CHICAGO (Press Release)–AJC is appalled that several Jewish participants in a gay pride parade in Chicago were told to leave the event because their flags had the Jewish Star of David.
“In the heart of our city one of the most blatant incidents of anti-Semitism took place today at the Dyke March,” said AJC Chicago Director Amy Stoken. “Where is the collective outrage over this despicable targeting of Jews?”
Laurel Grauer, one of the participants ejected from the parade, told the Windy City Times that she not only was told to leave but was publicly harassed by other marchers.
The flag she was carrying was from “my congregation which celebrates my queer, Jewish identity which I have done for over a decade marching in the Dyke March with the same flag,” said Grauer. “Prior to this [march] I had never been harassed or asked to leave and I had always carried the flag with me.”
The Jewish pride flag consists of a Jewish Star of David on the gay pride flag. The Jewish marchers were told that their flag is offensive.
“An annual march celebrating inclusion and acceptance was hijacked today by those who believe Jews do not belong to the LGBTQ community,” said Stoken. “Shame on the organizers of the Dyke March for not ensuring Jewish marchers can participate as freely as any other participant.”
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Preceding provided by the American Jewish Committee
“The banning of LGBTQ flags with a Jewish Star of David from the Chicago ‘Dyke March’ brings disgrace to a movement that is dedicated to equal rights for all. Equal rights that is except for Jews who dare to celebrate their ties to their people and the Jewish homeland”, charged Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights NGO.
The organizers of the march told the Windy City Times the event was a pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist one and asserted that the flags were ‘offensive’ and that their presence ‘made people unsafe’. “I have no doubt that the Star of David makes anti-Semites feel uncomfortable—but unsafe? Clearly extreme anti-Israel activists are desperate to be kept safe from the truth on the ground in the Middle East. Tel Aviv recently hosted a massive Gay Pride Parade, but a similar event in Turkey was met with police firing into crowds of people trying to march. In the Jewish State, gays serve in the military. In Iran, gays are publicly hung.” Rabbi Cooper continued, “The unbridled hypocrisy and anti-Semitism of these campaigners degrades the cause for equality for all in our society and for LGBTQ rights around the world”.