Caitlyn Jenner to attend Tel Aviv Pride parade for 1st time as guest of honor
Olympic gold medalist, who has called for the US to deport LGBTQ anti-Israel protesters to Iran or Gaza, says she ‘can’t wait to celebrate love and unity in the heart of Tel Aviv’
Transgender influencer and Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner is set to be the guest of honor at Tel Aviv’s LGBTQ Pride parade, her first time at the event, she confirmed to Hebrew media Friday.
“I’m very excited to fly to Israel in a few days,” Jenner, 75, told Channel 12. “I feel honor and pride, and can’t wait to celebrate love and unity in the heart of Tel Aviv.”
The parade, set to take place on Friday, is Israel’s largest, followed by the Jerusalem parade, which took place Thursday.
It will be Tel Aviv’s first Pride parade since thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Instead of a parade, Tel Aviv’s Pride events last year culminated in a toned-down rally that highlighted the plight of the hostages and the wartime contributions of soldiers from the LGBTQ community.
Tel Aviv has sought to brand itself the world’s “most gay-friendly city,” touting bustling beaches and raucous parties. Pride events in Tel Aviv, a city of some 470,000 residents, have been known to draw up to 250,000 people, bolstered by tens of thousands of tourists from abroad.
The international presence may take a hit amid the war and ensuing anti-Israel sentiment.
The Aguda, Israel’s main LGBTQ organization, was suspended by a global umbrella group in October over the war in Gaza. The suspension was lifted last month, but the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, known as ILGA World, still chastised the Aguda for its “silence” about the war, which has devastated the Strip.
Jenner, who came out publicly as transgender in 2015, hinted in a January interview with the Israel Hayom newspaper that she could come to Tel Aviv for the parade, which is set for Friday. “I’m in,” she said. “Let’s do it.”
Tel Aviv also invited her to join the parade as a guest of honor in 2015, but she did not attend. It was unclear why.
Last year, Jenner posted on X that LGBTQ anti-Israel protesters should be deported to Iran or Gaza where, she said, they would be “burnt alive, beheaded, or pushed off a building.”
Speaking to Israel Hayom in January, the outspoken supporter of US President Donald Trump said she “feels sorry” for such “uneducated” protesters.
“There’s a lot of hatred towards Israel on the internet,” said Jenner. “They don’t know anything. That’s why when I say the second largest gay pride parade is in Jerusalem, they’re going, ‘It is?'”
Deport these morons and send them to Iran or Gaza. Have fun being burnt alive, beheaded, or pushed off a building. It is illegal, and punishable by death in the most egregious ways, to be LGBT in these hell hole regions, governed with terrorist regimes! https://t.co/DpeKSh99Qy
— Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) May 1, 2024
She expressed admiration for Israel and the Jewish people, attributing it to her father’s experience as a US soldier in the liberation of Nazi Germany’s Buchenwald death camp during the Second World War.
Jenner is a parent of six — including models, moguls and influencers Kylie and Kendall Jenner — and a step-parent to the Kardashian clan.
She said another event that has made her “very sympathetic to the Jews and their journey” was when Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, in which she competed as Bruce Jenner on the US men’s track team.
“It just upset me so much that these terrorists would come in and use the games – which I think is the greatest gathering of countries in the world, all for good and peace,” she said. “It was devastating that we lost those athletes.”
Jenner, who won a gold medal in the 1976 Montreal games, said she has been to Israel twice and “had an absolutely wonderful time.”
“When you think about religion or faith, this is where it all started,” she said. However, she noted, “Caitlyn hasn’t had a chance to go there yet.”
The Times of Israel Community.