It’s a small, homophobic world after all. Following last week’s deadly stabbing at Jerusalem Pride — an attack that left one sixteen-year-old girl dead, and five other paraders wounded — Ynet, an Israeli news website, decided to conduct a little social experiment that demonstrates the degree of homophobia embedded in the culture.
Related: Two Men Walked The Streets of Moscow Holding Hands As A Social Experiment. Things Did Not End Well
In a similar vein to last month’s experiments — which followed two men walking down the street holding hands in Moscow, and then, to equally devastating effect, in Kiev — this minute-and-a-half segment finds two men holding hands and wandering through busy thoroughfares and marketplaces in Jerusalem. A hidden camera captures the (overwhelmingly negative) responses from the bustling crowd:
Related: Boyfriend Experiment Ends In Violent Attack By Neo-Nazis
“Dirty gays!”
“Sweetheart!’
“You gay sons of bitches!”
“Have you seen faggot and faggot holding hands?”
And this is gauging Jerusalem’s hostility towards gays after the deadly Pride attack.
Glücklich
Pick your battles. Do it in Tel Aviv.
Large Marge
The video of people simply looking at them isn’t proof of homophobia. It’s proof that people were intrigued, either interested or disgusted but not proof of homophobia. We don’t know what they were thinking other than they were looking. The video is deceptively edited to make it seem like every person who looked at them was a homophobe like the very verbal homophobes also in the video.
The creator of this video is a sheister.
broadshoulder
I walked across Westminster Bridge yesterday. There was gay couple holding hands. No one said a word. Even the tourists took it in their stride…
Xzamilio
@Large Marge: I guess it’s better to be looked at like a freak show than have someone hurl insults at you… if you had to choose, that is. I’m not sure what you think is so sheisty about the video other than you trying to downplay the apparent homophobic tone of the video. You can’t be that shocked… not many pro-gay cities or countries over in that region of the world.
aliengod
These “experiments” are pointless. Here’s an idea, let’s have two guys hold hands and walk down the street in Kabul. What do you think is gonna happen? We get it, homo-hate exists in many parts of the world. What are these videos proving?
Linda Hopp-Hill
I hate this, but I guess it was bound to happen. Hopefully the rest of the world will eventually catch up.
Chris Duffy
Bulldoze it all and put up a Wal Mart.
geoespar
I know some will say why or is it necessary, well in a way it is and someone had the courage to push forward, rather than regressing. Who knows in twenty years it will not be a big deal. We cringe in fear for the safety of these two individuals pushing the envelope but they had the courage which most are lacking but don’t mind reaping the benefits of those who place so much on the line so we can have our rights. Do we need to be reminded of Stonewall, when the drag queens had enough of police harassment, they finally came out of the bar and took on the police and from that event and subsequent battles we have come down a long and difficult journey to the present, but we must never forget those who fought and will continue to fight for Gay Rights and Transgender rights. Our rights will always be subject to attack and we must never forget that, always.
meghanada
@Glücklich: Yeah, got it. Pritecting Israel’s image is a higher priority than confronting homophobia in the city that had a deadly anti-gay hate crime just a week ago. You’re an idiot.
meghanada
@aliengod: They’re proving exactly that – that homophobia exists everywhere, including in corners of the world as pampered by the US media as Israel, which is consistently portrayed in propaganda as some kind of Semitic Scandinavia.
meghanada
@meghanada: * protecting
Glücklich
@meghanada:
I needed a good laugh at your expense. Thanks for that!
You wouldn’t happened to also be SFGate poster/dried-up-skag Veroniquamills would you?
Now show me how it’s done and parade around Tehran with that fire hydrant-sized butt plug of yours hanging out your drooping warty ass. I mean, after you pry that enormous bug outta there.
Cam
If anybody noticed much of the homophobia seemed to come at them when they were in the markets. Huge numbers of the stalls are run by Isreali Arabs so who were making the loudest attacks?
That isn’t to excuse the Orthodox in Israel at all. If Israel doesn’t get a handle on the crazy Orthodox people there, then they will become nothing more than just another mid-east country run by religious fanatics.
jwtraveler
@Cam: The guy who stabbed the people at the Pride parade wasn’t Arab. Religious fundamentalists of all religious groups have a lot in common. Bigotry, intolerance, homophobia and hatred of anything that doesn’t conform to their religious beliefs are among the fundamentals. Sadly, people who have experienced bigotry and intolerance, personally or historically, seem no less likely to direct it at others, as is evidenced by the attitudes of many Israeli Jews toward Palestinians, gays and even black Jews. This is not to say that Israeli Jews are any more intolerant than any other people; it’s just that I’d expect more of them.
Cam
@jwtraveler: Trust, me I know that the stabber was not Arab,however, the markets tend to have large numbers of Isreali Arabs owning the stalls, and nobody there that I could see behind the counters were wearing the hates and sideburns.
As for my feelings on the crazy Orthodox Jews there, if you scroll down in my comment I absolutely didn’t let them off when I said,
“””If Israel doesn’t get a handle on the crazy Orthodox people there, then they will become nothing more than just another mid-east country run by religious fanatics.”””
Cam
@jwtraveler:
Sorry, it cut me off before I finished, I wanted to add in, that if these two had held hands in an Orthodox neighborhood they would most likely have been physically attacked.
meghanada
@Glücklich: Oh I get it – if something such as killing gay people happens in Tehran, it’s absolutely forgiven that it happens in Jerusalem, too!
You’re exactly like those conservatives who say that gays and women should conform to the status quo and stop struggling for their rights in the West – that they should concentrate their efforts to the Middle East instead because things are Really Bad There.
I don’t think you’re a conservative or that you think like that in general – I do suspect you think like that in this particular case, because it involves Israel. Why’s that? Is there a clue in, you know, your name?
I’m not Veronwhatever or post on SFGate. Tell me, do the two of us make similar arguments? If so, that’s perhaps because the argument you make – “but Syria/Iran/Hamas is worse!” – never changes whenever Israeli hatred gets discussed, so the responses given cannot help but be similar, too.
meghanada
@Cam:
“If anybody noticed much of the homophobia seemed to come at them when they were in the markets”
So do the Mizrahi Jews who fill the ranks of Likud.
onthemark
Enough self-righteous cultural superiority:
Two men walk down the streets of Salt Lake City holding hands.
Two men walk down the streets of the Bronx holding hands.
Two men walk down the streets of the south side of Chicago holding hands.
Two men walk down the streets of Dallas holding hands.
Two men walk down the streets of Pittsburgh holding hands.
Two men walk down the streets of Dorchester (Boston) holding hands.
Two men walk down the streets of Atlanta holding hands.
Two men walk down the streets of New Orleans – anywhere outside the French Quarter – holding hands.
Two men walk down the streets of East Los Angeles holding hands. (Oh wait, that wouldn’t work, nobody walks in L.A., they’d just get arrested for walking.)
Glücklich
@meghanada:
Well, as is the case with your doppelgänger, I can’t make sense of your point because I don’t have my Arble-garble-to-English dictionary at hand. And you’re a bore.
Onthemark makes a point similar to mine. Are we supposed to be shocked at the bad reception of two men holding hands in Jerusalem? It’s a provocative act there. Not so in Tel Aviv, which you must know is also in Israel. Kind of like….would anyone be shocked at a similarly bad reception to two men holding hands in Bentonville, Arkansas versus the same thing in, New York – no, let’s say Berlin, since you seem to equate my German screen name with anti-semitism?
Sansacro
@meghanada: Religious + uneducated = prejudiced
btw, Tel Aviv is much easier place to be openly gay; more secular, educated and affluent.
Glücklich
@Sansacro:
I don’t think meg knew Tel Aviv is in Israel or if meg did that comparing Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is like comparing Los Angeles to…Bakersfield’s too harsh….Washington?
arthurb3
Here in Raleigh, NC nothing would be said if you were downtown. In the suburbs the straight-laced might stare or say stomething, but downtown, no.
meghanada
@Glücklich: “Are we supposed to be shocked at the bad reception of two men holding hands in Jerusalem?”
Now, it’s me who can’t see what is your point. No, actually I can – that homophobia shouldn’t be exposed in Jerusalem because those in the known already have bad expectations from it. It’s just that it’s so trite and vacuous as an argument, to say nothing of self-serving. I’m sorry that it makes you feel embarrassed as Jew to have people discuss homophobia in Israel. But we can’t help – people are actually getting killed in Israel for being gay, so the subject is unavoidable.
And no, we shouldn’t do it in Tel Aviv only so that your pet country would look better. The stabbing happened in Jerusalem. And the fact Jerusalemaites can’t hold back their anti-gay filth only a week after their gay neighbors got stabbed IS noteworthy.
And you shouldn’t compare Jerusalem to Arkansas. I doubt you wouldn’t spend as much energy to argue that homophobia in the deep South should never be discussed on the ground that it is already too obvious.
Also, Tel Aviv is not such hot gay shit. Two young gays were murdered by a homophobic terrorist in 2009, and he remains at large. He’s Jewish, of course; if he weren’t, he would have been arrested immediately under administrative (charges-free) detention, his home would’ve been demolished, and Israel would make sure the Western media talked about nothing but the anti-gay Arab for a whole week.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Tel_Aviv_gay_centre_shooting
meghanada
*Gay couple bashed in Shithole, Okhlkahoma*
“It’s the South – is anyone surprised? Let’s discuss gay people in West Hollywood instead.” – Words Glücklich would never utter.
Glücklich
@meghanada:
My pet country. Heh-heh. I’d like to make you my new pet. Get you de-barked.
I’ve got a lunch meeting to get to. You have a nice day and STAY OUTTA THE CAT BOX.
Cagnazzo82
Well look on the bright side… at least they weren’t physically assaulted.
And there’s no gangs coming and harassing them like in Eastern Europe.
That one kid was definitely shocked though. He looked like he’d seen a ghost.
Cam
@Cagnazzo82:
I was wondering if that kid was maybe seeing a bit of hope. He looked very interested.
Avery Alvarez
Israel likes to pretend they are different from the rest of the sandbox.
But they aren’t.
They are certainly not like us, no matter how much propaganda that tries to convince us otherwise.
NO doubt some idiot will come on with the old, tired, typical, “Israel is the only country in the middle east that…”
Save it. I’ve that that ish version of reality before, and already discarded it as worthless rhetoric.
ddevine
With the hideous gentrification gutting our bars, restaurants and neighborhoods, get prepared to see this right here in the USA again. It has already started in NY and in Silverlake in L.A. Places gay people CREATED they now have to look over their shoulders again. I see Millennials do not get it at all. At all…
Bob LaBlah
I some times wonder what the reaction would have been had that old sanctimonious fart who pulled out a knife TWICE at a gay pride event and started stabbing people had gotten the living shit shot out of his ass this time around because he had pulled it on the WRONG gay jew. Be patient folks. Not all gay jews are afraid to fight back and I find it hard to believe many other gay jews wish they had been there to stomp that old fuck into the ground so far he wouldn’t have gotten up till next spring.
Wayesworld
I think it is awful to see so many people gawking and a number of them making derogatory comments just over to guys holding hands walking down the street. The way some people reacted you would think they had 3 heads. They weren’t carrying any signs or making loud noise, or wearing strange clothing. They were just walking down the street. This is 2015 and Jerusalem is a major international city, the largest city in Israeli. And on top of that, just a few weeks ago 6 people were stabbed at a Jerusalem Pride Parade with one young girl dying, and after that this is still how people react…disgusting, absolutely disgusting!
Ralph Vendegna
Shows how stupid people are and the hatred that comes out when 2 people of the same sex hold hands. Hell my hubby and I did it in Key West Florida and only 1 jackass opened up his jaws of hate. No one else said a word.
Glücklich
@Wayesworld:
Actually it’s 5775 over there but it might as well be 1015.
Nik D'ambra
Hypocrites !!! Go into any GAY BATH House and count the number of “YAMAKAS” on their knees !! Are they facing east and praying !?!?!?!?!?
Dakotahgeo
Well, cross off dump yard Jerusylamb off my itinerary!!!
Hussain-TheCanadian
@Nik D’ambra: Oh damn – You made my day!!
canuckdave
Move to Canada, You could probably walk down any street in any city, town or village holding hands and people might look but nothing would be said. Its a non-issue here..we’ve had gay marriage for 10 years. The world needs more Canada
Glücklich
@Ralph Vendegna:
In Key West? YOU’RE KIDDING!
jason smeds
Canada is not as open-minded as it claims to be. If you go out in the suburbs of Toronto, you are likely to get hissed at or spat on if you’re a man holding another man’s hand.
The United States is not much better. If you performed an experiment with two men holding hands in a suburb of New York City and compared the results with a similar experiment in a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, there would not be be much difference – in both cases, you’d see a lot of negative looks and comments.
Two men holding hands represents a challenge to the structure that men and women have created, a structure which gives certain privileges to women, such as the right of two women to hold hands. Another privilege given to women is the right to cross-dress (ie wear trousers).
In a sense, it is these privileges that oppress male homosexuality.
john.k
I don’t know if those are the same two guys who did the experiment in Moscow and Kiev. The two who did those walks have now posted a Youtube video of them walking through Lisbon holding hands. I hope Queerty will put it up. While lots of people looked at them, perhaps out of curiosity, there wasn’t a single abusive remark.
john.k
Sorry – I’ve just seen it is there!
BlogShag
They are just upset because of that one guy’s hideous tank top.
I wouldn’t wear a tuxedo to cook, so I sure as hell wouldnt purposely make myself stick out like a sore thumb like these knuckleheads are doing. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. It would be just as dumb to walk around like this on the south side of Chicago, too
o.codone
How dare those fu*ck*ing Jew coc*ksuc*kers call me a dirty dog coc*k suck*er? Fu*ck those Jew*s.
o.codone
Let’s not forget to vote for Hillary so she can send our tax money to support these gay hating monkeys.
Glücklich
@o.codone:
Hssshhhh (sound of air inhaled through clenched teeth). Both comments uncalled for.
Dakotahgeo
Thank you, Gluucklich! Oxycodone has no morals or values so he has a valid reason to sound uneducated. Pity him! Pray for him!
Dakotahgeo
@Glücklich: Sorry… Glucklich (sp).
jason smeds
When was the last time you saw two men holding hands in Miami or New York City or Los Angeles? And I’m not talking about a gay precinct or a gay pride parade. How about a university campus? When was the last time you saw two men holding hands on a university campus in the USA?
Kangol
Sounds like an Israeli pinkwashing fail!
Kangol
@jason smeds: Thing, I saw two gay men holding hands in New York three times this past weekend. I haven’t been to Miami in a while, or Los Angeles in a couple years. But I answered your question, and someone else can speak for the other two cities.
I saw two women holding hands and kissing on a university campus earlier this summer.
What is your point?
Kangol
@o.codone: Please, spare us the r@cist, anti-Semitic hate. One bit of hatefulness doesn’t merit another. Please.
Captain Obvious
@aliengod: The privileged people who do this stuff don’t have to pick their battles because they aren’t facing real discrimination that can directly impact their lives beyond superficial stuff anyone else would ignore.
They don’t understand what anyone else is talking about the majority of the time when we say “discrimination”.
If being looked at negatively was grounds for a video and uproar then pretty much any non-white person living in America could make a video and throw a fit.
Franklin
It’s just nice to see people acknowledge for once that homophobia exists in non-black communities. To hear some people on this site tell it, you would think black people were the sole perpetrators of homophobia, and everyone else in the world is just filled with acceptance of gay people.
Kangol
@Franklin: Exactly.
Except for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, the entire Middle East (except for Lebanon), etc.
Daniel Williams
Was to be expected, and it does suck, but i’m just grateful they weren’t physically hurt.
Todd Burke
Disgusting! I will never visit. I don’t care for those people or that country. Especially how my friends were treated. And that poor girl who was killed at Pride.
Misty Bolling
So terrible
Glücklich
@aliengod:
Huh, you slide with that and megonorrhea compares me to Hitler for saying pretty the same thing.
Clark35
Israel and Orthodox Jews and even American so called “liberal”/reform Jews are extremely homophobic and biphobic.
Clark35
@aliengod: Exactly.
Franklin
@aliengod: Eh hem. Actually it is common in the middle east to see two men walking down the street and holding hands. I believe if you use google, you can see pictures of former President George W. Bush walking and holding hands with King Abdullah while in Saudi Arabia.
Schmice
@Large Marge: Deny, deny deny.
Zenguy
I’m so grateful to live in Portland,Oregon. Two men holding hands, walking in this city doesn’t elicit any particular attention at all. There is such an eclectic culture here, even the most strangest incidents sometimes don’t get much reaction or attention; weird is more of the norm here.
I recently walked past someone rollerskating in a circle, wearing a Darth Vader mask and cape,while blaring Brian Adams music. It was a funny and bizarre scene. I watched other people pass by; they noticed briefly,but had no reaction, as if this was completely normal public behavior.
meghanada
@Captain Obvious: Oh I get it, you’re complaining about this video because you don’t want people to recognize that oppression exists beyond your dear race issues. And you’re an idiot if you think people gratuitously call non-whites “sons of bitches” and the like on the streets.
meghanada
@Glücklich: Wow, it struck a nerve, didn’t it! Sleep tight and well, it wasn’t my intentional to ruin your night.
Sluggo2007
One would think that in a country full of Jews (the most oppressed people in history), there would be some acceptance of people who are minorities. This is why it will take forever for countries in that part of the world to advance.
Sluggo2007
@Franklin: Just had to pull the race card, didn’t you, Franklin? Grow up and get a life!!! NEWSFLASH!!! Not everything is about race! Or YOU for that matter!
Daggerman
..these guys truly do have guts and all those pitiful onlookers are nothing but sad cowards hurling the name calling game! It appears that some countries are so stuck in the past it’s quite funny, but the one thing I found really annoying is the fact that all the other men in the street are no doubt possibly gay themselves behind closed doors…but can’t admit it or show it publicly…
Qetesh
@aliengod:
I disagree. I have a straight friend who said that where we live(the southern United states), gay people don’t really face discrimination and that no one would dare bother them. The next week he witnessed a driver screaming “faggot” from his car window at a gay guy.
Yes, these sort of homophones exist everywhere, but I think videos like this actually serve a purpose to show (straight) people that gay people don’t have it as easy as them, and we can’t do a simple act such as walking down the street with our hands clasped together.
Franklin
@Sluggo2007: No, not everything is about race, but that doesn’t make what I said any less true. Also, you talk about playing cards. Well there are 52 cards in the deck. So, I’l make a deal with you. I’ll stop pulling the race card when people in this country stop dealing it, ok?
BriBri
This is hardly any surprise, the oppressed have become the oppressors in almost every case in humanity.
Avery Alvarez
The US needs to stop supporting this ish-hole middle eastern dump.
They are a desert religious cult, even more insane and wacky than the right wing conservative christian in America.
Their actions with the Palestinians already show they don’t value human life. Israel has no compassion, no soul, no empathy, no sympathy. The whole place is just heartless sociopaths.
Once again, the US needs to stop giving them billions of dollars and nukes.
Fck Israel.
Hun
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. I mean, these are the people who invented homophobia.
georgerameses
It’s sad that people are just piling on hate against Israel, forgetting that this is the Middle East after all and the fact that two gay men could even be walking holding hands is a breakthrough in the region.
Before you hurl insults and call Israel a place of pigs, homophobes, etc. Why don’t you ask yourself: What would happen if two gay men walk together holding hands in Dubai, RIyadh, Ramallah and other ME countries? And you may also want to remember that “secular” Turkey had the PRIDE parade dispersed.
adrianjurado310
oh gawd. when will the hatred stop, when will they all just die and faggots are left to paint rainbows on their ebt cards and asses or do whatever the hell they want! you are people not society slaves forced to do this or do that….when will it end.. when will it all END!
someday jesus. someday,