THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

However, organizer Hagai El-Ad, executive director of the gay community center Jerusalem Open House, says there will be an alternative public event Aug. 10, and that all other WorldPride events Aug. 6-12 will go ahead as scheduled.

In a telephone interview, El-Ad declined to give details of the replacement event but suggested it will be 'powerful.'

'The alternative action in Jerusalem will focus on expressing our outrage at the ongoing violence and incitement in the name of religion against our community,' he said. 'People in Jerusalem that day will be participating in a public activist event that will make a very powerful statement.'

Because anti-gay Orthodox Jews threatened to stage massive counterdemonstrations, Jerusalem police had planned to bring in officers from other cities to help protect the WorldPride march.

But, because of the new war with Hezbollah guerrillas and Lebanon, those officers are not available. In addition, some members of Jerusalem's police force have been deployed outside of the city, closer to the war zones.

'The police are saying that for them to provide ample security they need to bring substantial reinforcements from other parts of the country,' El-Ad said. 'We appreciate the sincerity in that statement. ... Last year it took many hundreds of police to protect the Jerusalem pride march, and the police preparations for this year's march were in the thousands of officers.'

El-Ad said that unlike last year, when the Orthodox community mostly ignored the annual local pride parade and 'only a few hundred people rioted against us...this year the Orthodox community realized that WorldPride has so much visibility that it is impossible to ignore the event.'

'As a result, they embraced a new strategy to call for massive demonstrations,' he said.

In one sense, that's not bad news, El-Ad suggested.

'Orthodox Jews living in Orthodox neighborhoods now know that they are not alone,' he said. 'Now in the Orthodox neighborhoods there is unprecedented visibility for homosexuality, there is a conversation. It's a very hateful and inciting conversation, but I don't think there is one closeted gay person in a conservative neighborhood in Jerusalem who doesn't now know that there is a gay community.'

In recent weeks, Mayor Uri Lupolianski, right-wing politicians and Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious figures had called for cancellation of WorldPride, arguing, in essence, that it's an outrage for sinners to flaunt their deviance on the streets of a 'holy city.'

At last year's ordinary gay pride parade, ultra-Orthodox protester Yishai Schlissel stabbed three marchers and was later convicted of attempted murder. 'I came to murder on behalf of God,' he told police. 'We can't have such abomination in the country.'

The most seriously injured of the victims, Adam David Russo, suffered deep gashes to his hand, arm and chest. 'They tried to murder me because I'm gay,' he told the Haaretz newspaper at the time. 'Now I view my community activism almost as a mission.'

A small group of Orthodox Jews tried to block the march and around 1,000 anti-gays staged a rowdy counterdemonstration during which some militants threw bottles of urine and bags of feces at the marchers.

But such hostility is far from universal. Israeli courts have issued numerous gay-friendly rulings in recent years and, this past May, Jerusalem's District Court ordered the city to fund Open House's activities, including the annual pride march. The municipality was instructed to give Open House $77,566 in funding that was denied in the years 2003-2005 and to stop discriminating in its future funding of nonprofit groups.

Meanwhile, some individuals and groups, including Lebanon's leading gay organization, Helem, are opposing WorldPride for entirely different reasons, and have called for a boycott.

' [ T ] he unfortunate decision was made to hold WorldPride in Jerusalem under the slogan 'Love Without Borders,'' Helem said in a statement. 'Helem strongly condemns holding WorldPride in a city beleaguered by violence and conflict, and where the words 'Love Without Borders' belie a reality of separation, ubiquitous borders, destruction of homes and livelihoods, land theft, gross human rights violations, and the apartheid policies of Israel.

'We would also like to state our support of the initiative organized by Aswat Palestinian Gay Women and other progressive Palestinian and international organizations, who offered an open invitation to those who decide to come to Jerusalem for WorldPride to speak with LGBT Palestinians, visit unrecognized and demolished Palestinian villages, meet with anti-occupation activists, and join an alternative parade demonstrating against the apartheid wall,' the organization said.

WorldPride, which was last held in 2000 in Rome, is licensed by InterPride, the International Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Coordinators.

Moscow pride organizer says church paid protesters

The co-organizer of Moscow's ill-fated first gay pride parade says the Russian Orthodox Church paid some of the old women and neofascists who protested against and attacked the marchers.

Nikolai Alekseev says the church gave '10 euros [ each ] to 50 babushkas to demonstrate against us in the streets' and gave 'a few Big Mac meals to the young boys who were running after us.'

As the marchers attempted to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier then walk a few blocks for a rally across from City Hall, they were attacked repeatedly by neofascists, skinheads, militant Christians and riot police. Several marchers were injured and about 120 people from both sides were arrested.

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov had banned the May 27 march because, he said, Russia's 'morals are cleaner' than those of 'the West.' He called the attempt to lay flowers a 'desecration ... a provocation [ and ] a contamination. People burst through and of course they beat them up,' he said.

About 1,000 police officers were assigned to prevent the march from taking place.

Scottish Catholics seek dispensation from equality laws

Scotland's Roman Catholic Church is seeking an exemption from coming legislation that requires schools to grant heterosexuality and homosexuality equal legitimacy in student lessons, London's Times reported July 16.

Church leaders want Catholic schools to continue teaching that homosexuality is a sin. They have denounced the legislation as 'totalitarian ... thought control'—and Cardinal Keith O'Brien branded it a 'threat to religious freedom.'

The planned laws also ban anti-gay discrimination by businesses and public authorities in the provision of goods, facilities and services. Church officials oppose that as well, saying they want to discriminate when renting out their facilities.

Fury over $91 charge to march in pride parade

Gay pride organizers in Manchester, England, have come under fire from some community activists for instituting a £50 ( $91 ) charge for every contingent in the parade—including nonprofit groups, HIV organizations and even individuals, The Independent reported.

The pride committee says it needs the money to pay for crowd control and additional policing.

But Manchester Pride actually isn't hurting for money. It has donated more than $728,000 to community charities in the past three years.

Businesses pay much more to be in the parade—$2,275. Organizers also charge a $27 entry fee to the three-day pride festival on Canal Street, the heart of the gay ghetto that was the setting for the British version of Queer As Folk.

Activists: Iran wants all gays to get sex-change operations

Iranian government policies encourage all gays to get a sex-change operation, the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization ( PGLO ) claimed July 19.

' [ The ] Iranian government does not recognize homosexuals' rights in Iran,' the group said. 'They publicly declare that there are no legal limits for transsexuals and legally they can have a transgender surgery. ... They use this as an excuse to deny existence of homosexuals and believe that every one should be a heterosexual man or woman. According to this belief, everyone that has a 'problem' should have an operation and 'transform' her/himself.'

After such surgery, transsexuals are left to fend for themselves, PGLO said.

'No social prospect is provided after the operation and many of them have to fall into prostitution in order to make a living,' the activists said. 'Denial of homosexuals in the country, their oppression and complete ignorance of their rights has caused many homosexuals to live in the worst psychological and social condition which results in frequent suicides, depression and seeking asylum to other countries.'

Meanwhile, on July 19, activists in around 15 nations staged public protests, with PGLO's support, against Iran's alleged executions of gay men. The date was the first anniversary of the public hangings of teenage boys Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni in the Iranian city of Mashad—either because they were lovers ( according to local gays and some international activists ) or for the crime of raping a 13-year-old boy ( according to the government and other international activists ) .

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission ( IGLHRC ) and Human Rights Watch ( HRW ) opposed the public demonstrations, saying they've been unable to confirm that Asgari and Marhoni were hanged for being gay. The two organizations staged a competing event the same day in New York City to discuss strategies for dealing with Iran's confirmed abuse and torture of gay people.

Several activists who focus on international affairs claim to have gathered evidence that debunks IGLHRC's and HRW's doubts, but other international activists, and some journalists, remain concerned that the evidence is not conclusive.

In the days before and after July 19, individuals from the two camps engaged in an increasingly vitriolic exchange on public Internet mailing lists, questioning each other's tactics, competency, motivations and allegiances—at times resorting to personal attacks.

— Assistance: Bill Kelley