Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

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

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Aguda, A Wider Bridge discuss U.S., Israeli LGBT communities
by Gretchen Rachel Hammond
2015-03-04

This article shared 3225 times since Wed Mar 4, 2015
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


Representatives of the forty-year-old Israeli national LGBT taskforce the Aguda returned to Chicago in February alongside leaders of A Wider Bridge—a U.S.-based organization with the mission of creating understanding, connections, education and experience between Israelis and LGBTQ communities and their allies across the United States.

At a Feb. 13 roundtable discussion and breakfast held at the Chicago offices of the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest, consulate staff welcomed A Wider Bridge Founder/Executive Director Arthur Slepian alongside his director of programs and development, Tyler Gregory, and Aguda Co-Chair Chen Arieli, who discussed their work with a cross-section of Jewish and LGBT community leaders including representatives from the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, Temple Sholom, Northwestern University and the Bungalow Group.

"When the Aguda was established it was illegal to be gay in Israel," Arieli said. "A lot has changed in forty years. We are looking forward to tolerance and acceptance of the LGBTQ community in Israel."

She added that the principal fight of the organization is one of recognition. "Every single right that I have as a Jewish lesbian woman I got by the Supreme Court or through personal fights," she said. "For the next 40 years, the Aguda [will fight] to establish once and for all for LGBT rights to be written in the [Israel] Book of Laws."

The organization's activities have been centered around each of the many issues facing the Israeli LGBTQ community even after the 1988 repeal of anti-homosexuality laws inherited from the British legal system when the country was founded forty years earlier.

The Hoshen ( Education and Change ) organization was initially started as a small group inside of The Aguda through which LGBT individuals travelled to Israel's schools to tell personal stories in order to combat pervasive stereotypes about the community. Now it has taken on a life of its own, growing exponentially with each year.

"We want to encourage entrepreneurs inside the community and to help them stand on their own two feet," Arieli said. "We have an LGBTQ youth organization called IGY [Israel Gay Youth] that have 80 groups around Israel and the Gila Project promotes transgender rights [and empowerment]—all these activities happen under the Aguda roof. Now we are going to concentrate on advocacy and lobbying for our needs and rights at the Knesset [Israeli legislature]. A year ago we established an LGBT community lobby group who meet with Knesset members and ministers demanding our rights and suggesting partnership in writing and promoting those bills."

To help explain the kind of challenges LGBT people in Israel face, Arieli told the story of a gay couple who had married abroad and were seeking a divorce. "There is no civil marriage," she said. "If you want to get divorced you have to go through the Rabbinical system. So we have zero gay marriage and one gay divorce. We have to fight to separate state from religion. It's not just an LGBTQ fight, it a human rights fight. We should be granted the choice to live [a good] life. My belief is that as a minority fighting for our civil rights we have the responsibility to fight for other minorities as well."

For five years, A Wider Bridge which is now based in both San Francisco and New York has been engaged in its own fight to change perceptions—ironically those held by members of the LGBTQ community in the United States towards the policies of Israel itself. "It started with three observations about the LGBT and Jewish worlds that I was a part of," Slepian recalled. "One was that in the LGBT communities that I knew about Israel was a topic that we either didn't talk about or that we just argued about. The second was that in the broader LGBT world it had become almost a badge of honor to [believe] Israel is a pariah state. The third was that going to Israel I met people and communities of activists and artists doing amazing work. I thought 'why aren't we collaborating more?'"

A Wider Bridge has since engaged itself in a kind of cross-cultural exchange. "Every year we bring 20 or 25 [LGBT] people from the US to Israel," Slepian said. "We also bring people to the U.S. to speak and talk about their work whether they're LGBT activists, filmmakers or artists representing the community who can help people here with an understanding of what life is like in Israel."

On June 9, A Wider Bridge and the Aguda will host a conference for LGBTQ leaders from nations spanning the globe. The event will mark the Aguda's 40th anniversary and culminate in Israel's Pride celebrations.

There is no doubt that A Wider Bridge faces challenges in terms of smoothing the waters between U.S. LGBTQ communities and their concerns about Israel's foreign and domestic policies. In a 2011 New York Times Op Ed author and activist Sarah Schulman used the term "pinkwashing" to describe what she called "a deliberate strategy to conceal the continuing violations of Palestinians' human rights behind an image of modernity signified by Israeli gay life."

Windy City Times asked Arieli about her thoughts regarding the accusations leveled by the LGBT community against the policies of her country. "I'm a woman, I'm a lesbian, I'm Jewish, I'm white and I'm Israeli," Arieli said. "I have criticisms about my government and I am taking action to try to change it. I am not pinkwashing anything. My visit is not funded by the government. No one is telling me what to or what not to say and I will give my opinion at every opportunity I have."

Arieli added that her work both in the Aguda and her personal political endeavors are one and the same. "I am working towards bringing peace and equality for all," she said. "Israel must proceed with the peace process [with the Palestinians] because every human being is entitled to prosperity in the essentials of economics, health and education. The government are responsible for instigating those basic things if you are gay or if you are Palestinian. My personal belief is that the LGBTQ fight [in Israel] is a left-wing fight. We need to bring everyone together even if our political views are different."


This article shared 3225 times since Wed Mar 4, 2015
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Thailand parliament passes landmark marriage bill 2024-03-27
- On March 27, Thailand's parliament approved a marriage-equality bill by an overwhelmingly large margin—a landmark step that moves one of Asia's most liberal countries closer to legalizing same-sex unions, media ...


Gay News

Kara Swisher talks truth, power in tech at Chicago Humanities event 2024-03-25
- Lesbian author, award-winning journalist and podcast host Kara Swisher spoke about truth and power in the tech industry through the lens of her most recent book, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story, March 21 at First ...


Gay News

Wyoming is latest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors 2024-03-24
- On March 22, Wyoming became the latest state to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors, The Hill noted. In doing so, it joined 23 other states that passed laws restricting or banning the treatment. Legislators in both ...


Gay News

Chicago alder proposes renaming street after Obama 2024-03-22
- Openly gay Black Chicago Ald. Lamont Robinson has proposed renaming Columbus Drive after former U.S. President and city resident Barack Obama, media outlets noted. The street stretches through the Loop from East Grand Avenue to DuSable ...


Gay News

Congressional Equality Caucus on FY24 bills passing the house 2024-03-22
--From a press release - WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02), released the following statement after the House successfully passed the final funding bills for Fiscal Year ...


Gay News

WORLD Uganda items, HIV report, Mandela, Liechtenstein, foreign minister weds 2024-03-21
- It turned out that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam traveled to Uganda on Feb. 19-27, per The Washington Blade. He visited the capital of Kampala and the nearby city of ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Va. marriage bill, AARP, online counseling, Idaho items, late activist 2024-03-21
- Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed bills protecting same-sex marriages at a state level, surprising some, WRIC reported. The bills—passed out of both chambers along mostly party lines—will require clerks ...


Gay News

LGBTQ+ candidates Marcelino Garcia, Precious Brady Davis win primary elections to keep MWRD seats 2024-03-21
- Marcelino Garcia and Precious Brady-Davis, the two openly LGBTQ+ incumbents in the race to keep their seats on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), won their primary elections and will move on to the general this ...


Gay News

Small LGBTQ+ candidate pool nevertheless scores some important victories March 19 2024-03-20
- Relatively few openly LGBTQ+ candidates were running in the March 19 Illinois Primary Election. But there were some significant contests in play at the local, state and federal levels. Openly gay Ald. Ray Lopez (15th Ward) ...


Gay News

Gay Irish prime minister to step down 2024-03-20
- In a surprise move, openly gay Irish Prime Minister (or Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar has announced his resignation, citing "personal and political, but mainly political reasons," according to CNN. Varadkar said he felt he was no longer ...


Gay News

Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council sets a new course 2024-03-18
- Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council held its first meeting of the calendar year on Feb. 28 at City Hall in the Loop under the leadership of the recently appointed chair Jin-Soo Huh. The LGBTQ+ Advisory Council is ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Missouri measure, HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, judge, Texas schools 2024-03-15
- In Missouri, a newly proposed law could charge teachers and counselors with a felony and require them to register as sex offenders if they're found guilty of supporting transgender students who are socially transitioning, CNN noted. ...


Gay News

PASSAGES: Former Chicago Commission on Human Relations chair Clarence Wood 2024-03-13
- LGBTQ ally and former Chicago Commission on Human Relations (CCHR) Chair and Commissioner Clarence N. Wood died March 5. He was 83. Wood was born April 14, 1940, in Alabama. While primarily raised in Alabama, Wood ...


Gay News

Longtime LGBTQ+-rights activist David Mixner dies at 77 2024-03-12
- On March 11, longtime LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS activist David Mixner—known for working on Bill Clinton's presidential campaign but then splitting from him over "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT)—died at age 77, The Advocate reported. ...


Gay News

LGBTQ+ Victory Fund remembers co-founder David Mixner 2024-03-12
--From a press release - Today, LGBTQ+ Victory Fund President & CEO Mayor Annise Parker released the following statement on the passing of LGBTQ+ civil rights activist and LGBTQ+ Victory Fund co-founder David Mixner: "Today, we lost David Mixner, a founding ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.