The US Department Of Agriculture and the National Center for Lesbian Rights will hold a Rural Pride event in Jackson, Mississippi on August 14th.
#RuralPride is a series of summits across the country to elevate the voices of LGBT people and families in rural communities, explore how these communities are particularly vulnerable, and discuss proposed and enacted federal policy changes that can increase equality and access for rural LGBT people and their families. The #RuralPride summits center on LGBT experiences in rural America, including increased rates of economic insecurity, lack of family and nondiscrimination protections, the relationship between LGBT and faith communities, and the heightened challenges facing rural LGBT youth and rural LGBT people of color.The #RuralPride summit series is a partnership between NCLR and USDA that challenges the stereotype that LGBT people only live in metropolitan areas by raising awareness of the particular issues faced by LGBT rural communities.
The event will be co-hosted by Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Fund. More details.
LGBTQ rights groups and youth activists were holding demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa following the terror attack at the gay pride parade in the capital on Thursday, in which six people were wounded. Demonstrations were also being held in response to the Jewish terror attack late Thursday night that killed a Palestinian infant and critically wounded the other three members of his immediate family. Thousands attended the rally in Meir Park in Tel Aviv in solidarity with the LGBT community, which also marks six years since the killing spree at the Barnoar community center. Among those participating were Isaac Herzog and fellow Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, and former president Shimon Peres. "I cannot believe we have reached such an abyss," said Peres. "I took before this stage six years ago, mere days after the murders at Barnoar. I am finding it difficult to believe that we are standing on that same stage, once again before the same phenomenon. We have gathered this evening for a war of independence – Israel's independence from insanity and insane people. This is not a disagreement between right and left. This is a profound clash between those with a conscience and those who lack a conscience." "It is appropriate on this evening to remove the masks," continued the former president. "Anyone who calls the pride parade a 'beast parade' should not be surprised when a knife is raised at a 16-year-old old girl."
Speaking at the rally in Jerusalem, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin denounced the "Jewish terrorists" behind the attack. Opposition leader Isaac Hertzog called for the Israeli government to classify the far-right anti-gay group Lehava as a terrorist organization. (Lehava is a Hebrew acronym for "Stop Assimilation in the Holy Land.") Speaking at the Tel Aviv rally, Meretz Chairwoman Zehava Gal-On called the attacker on the parade a member of "Jewish ISIS."
Rallies to protest Thursday's stabbing attack at Jerusalem's Gay Pride parade and the arson attack in which a Palestinian child was killed will be held in major Israeli cities on Saturday night. A rally in Tel Aviv already planned to mark six years since two people were killed in a shooting at Bar Noar, a Tel Aviv gay youth center, will be turned into a protest against violence following Thursday's stabbings. At 7:30 P.M a Peace Now rally will be held at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, and from there the participants will march to Gan Meir, where another rally is scheduled to take place. Opposition leader and Zionist Union head Isaac Herzog is scheduled to speak at the Rabin Square rally, as well as Meretz leader Zehava Galon, Zionist Union MK Amir Peretz, former Shin Bet chief Carmi Gilon and more. The Jerusalem rally will begin at 9:30 P.M. in Zion Square. A protest will also take place at 8:00 P.M. in the northern city of Haifa, and at 8:45 P.M in the southern city of Be'er Sheva.
During yesterday's arraignment the deranged attacker declared that he does not recognize the authority of Israel's legal system as he was acting under orders from God.
RELATED: Yesterday the New York Postpublished an op-ed which denounces the resurgent claims of "pinkwashing" that appeared on social media after Israeli politicians and religious leaders unanimously expressed outrage about the attack. An excerpt:
Their voices arrived this week both loudly and swiftly, often cloaked in the veil of “pink-washing” — the academically vogue assertion that Israel uses its pro-LGBT record to obscure its Gaza blockade and West Bank occupation. Transgender activist Pauline Park declared Thursday on Twitter: “Jerusalem LGBT PrideParade attack by Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Assailant undermines Zionist Pinkwashing Propaganda.” “Will the Zionists continue their pinkwashing campaign?” asked another on Twitter. Indeed, across the #pinkwashing spectrum, posters insisted that Israel is actually unsafe for its LGBT citizens, that it’s far from a liberal haven and that Netanyahu’s good wishes are merely political showmanship. As with most socio-political-cultural conflicts, the truth is at once far simpler — and more complex. Indeed, much as in other Western democracies, Israel’s open society can cultivate extremists who may act out with violent results. Yet despite their horror, these egregious examples do not render those societies fundamentally violent.
An assailant stabbed six people marching in the annual Jerusalem gay pride parade on Thursday. The assailant, an ultra-Orthodox man, was arrested. According to MDA, six people were wounded in the incident that took place on the corners of Sokolov and Keren Hayesod streets in the capital. Paramedics were treating two people in serious condition, one in moderate condition and three people who were lightly injured. All of the victims were in their thirties, according to MDA. The wounded were being evacuated to Shaare Zedek Medical Center and Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem neighborhood. Thousands of people were taking part in the annual pride parade in the capital when the attack occurred. "I saw an ultra-Orthodox youth stabbing everyone in his way," said Shai Aviyor, a witness interviewed on Israel's Channel 2 television. "We heard people screaming, everyone ran for cover, and there were bloodied people on the ground," Aviyor said.
The ultra-Orthodox group Lehava yesterday announced that it would not allow today's parade to "pass quietly." Today's incident mirrors an attack at Jerusalem Pride 2005 in which three attendees were stabbed by an ultra-Orthodox protester. I'll have video reports of today's attack as soon as they become available. Below are apparent photos of the attacker being subdued by police.
UPDATE: The attack was caught in this photo.
UPDATE II: Here is the attacker chasing two girls with his knife as the police come after him.
UPDATE III: The Jerusalem Post has updated their above-linked story to report that the attacker is the same man arrested in the in the 2005 attack: "The suspect in Thursday's stabbing attack, Yishai Shlissel, is the same man who perpetrated a similar stabbing attack at the 2005 Jerusalem gay pride parade. He was recently released from prison after having been convicted of stabbing three people during the parade ten years ago."
UPDATE IV: Here's the attacker about to pull his knife.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack contradicted the country's "basic values". "In the state of Israel the individual's freedom of choice is one of basic values. We must ensure that in Israel, every man and woman lives in security in any way they choose. That's how we acted in the past and how we'll continue to act. I wish the wounded a speedy recovery," he said in a statement. President Reuven Rivlin condemned the stabbing as a "terrible hate crime". "People celebrating their freedom and expressing their identity were viciously stabbed," he said. "We must not be deluded, a lack of tolerance will lead us to disaster. We cannot allow such crimes, and we must condemn those who commit and support them." Hundreds of police are deployed along the parade route to prevent violence breaking out. Jerusalem police spokesman Asi Ahroni told Reuters there was a "massive presence" of police at the parade but "unfortunately the man managed to pull out a knife and attack".
This weekend an estimated 1.5M attended Madrid Pride, which fell on the tenth anniversary of same-sex marriage in Spain.
The country’s parliament and senate passed the law on June 30th 2005, with it coming into force three days later on July 3rd. Two weeks later, on July 11th, Spain’s first ever same-sex wedding took place when couple Emilio Menéndez and Carlos Baturín, who had been together for 30 years, married in Madrid. The law made Spain only the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, after the Netherlands and Belgium and 17 days ahead of Canada. Despite Spain’s reputation as a traditionalist and religious country, 66 percent of Spaniards supported the law at the time, even amid protests from the Roman Catholic Church that it would "devalue marriage". The law was strongly opposed by the opposition Popular Party. When conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy took office in 2011, he professed his opposition to same-sex marriage, but said he would wait and see what the country's Constitutional Court would rule on the issue. The law was upheld by the court, with eight supporting votes and three against. The conservative government said it would abide by the ruling and the law would not be repealed.
More than a decade ago, photographer Ed Freeman set out to capture the gay rights struggle in a photograph for the cover of Frontiers, a gay magazine. To do so, he relied on an image — the flag-raising at Iwo Jima — that has been imitated and adapted countless times since it was captured in the midst of one of America’s bloodiest battles. [snip] More than a decade after his adaptation of the photograph was published, it circulated on social media following the Supreme Court’s decision Friday to allow same-sex marriage in all 50 states. That prompted a backlash against Freeman — including a death threat he says he reported to the FBI. “He said if he ever saw me, he’d kill me,” Freeman said in a phone interview. “I got swamped with vitriolic hate mail.” Freeman said there is “no way in hell” that he meant his adaptation of the Iwo Jima image to be provocative. “This picture was just a flashpoint for a lot people who are looking for a reason to lash out, so I guess I get to be the whipping boy,” he said. “I’m fine with that if that’s what it takes.
MEXICO: Activists Protest Istanbul Pride Attack At Turkish Embassy
On Sunday, police attacked Istanbul Pride attendees with tear gas, water cannons, and rubber bullets, reportedly because the event fell during Ramadan. Yesterday about two dozen Mexican activists protested the attack with a demonstration outside the Turkish embassy in Mexico City. JMG reader Alex sends us his photos, noting, "A prayer for Ramadan was performed by a Muslim woman. She did it over a Pride Flag." (The woman was among the protesters.)
"I’ve earned the right to claim pride through years of internal strife over my sexuality. Others have died in the name of gay pride. More still have been jailed, have been disowned by their families, and have sued their state governments for it. Gay pride is not something you can claim by waving a flag. The rainbow symbol is easy to co-opt, but the experience it represents is not. That’s why it wasn’t comforting to see hundreds of my Facebook friends’ profile pictures draped in rainbows. It didn’t feel like they were understanding my struggle; it felt like they were cheapening it, celebrating a victory they had no part in winning." - Peter Moskowitz, 26, writing for the Washington Post. Comments there are overwhelmingly critical.
"Zea faces down a fire and brimstone street preacher, at a festival in Columbus, the day after the SCOTUS marriage equality ruling." 230K views already.
Gay pride faced Christian outrage in central Seoul in a showdown that dramatized the conflict between Korea’s deeply conservative values and the country’s latter-day surge toward democratic equality. Advocates and foes of gay rights clashed after a gay pride rally on the grassy plaza in front of Seoul City Hall that drew several thousand people — many celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing marriage between gay couples. As gay pride ralliers cheered, sang and danced inside the plaza, thousands of foes of gay marriage shouted slogans and epithets from beyond rows of policemen. The policemen, pouring from dozens of police buses, probably outnumbered both the gay ralliers and their foes. A parade in which those at the rally sought to march up the avenue toward the reconstructed Kyongbeok Palace of Korean kings broke up in scuffles between marchers and their critics organized by Seoul’s powerful Protestant churches.
Anti-LGBT protesters attempted to disrupt the final day of the Korea Queer Festival and Gay Pride parade as 20,000 people came out in Seoul, Sunday, to celebrate the US Supreme Court decision to legalise same-sex marriage across all states. Protesters can be seen shouting at the LGBT event attendees through a wall of police officers deployed to prevent clashes. One protester was led away by police but it is unconfirmed as to whether he was officially arrested.
Turkish police have fired water cannon and rubber pellets to disperse a crowd gathered in central Istanbul for the city's annual gay pride parade. The police appeared intent on stopping the crowd gathering near Taksim Square on Sunday, a cameraman for the Reuters news agency reported. Al Jazeera's Serpil Karacan, reporting from Istanbul, said opposition members of parliament formed a human chain to block the riot police. Images and videos posted on social media showed several people carrying gay pride flags running away while being fired upon by a water cannon mounted on an armoured police vehicle. As of 1400 GMT, the protesters have left Taksim Square and the nearby Istikal Street, and the city is "back to normal" according to our correspondent. In an interview with Al Jazeera, photojournalist Bradley Secker, who is at the scene in Taksim, said the gay pride marchers were "puzzled" by the police action, given that a similar parade on June 21 went on in Istanbul without any incident. According to the AFP news agency, police took action against the crowd when demonstrators began shouting slogans accusing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of "fascism". No official comment has so far been issued by the government, but there were reports that the parade was stopped as it was Ramadan. However, Karajan said the parade, which has been held over the past 13 years without police intervention, occured peacefully during Ramadan last year.
Tens of thousands of people, many decked in the colours of the rainbow, took to London’s streets on Saturday to celebrate the annual Pride parade just a day after gay marriage was ruled to be legal across the US. To mark the historic judgment, which ensures that the 14 states with bans on same-sex marriage cannot enforce them, the United States flag joined those of Ireland and Mozambique at the front of the march in recognition of the progress recently in recognising gay rights in all three countries. More than 250 groups were represented at the parade which ended in Whitehall. There was additional security after Friday’s terrorist attacks in France, Tunisia and Kuwait, with the Met’s deputy assistant commissioner, Helen Ball, saying the force would lay on extra security “to help protect and reassure the public” and to make sure “the public are encouraged to continue with their plans to attend or take part in events as normal”.
Supporters of Ukip have taken part in today's Pride in London parade despite attempts to ban them from doing so. About 15 people holding a large banner with the words "Some gays are Ukip, get over it!" managed to join the parade, despite their application to take part being refused by the organisers. Veteran campaigner Peter Tatchell tweeted that the group had "barged" in and branded their actions "appalling", while others said they snuck into the parade to take their place alongside 250 other organisations. The band of Ukip supporters then managed to march unchallenged for at least part of the route. Richard Hendron, organiser of the Ukip group, told PinkNews they were marching "in support of LGBT rights, as well as in support of our rights to be here". He added: "We want to show that if there is any homophobia [in UKIP] it is dealt with and we are progressing. "We are a party which believes in equality – we are a libertarian party – there are some people who are racist and homophobic, but unless we take part in things like this, we aren’t going to change this."
RELATED: Thanks very much to the JMG readers that dropped by the Pride Life tent to say hello! Special shout-out to Will and Pearl from New Zealand!
An HIV-positive man named Janne recently stood on the street next to a sign that read, “I’m HIV-positive, touch me,” to see if the negative stigma attached with HIV/AIDS still exists. The video isn’t in English, but actions speak louder than words. Finnish Broadcasting Company, Yle Kioski, and Janne collaborated to make a video that truly reflected HIV awareness and Pride week in Helsinki. In the experiment, the Finland native stood with his eyes closed and arms out next to the signs, and waited.
President Barack Obama is used to hecklers stopping him during speeches -- but he draws the line when the audience interrupts him in his own house. As Obama was speaking at a White House event honoring LGBT Pride Month on Wednesday, an accented voice rang out from the crowd. Obama wasn't amused. "Shame on you," he told his heckler, who was protesting deportations under the Obama administration. Obama responded, "Listen you're in my house ... it's not respectful." The interruption persisted, however, and Obama asked for the heckler to be removed from the East Room. "As a general rule I am just fine with a few hecklers. But not when I'm up here in the house," he said, as Vice President Joe Biden clapped him on the back. Obama responds to hecklers at speech Obama said later if guests are "eating the hors d'oeuvres and drinking the booze," they're typically expected to listen respectfully. Shortly after the incident, an immigration group claimed the protestor was an undocumented immigrant named Jennicet Gutiérrez, who is transgender. According to a press release, Gutiérrez was a founding member of FAMILIA TQLM, established to advocate for LGBTQ immigrants who the group says are often excluded in the immigration debate.
Heckling any president inside the White House is extremely rare, hence Obama's reaction.
This is a first for our longtime allies. Via press release: "Today a 38-feet wide by 19-feet tall rainbow flag was raised on top of Starbucks headquarters and will remain through this weekend’s Seattle Pride Parade. Given our public stance on diversity and inclusion of all people, particularly on this issue, it makes sense to raise the flag in celebration. Being open, inclusive and forward-thinking is at the core of what Starbucks is about."
London’s transport authority has introduced a number of high-profile rainbow stunts – last year rolling out a rainbow crossing for Pride in London. TfL later expanded its efforts, showing its pride earlier this year by making over a London bus and a traditional black taxi. Ahead of this week’s Pride parade, it has gone even further – making over a Docklands Light Railway train in rainbow colours, with sponsorship from Barclays. The new train will be in service today on the Canary Wharf to Stratford route, until later this year. DLR Director Rory O’Neill said: “We are delighted to have this iconic artwork on our trains. It has taken a great deal of collaboration with our operator, KeolisAmey Docklands to get it done but it is well worth the effort.”
