkindus), pioneer of psychotherapy and music therapy[2]
Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari, pioneer of psychiatry, clinical psychiatry and clinical psychology[3]
Ahmed ibn Sahl al-Balkhi, pioneer of mental health,[4] medical psychology, cognitive psychology, cognitive therapy, psychophysiology and psychosomatic medicine[5]
Al-Farabi (Alpharabius), pioneer of social psychology and consciousness studies[6]
Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi (Haly Abbas), pioneer of neuroanatomy, neurobiology and neurophysiology[6]
Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis), pioneer of neurosurgery[7]
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), founder of experimental psychology, psychophysics, phenomenology and visual perception[8]
Ab? Rayh?n al-B?r?n?, pioneer of reaction time[9]
Avicenna (Ibn S?n?), pioneer of neuropsychiatry,[10] thought experiment, self-awareness and self-consciousness[11]
Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar), pioneer of neurology and neuropharmacology[7]
Averroes, pioneer of Parkinson’s disease[7]
Ibn Tufail, pioneer of tabula rasa and nature versus nurture[12]
Mohammad Samir Hossain, a theorist,[13] author and one of the few Muslim scientists[14] in the field of Death anxiety (psychology) research.[13][15]
Chemists and alchemists[edit]
Further information: Alchemy (Islam)
Khalid ibn Yazid (died 704) (Calid)
Jafar al-Sadiq (702 – 765)
J?bir ibn Hayy?n (721 – 815) (Geber), father of chemistry[16][17][18]
Abbas Ibn Firnas (810 – 887) (Armen Firman)
Al-Kindi (801-873) (Alkindus)
Al-Majriti (1008 – 1007)
Ibn Miskawayh (932 – 1030)
Ab? Rayh?n al-B?r?n? (973 – 1048)
Avicenna (980 – 1037)
Al-Khazini (115 – 1130)
Nasir al-Din Tusi (1201 – 1274)
Ibn Khaldun (1332 – 1406)
Salimuzzaman Siddiqui[citation needed] (1897 – 1994)
Al-Khw?rizm? (780 – 850), Algebra, (Mathematics)
Ahmed H. Zewail[citation needed] (1946 – ), Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1999[19]
Mostafa El-Sayed[citation needed] (1933 – )
Abdul Qadeer Khan[citation needed] (1936 – ), Nuclear Scientist – Uranium Enrichment Technologist – Centrifuge Method Expert
Atta ur Rahman[citation needed], leading scholar in the field of Natural Product Chemistry
Omar M. Yaghi[citation needed] (1965 – ) Professor at the University of California, Berkeley
Economists and social scientists[edit]
Further information: Islamic economics in the world
See also: List of Muslim historians and Historiography of early Islam
Abu Hanifa an-Nuâman (699-767), Islamic jurisprudence scholar
Abu Yusuf (731-798), Islamic jurisprudence scholar
Al-Saghani (d. 990), one of the earliest historians of science[20]
Shams al-Mo’ali Abol-hasan Ghaboos ibn Wushmgir (Qabus) (d. 1012), economist
Ab? Rayh?n al-B?r?n? (973-1048), considered the “first anthropologist”[21] and father of Indology[22]
Ibn S?n? (Avicenna) (980â1037), economist
Ibn Miskawayh (b. 1030), economist
Al-Ghazali (Algazel) (1058â1111), economist
Al-Mawardi (1075â1158), economist
Nas?r al-D?n al-T?s? (Tusi) (1201â1274), economist
Ibn al-Nafis (1213â1288), sociologist
Ibn Taymiyyah (1263â1328), economist
Ibn Khaldun (1332â1406), forerunner of social sciences[23] such as demography,[24] cultural history,[25] historiography,[26] philosophy of history,[27] sociology[24][27] and economics[28][29]
Al-Maqrizi (1364â1442), economist
Akhtar Hameed Khan, Pakistani social scientist; pioneer of microcredit
Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Prize winner Bangladeshi economist; pioneer of microfinance
Shah Abdul Hannan, Pioneer of Islamic Banking in South Asia
Mahbub ul Haq, Pakistani economist; developer of Human Development Index and founder of Human Development Report[30][31]
Geographers and earth scientists[edit]
Further information: Muslim Agricultural Revolution
Al-Masudi, the “Herodotus of the Arabs”, and pioneer of historical geography[32]
Al-Kindi, pioneer of environmental science[33]
Ibn Al-Jazzar
Al-Tamimi
Al-Masihi
Ali ibn Ridwan
Muhammad al-Idrisi, also a cartographer
Ahmad ibn Fadlan
Ab? Rayh?n al-B?r?n?, father of geodesy,[21][24] considered the first geologist and “first anthropologist”[21]
Avicenna
Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi
Averroes
Ibn al-Nafis
Ibn Jubayr
Ibn Battuta
Ibn Khaldun
Piri Reis
Evliya Ăelebi
Mathematicians[edit]
Further information: Islamic mathematics: Biographies
Masatoshi GĂźndĂźz Ikeda 1926 Tokyo – 2003 Ankara
Cahit Arf 1910 Selanik (Thessaloniki) – 1997 Istanbul, Turkey
Ali Qushji Ali KU?ĂU
Al-Hajj?j ibn Y?suf ibn Matar
Khalid ibn Yazid (Calid)
Muhammad ibn M?s? al-Khw?rizm? (Algorismi) – father of algebra[34] and algorithms[35]
‘Abd al-Ham?d ibn Turk
Ab? al-Hasan ibn Al? al-Qalas?d? (1412â1482), pioneer of symbolic algebra[36]
Ab? K?mil Shuj? ibn Aslam
Al-Abb?s ibn Said al-Jawhar?
Al-Kindi (Alkindus)
Ban? M?s? (Ben Mousa)
Ja’far Muhammad ibn M?s? ibn Sh?kir
Al-Hasan ibn M?s? ibn Sh?kir
Al-Khwarizmi
Al-Mahani
Ahmed ibn Yusuf
Al-Majriti
Muhammad ibn J?bir al-Harr?n? al-Batt?n? (Albatenius)
Al-Farabi (Abunaser)
Al-Khalili
Al-Nayrizi
Ab? Ja’far al-Kh?zin
Brethren of Purity
Abu’l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi
Al-Saghani
Ab? Sahl al-Q?h?
Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi
Ab? al-Waf?’ al-B?zj?n?
Ibn Sahl
Al-Sijzi
Ibn Yunus
Abu Nasr Mansur
Kushyar ibn Labban
Al-Karaji
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen/Alhazen)
Ab? Rayh?n al-B?r?n?
Ibn Tahir al-Baghdadi
Al-Nasawi
Al-Jayyani
Ab? Ish?q Ibr?h?m al-Zarq?l? (Arzachel)
Al-Mu’taman ibn Hud
Omar KhayyĂĄm
Al-Khazini
Ibn Bajjah (Avempace)
Al-Ghazali (Algazel)
Al-Marrakushi
Al-Samawal
Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
Ibn Seena (Avicenna)
Hunayn ibn Ishaq
Ibn al-Banna’
Ibn al-Shatir
Ja’far ibn Muhammad Abu Ma’shar al-Balkhi (Albumasar)
Jamsh?d al-K?sh?
Kam?l al-D?n al-F?ris?
Mu?yi al-D?n al-Maghrib?
Maryam Mirzakhani[citation needed]
Mo’ayyeduddin Urdi
Muhammad Baqir Yazdi
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, 13th century Persian mathematician and philosopher
Q??? Z?da al-R?m?
Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi
Shams al-D?n al-Samarqand?
Sharaf al-D?n al-T?s?
Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma’ruf
Ulugh Beg
Cumrun Vafa
Physicians and surgeons[edit]
Main article: Muslim doctors
Physicists and engineers[edit]
Further information: Islamic physics
Mimar Sinan, (1489/1588 Also known as Koca Mi’mâr Sinân Ă?â)
Jafar al-Sadiq, 8th century
Ban? M?s? (Ben Mousa), 9th century
Ja’far Muhammad ibn M?s? ibn Sh?kir
Ahmad ibn M?s? ibn Sh?kir
Al-Hasan ibn M?s? ibn Sh?kir
Abbas Ibn Firnas (Armen Firman), 9th century
Al-Saghani, 10th century
Ab? Sahl al-Q?h? (Kuhi), 10th century
Ibn Sahl, 10th century
Ibn Yunus, 10th century
Al-Karaji, 10th century
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), 11th century Iraqi scientist, father of optics,[37] pioneer of scientific method[38] and experimental physics,[39] considered the “first scientist”[40]
Ab? Rayh?n al-B?r?n?, 11th century, pioneer of experimental mechanics[41]
Ibn S?n?/Seena (Avicenna), 11th century
Al-Khazini, 12th century
Ibn Bajjah (Avempace), 12th century
Hibat Allah Abu’l-Barakat al-Baghdaadi (Nathanel), 12th century
Ibn Rushd/Rooshd (Averroes), 12th century Andalusian mathematician, philosopher and medical expert
Al-Jazari, 13th century civil engineer, father of robotics,[18]
Nasir al-Din Tusi, 13th century
Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi, 13th century
Kam?l al-D?n al-F?ris?, 13th century
Ibn al-Shatir, 14th century
Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma’ruf, 16th century
Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi, 17th century
Lagari Hasan Ăelebi, 17th century
Sake Dean Mahomet, 18th century
Abdus Salam, 20th century Pakistani physicist, winner of Nobel Prize in 1979
Fazlur Khan, 20th century Bangladeshi mechanician
Mahmoud Hessaby, 20th century Iranian physicist
Ali Javan, 20th century Iranian physicist
Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, 20th century Indonesian aerospace engineer and president
Abdul Kalam, Indian aeronautical engineer and nuclear scientist
Mehran Kardar, Iranian theoretical physicist
Munir Nayfeh Palestinian-American particle physicist
Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistani metallurgist and nuclear scientist
Naser Qureshi, Pakistani physicist and electrical engineer specializing in time-resolved NSOM measurements, magneto-optic spectroscopy of nanomagnetic structures, and methods to improve the senistivity of magneto-optical measurements
Riazuddin, Pakistani theoretical physicist
Samar Mubarakmand, Pakistani nuclear scientist known for his research in gamma spectroscopy and experimental development of the linear accelerator
Shahid Hussain Bokhari, Pakistani researcher in the field of parallel and distributed computing
Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, Pakistani nuclear engineer and nuclear physicist
Ali Musharafa, Egyptian nuclear physicist
Sameera Moussa, Egyptian nuclear physicist
Munir Ahmad Khan, Father of Pakistan’s nuclear program
Kerim Kerimov, a founder of Soviet space program, a lead architect behind first human spaceflight (Vostok 1), and the lead architect of the first space stations (Salyut and Mir)[42][43]
Farouk El-Baz, a NASA scientist involved in the first Moon landings with the Apollo program[44]
Political scientists[edit]
[[Shaykh Taqiuddin al NabhaniTaqiuddin_al-Nabhani http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taqiuddin_al-Nabhani ]]
Syed Qutb
Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr
Abul Ala Maududi
Hasan al-Turabi
Hassan al-Banna
Mohamed Hassanein Heikal
M. A. Muqtedar Khan
Rashid al-Ghannushi
?al?? ad-D?n Y?suf ibn Ayy?b
Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad