Why *Wouldn’t* Most LGBTQ+ People Support Palestine?

Of course a marginalized community is likely to champion human rights

Refaat Alareer Memorial Library at Portland State University. Named after the Palestinian poet and professor who was killed by Israel in December. Photo by author.

This week, I attended a die-in outside of the then-occupied, newly christened Refaat Alareer Memorial Library at Portland State with several fellow classmates and friends. Most of us identify as LGBTQ+, which is not surprising: the vast majority of my queer friends are deeply passionate about the cause, in contrast to all my sympathetic-yet-passive straight friends.

However, a too-common argument is that we must be misinformed or stupid to support a country without LGBTQ+ equality. Such comments are not limited to occasional argumentative Instagram users (who I should really stop engaging with), but rather reflect deliberate marketing campaigns by Israel. As of 2015, “the Israeli government [had] allocated more than $90m to fund the campaign that included promoting Israel as a ‘world gay destination.’”

Initiatives like an Annual Gay Parade and attention towards queer media are worthy of celebration. Less ideal, however, is “pinkwashing,” the practice of “a state or organization appeal[ing] to LGBTQ+ rights in order to deflect attention from its harmful practices.”

Pinkwashing has been going on for a while in Israel, employing misinformation to depict the country as…