Breakfast at Tiffany's – Because I Do Not Know

It's Their Rainbow, Too

The New Republic publishes an essay on how the American gay community is failing our fellow queers in Iran and in other Islamofascist-dominated countries (Hat tip: Instapundit):

When it comes to the oppression of gays and lesbians in Muslim countries, gay activism hasn't died; it never really existed. Gay activists have used two types of excuses to justify their failure to aggressively mobilize for the rights of gay Muslims--moral and strategic. The moral argument is that Americans are in no position to criticize Iranians on human rights--that it would be wrong to campaign too loudly against Iranian abuses when the United States has so many problems of its own. Then, there are two strategic rationales: that it is better to work behind the scenes to bring about change in Iran; and that gay rights groups should conserve their resources for domestic battles.

The strategic rationales are not especially compelling, but it is the moral argument that is particularly troubling, because it suggests that some gay and lesbian leaders feel more allegiance to the relativism of the contemporary left than they do to the universality of their own cause. Activists are more than willing to condemn the homophobic leaders of the Christian right for campaigning against gay marriage; but they are weary of condemning Islamist regimes that execute citizens for being gay. Something has gone terribly awry.

I made similar points in a July essay, titled "The Real Nazis of Our Time." And there are others. I am delighted to report that Kerry Harris' Queers Against Terror is again active. Kerry posts an essay that states Israel is becoming a Gay, er, Mecca, because of its tolerance toward homosexuals as opposed to its neighbors:

If any gay solidarity exists, it must be to defend the nations that permit us to live and denounce the regimes that do not. When so many around us are deliberately misunderstanding the reality of the Middle East, we must be honest and state clearly that Israel is the only country in the region that tolerates our existence.

To be sure, in this country we have our anti-gay wingnuts. But that does not give us an excuse to ignore those who have it worse. Hell, it's a picnic in the park for American gays compared to what these poor people suffer through.

Keep in mind two of the five key groups targeted by the Nazis: Jews and gays. And just whom do the Islamofascists hate the most?

I think you already know the answer.

UPDATE: Hamas, a Palestinian "political" group, is against gay marriage, too. Oh, and we are mentally and morally sick. This from people who encourage 15-year-olds to strap bombs to themselves and blow up Jews on a bus.

2 comments Jake McCafferty last posted at 7:50 PM
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2 Comments:

It's a hard fight to start, it must be started, but it is so difficult in that society. Being gay here is widely accepted now, or considered by some to be a minor indiscrestion at most. Over there being gay is considered a major malignancy on the culture, and it is something to be feared and shunned. I think we need to help the people, but how do we go about it?

By Matt S., at 2:45 PM

The first ingredient is freedom. And freedom is best brought forth by self-determination. In other words, democracy.

Yet the Western world believes these peoples are unable to grasp or sustain it. We said the same thing about Japan after centuries of militarism. Yet it changed. So, too, can the Middle East.

By Jake McCafferty, at 8:44 PM