On the face of it, the “Queers for Palestine” banner seems logical and appropriate. Queer people have the right to care about Palestinians. And yet, the context seems baffling and irrational. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations began right after 7 October 2023, even before Israeli military strikes on Gaza. Therefore, one might ask if they are for Palestinian civilians or for Hamas.
Not to mention the contradiction. Israel is the only Middle Eastern country with freedom for LGBT+ folks, while the rest of Muslim-majority nations forbid homosexuality, and Islamist paramilitary organisations like Hamas may punish homosexuality by death. Therefore, “Queers for Palestine” is often mocked as “Chickens for KFC” or “Turkey for Christmas”.
Supporters of QfP, however, have prepared the answers online – not to answer their critics but to mock the critics. First, the right-wing critics are so inhumane, they cannot comprehend the value of solidarity for humanity. For them, everything is transactional while for us everything is altruistic (they use more modern language, but that’s the idea).
The women (despite whatever they may identify themselves as) holding the banner are white, and another white woman online explained why she supported such a message. First, she’s in America, so she’s safe from Hamas. Here, of course, she admitted that Hamas might harm her. Second, support for Palestine is an integral part of queer politics. In other words, if she’s for trans kids and black lives, she also must be for free Palestine. Of course, Hamas is never expected to support trans kids and black lives, because that’s transactional politics.
Obviously, queers for Palestine mind their safety. Generally, they do not join the larger rallies dominated by Arab and non-Arab Muslims, since lone protesters carrying rainbow or trans pride flags have been assaulted and berated by Muslim protesters. This means queers for Palestine know that Muslims are no less homophobic than Christians, and yet that doesn’t make them cancelling Muslims. Not all Palestinians are Muslims, but few Palestinians support the LGBT+ communities compared to Israelis.
Instead, queer activists accuse Israel of committing pinkwashing, supporting the LGBT+ communities to cover up its crimes against humanity. Hence, we have a contradiction, where the LGBT-friendly Israel is hated more than the positively homophobic Palestine. Of course, you may have a gay Westerner saying that “Homophobic Islam” is just a racist myth, since he had visited gay clubs in Muslim countries (could be anywhere from Istanbul, Dubai, to Kuala Lumpur) and he would prefer to hang out in Gaza instead of Tel Aviv (disputable even without the war but hold on).
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I used to write “queer” as a concise synonym to the never-ending acronym of LGBT+ - many institutions use A (Asexual) or I (Intersex) or Q (Queer), and the Canadian government usually begins with 2S (2 Spirits), making the acronym a login password. Most people also think queer is just a synonym for gay, and supposedly the word, which meant “strange”, was used because some gay (which meant “carefree”) people thought “I feel disgusted, I don’t feel gay”.
But queer means beyond homosexual or strange, and even since the anonymous “Queers Read This” pamphlet was distributed, queer is not the same as LGBT. A lesbian, a gay, a bisexual, and a trans person want equal rights and the same civil rights. The rights to form a family, to raise children, and to be included in legal documents. The right to be normal.
A queer, on the other hand, opposes normality. Queers don’t want a nuclear family, a respectable job, and a safe neighbourhood. Queers believe that like colonialism and capitalism, prosperity and safety are built upon the foundation of death, oppression, and discrimination.
Consider a Western lesbian woman. She holds a job to pay the bills and raises her child (or at least a pet), uploads pictures of a hiking weekend or urban peculiarity, and still follows professional and legal rules when driving, filing taxes, and dealing with colleagues and clients.
Now consider a Western queer who uses (they/them) pronouns. Modern Western workplaces might allow them to dress unusually, but they must believe that society always shuns them. After all, the most liberal Western society might have a gay newsreader, a gay foreign minister, and gay CEOs, but no queer ones.
In fact, the more societies accept abnormal people, the more queer people hate society. First, society acts as if they have sold out. Second, since society always upholds normalcy, eventually all minorities must follow the rules and lead the same capitalist, white supremacist, and heteronormative paths. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong is condemned by Australian queers because she’s a lesbian immigrant who stands by Israel, who condemns Hamas as a terrorist organisation, and who continues the American-led global order.
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At this point, one may think of the kind of Palestine that Hamas wants and the kind of Palestine that Western queers want. Whether the Hamas’ Palestine will be like Taliban’s Afghanistan, or the Syrian Arab Republic, or the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, none of them will be friendly to Western queers. There will not be queer families, there will not be Drag Queens Story Hour, and there will not be intersectionality.
None of this bothers queers for Palestine. Like their ancestors who lauded the Vietcong, the IRA, or Sandinista, this is their current fandom. Quoting digital culture observer Leigh Stein, writer and novelist Kat Rosenfield explains how the irrational politics of fandom enable white Americans, MAGA Republicans and DSA Democrats alike, to mock raped and butchered Israeli women and girls (of course, their common anti-Semitism helps too). A sovereign state and a terror organisation have been reduced into a pair of football clubs, popstars, or superhero brands.
History shows that queers for Palestine will be safe from Islamists who have called for a “global intifada” and attacking local Jews. They have the same causes, but they are safely segregated in their own communities. And they might or might not know that if something happens to them, no one will stand up for them.