UPDATE: Chicago LGBT march expels 3 Jews carrying rainbow flags with Star of David

By ALAN SMASON, Special to the CCJN

Three people carrying Jewish Pride flags, rainbow-striped flags with a Star of David at the center, were asked to leave a pro-LGBT march on Saturday, June 24, in the Chicago neighborhood of Little Village.

Laurie Grauner, face obscured at her request, at the Tel Aviv Gay Pride Parade in 2015. (Photo courtesy Laurie Grauner and Oy! Chicago, JUF)

Representatives of the Dyke March Collective approached Laurie Grauer, the Midwest manager of A Wider Bridge, a Jewish LGBT advocacy group for Israel, and two of her associates, about the flags in question before the march began.

The march was part of the final celebrations for Pride Month, which is celebrated every June to recall the 1969 Stonewall Inn riots in Manhattan, considered the tipping point for the gay and lesbian movement in the United States. The last Sunday of the month has also been designated as Pride Day.

“It was a flag from my congregation which celebrates my queer, Jewish identity which I have done for over a decade marching in the Dyke March with the same flag,” she told the Windy City Times, a Chicago area LGBT website.

According to Grauer, one Dyke March Collective member inquired if she was pro-Zionist, and when she responded affirmatively, she was told to leave. A Windy City Times reporter who reached out to a spokesperson from the Dyke March Collective for comment was told that the flags “made people feel unsafe” and that the march was “anti-Zionist” and “pro-Palestinian.”

“They were telling me to leave because my flag was a trigger to people that they found offensive,” Grauer told the reporter. She pointed out that on all those previous occasions “I had never been harassed or asked to leave and I had always carried the flag with me.”

Eleanor Shoshany-Anderson, who identifies as an Iranian Jew, was also asked to leave, according to the newspaper’s website.

“I was here as a proud Jew in all of my identities,” she told them. “The Dyke March is supposed to be intersectional. I don’t know why my identity is excluded from that. I feel that, as a Jew, I am not welcome here.”

A statement on a Dyke March Chicago social media account posted yesterday, June 25, added:

“Sadly, our celebration of dyke, queer and trans solidarity was partly overshadowed by our decision to ask three individuals carrying Israeli flags superimposed on rainbow flags to leave the rally. This decision was made after they repeatedly expressed support for Zionism during conversations with Dyke March Collective members.”

Grauer elaborated: “People asked me if I was a Zionist and I said ‘yes, I do care about the state of Israel but I also believe in a two-state solution and an independent Palestine.'”

“It’s hard to swallow the idea of inclusion when you are excluding people from that,” she told the paper. “People are saying ‘You can be gay but not in this way.’ We do not feel welcomed. We do not feel included.”

Dyke March Collective organizers specifically accused A Wider Bridge for what they termed as “provocative actions at other LGBTQ events,” although they did not specifically name those events and dates. They also pointed to the organization’s touting of Israel’s liberal attitudes towards gay and lesbian tolerance as a means to “pinkwash the violent occupation of Palestine.”

Pinkwashing is a portmanteau of the words “pink” and “whitewashing” that LGBT activists have coined in order to bash companies or states like Israel that tout their queer-friendliness so as to be perceived as tolerant, modern or progressive.

A Wider Bridge issued a release concerning the affair that read in part: “The Dyke March has failed to live up to their goal of ‘bridging together communities.’ That the organizers would choose to dismiss long-time community members for choosing to express their Jewish identity or spirituality runs counter to the very values the Dyke March claims to uphold, and veers down a dangerous path toward anti-Semitism.”

They demanded that the Dyke March issue “a full public apology for dismissing LGBTQ Jews from the March” and that they affirm “their own values as a safe place for all LGBTQ people, including the Jewish Community.”

According to the Windy City Times, one marcher, identified as Ruthie Steiner, said the decision to eject the three Jewish participants was “horrific.”

“This is not what this is community is supposed to be about,” the newspaper reported. “I’m German-born. Am I pinkwashing by being here and supporting my community? Is every nation which does not have a clean civil-rights record and also hosts a pride parade guilty of pinkwashing? With all the people that so hate the LGBTQ community, for it to tear itself apart in self-hatred makes no sense at all.”

The statement from the Chicago Dyke March Collective attempted to explain their actions. “The Chicago Dyke March Collective is explicitly not anti-Semitic, we are anti-Zionist,” the statement read.”The Chicago Dyke March Collective supports the liberation of Palestine and all oppressed people everywhere…From Palestine to Mexico, border walls have got to go!!”

The New Orleans Pride Festival held a similar parade on Sunday, June 18. The executive director has been contacted, or anti-Zionist stances exist for the local parade.

(Editor’s note: While the CCJN was able to talk to Laurie Grauner directly to confirm the facts of this article, she has deferred to A Wider Bridge deputy director Tyler Gregory for his further comments. He has not responded to our request for comment.)