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To the rhythm of electronic music, in a wave of multicolored flags, more than 170,000 people paraded this Friday through the streets of Tel Aviv, Israel. The municipality of this Israeli city was the one that gave the approximate call for the largest march of the LGBT pride in the Middle East region.
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Men and women, dressed in colorful outfits, sometimes eccentric, participated in this march under oppressive heat, dancing in carriages on the avenues of Tel Aviv, a city considered an exceptional oasis of tolerance in the region, journalists from the AFP.
“It’s supposedly a fight for LGBT rights but this seems more like a party, so I take advantage of the party”, explains to AFP Liat Shana, 29, with a green wig.
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Tel Aviv, where the first such demonstration was held in 1998, “has always been and always will be a welcoming abode for all trans, lesbian, gay, queer and non-binary people. They are always welcome here.”declared the mayor Rum Huldai it’s a statement.
Israel is recognized as a progressive country in terms of visibility and equality for the LGBT community. However, homosexual marriage, without being illegal, is impossible to carry out since there is no institution authorized to celebrate it. But the union between people of the same sex is recognized if it has been contracted abroad.
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A part of the LGBT community, however, accuses Israel of instrumentalizing their cause, denouncing a work of “pinkwashing” —derivation of the English word “whitewashing”, whitewashing – which would consist of concealing under a progressive image the realities of the country, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On Thursday, June 2, thousands of people participated in the 20th edition of the Pride parade in Jerusalem, under heavy police surveillance due to threats against the organizers.
In 2015, the march tragically ended with the death of a teenage girl, stabbed to death by an ultra-Orthodox Jew.
Source: Elcomercio
I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.
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