(JNS) The New Tolerance Campaign (NTC), a U.S.-based watchdog organization, announced on Monday a $1 million offer to “Queers for Palestine” or any U.S. LGBTQ advocacy organization to host a Gay Pride Parade in Gaza or Judea and Samaria.
“This isn’t a joke. It’s not a publicity stunt. Our offer is real,” NTC President Gregory T. Angelo, who is gay and the former president of Log Cabin Republicans, said in a statement on the organization’s website.
“For the past year we’ve seen so-called ‘Queers for Palestine’ and allied LGBTQ organizations insist that the Palestinian territories are ‘inclusive’ — well, here’s their chance to prove it. We’re willing to put our money where their mouths are to underwrite a Gay Pride Parade in Gaza or the West Bank.”
NTC has secured commitments for the $1,000,000 prize, which is being offered to potential parade organizers. The offer is good for the next six months, until March 16, 2025.
NTC said it had attempted to publicize the campaign with full-page ads in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today. All three newspapers declined, citing safety concerns.
Times Square in New York City also declined to run the ad, saying the buildings displaying it could become targets of violence.
Not to be deterred, NTC began circulating mobile billboards on Monday around Columbia University in Manhattan, the headquarters of the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C. and the University of California, Los Angeles.
The mobile billboards will run through Wednesday. Additional dates may be announced.
“The campaign will also allow everyday Americans to send messages directly to the senior leadership of the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, the LGBTQ Task Force, and Advocates for Trans Equality encouraging them to actually fight for LGBTQ rights rather than taking a political stance against the only gay-friendly country in the Middle East, Israel,” NTC’s website stated.
“This project highlights the lack of human rights for the LGBTQ community in Palestine, while noting LGBTQ people live freely in Israel. It also has the potential to be a breakthrough moment for pluralism and peace throughout the Arab world,” said Angelo.
According to the rules of the challenge, the recipient group must be a recognized U.S. 501(c)3 organization, the parade march must be at least one kilometer (approximately half a mile) in length and on a major street, and include at least 200 participants, 80% of whom must be “Palestinian” and from Judea and Samaria or Gaza.
In addition, participants must outwardly “show” LGBTQ pride symbols or dress, including but not limited to rainbow flags, trans flags, full leather outfits, or drag.
At least half of parade signs must be in Arabic and the parade filmed by NTC.
