When Russia was the featured nation, did the so-called Equality Forum invite the Russian ambassador as the keynote speaker to laud his country's human rights record?

Let's be perfectly clear, the only LGBT people who have rights in Israel are Jews. Palestinians don't have access to these rights. If I were to fall in love with a Palestinian from Nazareth, my marriage to him would not be recognized by Israel no matter how gay we are. In fact many Palestinians queers who enter Israel become prostitutes and are picked up by Israeli intelligence organizations and blackmailed into working for them.

The Equality Forum is so myopic in its understanding of queer rights that it considers these issues irrelevant to gay rights. How incredibly sad.

John, with respect, there is a lot of ignorance about Palestinian queers in this article, no where more so than in this passage: "Weizman conceded that they “weren’t doing enough” to help their Palestinian gay brothers (not sisters so much, who I gather are so invisible at this point that there’s not much to be done right now))."

A simple google search would turn up a result for Aswat, a Palestinian lesbian organization: http://www.aswatgroup.org/. Another google search would reveal that the umbrella queer group al Qaws is headed by a Palestinian lesbian woman named Haneen Maikey. Palestinian lesbians are not some delicate flowers who are incapable of organizing or making themselves visible. But this level of ignorance reveals exactly how Palestinian queers, who form 1 out of every 5 citizens in Israel, are being treated at this forum. We are nothing more than victimized subjects without agency for you all to discuss and lament in passing.

You know, John, when I am harassed at Israel's checkpoints, when I was locked into a turnstile because the Israeli soldier turned it off as I was passing through it, when I am searched at the Israeli airport and have my possessions broken, no one ever asks me if I'm queer or not. All that matter is that I'm Palestinian.

The idea that the *Equality* Forum would have as its Featured Nation a country in which 50% of the people who live under its control face a systematic regime of ethnic and racial discrimination is something that has to be seen to be believed. And that such a sordid spectacle receives positive press from a website called "The New Civil Rights Movement," while ignoring issues of intersectionality, is particularly galling.

But how would any of you know any better when dissenting voices were left out of the program anyway?

This wasn't an attack on media coverage of LGBT rights. It was an attack on gays having the temerity to want to be treated equally in the military supposedly because gays believe that killing foreigners is how they'll be accepted, or some such nonsense.

If the writer wants to discuss why the media is focused on DADT and what that says about this society, he could have done that. Instead he chose to misrepresent and attack the what, why, and how of LGBT activism to make some unrelated point about militarism. That's bullshit.

Sorry, it's not just that gays want to end anti-gay discrimination in the military. We want to end it in every aspect of society, which — what do ya know — includes the military. And nobody is just focusing on DADT. There's also the Employee Non-Discrimination Act and the Defense of Marriage Act, which denies gays marriage rights. Activists are busy working on all of these issues, not just one of them.

The bottom line is, either gay people are to be treated equally or not. If they're discriminated against in even one area of society, be it the military or whatever, then they're unequal, and that needs to change.

This is silly. She didn't do anything wrong, and if there are plenty of Arabs and Muslims who will be offended by this, I'm sure there will be plenty of Arabs and Muslims who'll have no problem with it.

She isn't under any obligation to not do anything that, in your opinion, would offend "many Muslim and Arab Americans." And it's unfair to judge her by that standard.

The way I look at it is that she's unafraid to talk about her roots, and not only that, but in a positive manner, too. In a time like this, any positive presentation of an Arab or Muslim is a good thing. I'm not gonna get mad just because she showed her bare back.

What a freaking liar this guy is! The idea that opposition to his membership of the national board of the ADC is because of his religion is so ridiculous, it would be funny if it wasn't true. I mean, seriously, the ADC — the organization founded by a Christian and who's had Christians involved in its operations since the beginning — is now going to face protest because they appointed Christian Ray? Give me an effing break!

The most odious thing about this guy is his employment by the ultra-racist, anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim Jerusalem Post. You can't claim any high ground when you're *that* low.

Jeff Halper's a good man. Good for him!

I'm glad this particular German has taken the time to learn the lessons of his country's history: as long as you're making a buck, prejudice is A-OK!

The funny thing is, his posts (including the one bashing EI) over at palestinenote.com say that he's currently in Jerusalem.

It's the perfect opportunity for him to go to those villages and stand against the Apartheid wall. Will our most hilarious of Palestinian funnymen put his money where his mouth is, or will he continue to write about the "peace concessions" that Palestine must make?