A Wider Bridge, an Israeli LGBT activist group, alleges that the National LGBTQ Task Force canceled a reception with leaders of the Israeli gay organization, Jerusalem’s Open House, scheduled to be held at the Creating Change conference in Chicago, due to pressure from anti-Israel activists.
The conference will be held January 20-22.
The organization announced over the weekend it would move the reception scheduled for January 22 to a new location outside the conference venue.
Local Jewish communities in the Bay Area show their support for the gay community at the San Francisco gay parade. (file photo; photo credit: Daniel Dreifuss/Flash 90)
A Wider Bridge calls for the event to be included on the conference’s program, and for an apology from the National LGBTQ Task Force.
“We are saddened by what appears to be capitulation to the intimidation of a small number of anti-Israel extremists who want to shut down the voices of those who don’t adhere to their rigid and exclusive party line. As LGBTQ people, we are all too familiar with being oppressed through shaming, the closet, and imposed silence, and we see great danger in allowing this kind of censorship and blatant double standard to become the norm in our community,” says Arthur Slepian, executive director of A Wider Bridge, in the statement.
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Tuesday, January 19, 2016
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