The queer community in Kenya has condemned the government’s policy of discriminating against LGBTQ asylum seekers, and has launched a petition that challenges it.

The community, through an All Out petition drive, accuses Kenya’s Department of Refugee Services of putting queer asylum seekers at more risk of “persecution, violence, and exploitation” by not recognizing them as afflicted refugees.

The action is in response to Refugee Affairs Commissioner John Burugu’s comments in an interview last month where he said Kenya would not consider persecution based on sexual orientation or gender identity as a direct pass to asylum.

Burugu during a telephone interview said “we are not interested in anyone’s sexual identity,” and his department will not be convinced that persecution based on sexual orientation or gender identity is sufficient grounds for admission as an asylum seeker or refugee.

The Kenya 2021 Refugees Act, which governs Burugu’s department in the admission of refugees and asylum seekers in the country, does not explicitly recognize queer people among vulnerable individuals fleeing persecution. The law only recognizes refugees or asylum seekers as people who are persecuted based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a social group. 

Opposition MP George Kaluma’s proposed anti-homosexuality law also seeks the expulsion of LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers from Kenya.   

“Decision-makers like the Department of Refugee Services and UNHCR Kenya are failing to uphold international human rights standards while the media and major NGOs remain silent,” reads the petition.

It notes the exclusion of LGBTQ refugees has left the majority of them vulnerable to more trauma and isolation.

They can wait up to a decade for the department to issue a decision on their asylum applications. It typically takes 12 months to process asylum applications in Kenya.

The petitioners note this delay has also increased violence, discrimination, and persecution of queer asylum seekers by the public and government authorities without any legal protection.   

“Historically, Kenya provided refuge for LGBTQ+ people fleeing danger, but the situation has worsened dramatically since 2017,” reads the petition. “From 2017, the government refused to process LGBTQ+ asylum claims, forcing over 400 people to flee to South Sudan in search of safety.”

This change is due to the U.N. Refugee Agency’s handing over the processing of asylum applications in Kenya to the government under the Department of Refugee Services in 2016. 

UNHCR has admitted to slowing the processing of queer asylum seekers’ applications since surrendering the duty to the Kenyan government. It has asked the Department of Refugee Services to resolve the problem.

More than 200 people have signed the petition, which organizers hope to present to Kenyan and international human rights bodies that include UNHCR Kenya, the Department of Refugee Service, the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and the Refugee Consortium of Kenya. Other groups include the UNHCR High Commissioner in Geneva, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, Amnesty International, the International Organization for Migration, and the Church World Service.     

The petitioners want the bodies to “take immediate action” to protect LGBTQ asylum seekers in Kenya against discrimination and exclusion, noting it not only violates queer peoples’ basic human rights, but disregards Nairobi’s obligations under international law, including the 1951 Refugee Convention.  

“As key decision-makers, you have the power to reverse this exclusion and ensure that the LGBTQ+ asylum seekers are protected from harm and granted the rights they are due,” reads the petition.

There are more than an estimated 1,000 LGBTQ refugees in Kenya. Many queer people — especially from Uganda — continue to flee to Kenya in the wake of the enactment of the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2023.

The petitioners want queer asylum seekers recognized for admission and their applications expedited like other refugees and their concerns over discrimination and violence addressed.

“The Department of Refugee Services should officially retract the discriminatory statement made by the DRS commissioner, which excluded LGBTQ+ individuals from protection under the refugee mandate,” reads the petition.

The petitioners also want queer people represented in the Global Refugee Forum and the Refugee Working Groups to have their voices heard and needs addressed in global decision-making processes.

The Center for Minority Rights and Strategic Litigation, a Kenyan LGBTQ rights group, described Burugu’s sentiments as “deeply concerning, regrettable, and against the law.”   

CMRSL Legal Manager Michael Kioko told the Washington Blade the organization has received many complaints from queer refugees and asylum seekers about homophobic discrimination and other violations in the country. The Department of Refugee Services and UNHCR Kenya, he said, took no action to address them.

“The DRS commissioner is obligated under Section 21 of the Refugees Act to ensure measures are taken to protect asylum seekers who have been traumatized or require special protection. This includes LGBTIQ+ refugees in Kenya,” Kioko said.

He noted this directive is also in line with the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees to which Kenya is a signatory, and applicable under Article 2(6) of the constitution.

“It is imperative that the Department of Refugee Services adheres to its obligations under the Refugees Act and the Constitution to protect LGBTIQ+ refugees,” Kioko said. “Their safety must be prioritized, especially in light of the increasing violence and discrimination that LGBTIQ+ persons in Kenya are facing.”

Kioko added Kenyan courts have ruled queer people are members of a social group the Refugees Act recognizes for admission as refugees in cases of persecution, and LGBTQ asylum seekers cannot be excluded.

ITALY

The Italian Senate gave final passage to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s bill to ban criminalize the use of surrogacy overseas, in what LGBTQ activists are saying is a direct attack on same-sex parents.

Surrogacy is already illegal in Italy. The new law cracks down on parents who travel out of the country to obtain surrogacy services where it is legal, like the U.S. or Canada. Under the new law, such parents could be subject to fines of up to €1 million (approximately $1.1 million) or imprisonment for up to two years.

While the vast majority of Italians who engage in overseas surrogacy are heterosexual couples, activists fear the law will be used specifically to target male same-sex couples, who cannot simply pretend not to have used a surrogate.

That would fit with a pattern of attacking same-sex parents since Meloni took office in 2022. Last year, her government issued an order directing municipalities to delete non-biological same-sex parents from birth certificates that had already been issued to children. That decision was condemned by the European Parliament and other world leaders.

Protesters demonstrated in front of the Italian Senate during the debate, carrying signs that read “We are families, not crimes.”

Meloni has long argued for banning surrogacy as a women’s rights issue, claiming that surrogacy commodifies women’s bodies. 

She called the law “a common-sense rule against the commodification of the female body and children. Human life has no price and is not a commodity,” in a post on X.

“The alleged defense of women, the vaunted interest in children, are just fig leaves behind which the homophobic obsession of this majority is hidden,” says Laura Boldrini, an opposition lawmaker.

In many places where surrogacy is legal, it is only legal for altruistic, rather than commercial reasons. Surrogates can be reimbursed for legitimate expenses but cannot be otherwise compensated. That’s how surrogacy works in Canada and Australia.

POLAND

The Polish government introduced its long-awaiting civil union legislation last week, revealing that the government has dropped plans to allow couples in civil unions to adopt children in a compromise meant to get the bills through parliament.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk had pledged to introduce same-sex civil unions within his first 100 days of taking office last year, but that pledge faced numerous roadblocks as the outgoing government initially refused to cede power, and then more conservative parts of his three-party coalition balked at expanding LGBTQ rights.

The bills would allow same-sex and opposite-sex couples to register their partnerships, giving partners rights to inheritance and medical decision-making. 

But couples in civil unions would not be allowed to jointly adopt, nor would one partner be allowed to adopt the other’s biological children.

That was a key demand of the junior coalition partner, the Poland Peasants’ Party (PSL). The bills are unlikely to gain any support from the opposition Law and Justice Party or Confederation Party, both of which strongly oppose LGBTQ rights.

The bills may still face opposition from President Andrzej Duda, an ally of Law and Justice who has opposed LGBTQ rights in the past. He has not publicly commented on the bills. 

Duda’s term expires next year, and all parties are attempting to position themselves in the election for his replacement, expected in May 2025.

CANADA

Provincial elections in British Columbia remained too close to call a day after polls closed on Oct 19, with the incumbent New Democratic Party leading or elected in 46 seats, while the rival BC Conservatives, who had campaigned on scrapping an anti-bullying program that promoted awareness of LGBTQ people in schools, were leading or elected in 45 seats. The BC Greens were elected in two seats. 

Elections BC says it could be a week before results are finalized, due to a number of very close races and the number of mail-in and out-of-district ballots yet to be counted. 

If the BC Conservatives lose, it would be the second loss of a provincial election in 2024 for a conservative party that had run on a platform of restricting sex education, discussion of LGBTQ issues, and inclusion of trans kids in schools, after the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives were booted from office in June. 

Two more Canadian provinces are heading to the polls in the next week, and in both races, incumbent conservative parties are defending newly introduced policies that require schools to out trans students to their parents and require parental consent if a child wishes to use a different name or pronoun in school. 

In New Brunswick, voters head to the polls today, and the incumbent Progressive Conservatives are facing a strong challenge from the New Brunswick Liberals. Liberal leader Susan Holt has promised to scrap the parental-notification policy and put safeguards in place for LGBTQ students if elected.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has promised to double-down on anti-transgender policies if re-elected Oct 28. This week, he said his first order of business would be passing a policy restricting school change rooms based on sex assigned at birth. 

Saskatchewan NDP leader Carla Beck slammed the proposal.

“People see this for what it is,” Beck told a press conference. “It’s the ugliest gutter politics. I think people are tired of it.”

Canadian conservatives have been turning hard against trans people over the past couple of years, reflecting similar culture war divisions in the U.S. and the UK, despite a general consensus on equal rights for trans people that had developed over the previous decade. In fact, Scott Moe was a Cabinet minister in the Saskatchewan Party government that passed that province’s ban on gender identity discrimination. 

Meanwhile, in neighboring Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith has proposed a package of legislation that would require parental notification and opt-in for any discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms, as well as severely restricting access to gender care for trans youth. The bills are expected to be debated in the upcoming fall session of the legislature.

AUSTRALIA

The New South Wales state legislature passed a bill meant to promote LGBTQ equality on Thursday, but only after it had been watered down in order to gain support from the governing Labor Party. 

Independent lawmaker Alex Greenwich had originally proposed a comprehensive bill that would have addressed multiple areas of law that discriminate against queer people. 

A key provision would have repealed a loophole in state anti-discrimination law that allows religious schools to discriminate against LGBTQ students and teachers. That provision was dropped. 

Greenwich’s original bill also would have established an affirmative right to gender-affirming care and would have decriminalized sex work. Both provisions were also dropped. 

Greenwich says his bill faced concerted opposition from religious organizations and he removed the provisions in order to get the bulk of the bill’s reforms passed.

“It’s heartbreaking that I’m in a position where I’m having to remove a reform that I have fought for my entire political career,” Greenwich told ABC News Australia. “There has been a concerted campaign, particularly by some religious organizations, and I’m not wanting to hold up some urgent reforms while we’re still working this through.”

The parts of the bill that have been salvaged are still important reforms for LGBTQ rights.

The bill will update domestic violence laws to apply to same-sex couples and recognize parenting rights for children born through surrogacy overseas. It will also allow trans people to update their legal gender on birth certificates without undergoing surgery — an important reform that is already the norm in the rest of Australia. Nonbinary or non-specified will also be options.

The bill also repeals offenses related to living off the earnings of a sex worker, makes it a criminal offense to threaten to out a person, and adds hate crime protections for trans people. 

This year, New South Wales’s Labor government earned plaudits from LGBTQ activists for passing a bill banning conversion therapy, and issuing a historic apology to people persecuted under old anti-LGBTQ laws. 

Earlier this year, Australia’s governing Labor Party dropped its promised reform to federal anti-discrimination laws to repeal a loophole allowing anti-LGBTQ discrimination in schools, following backlash from religious groups.

Some Ugandan queer rights organizations have asked the government to repeal the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act that is currently under appeal at the Supreme Court to save the country from huge economic losses.

The organizations, while reacting to a new report that reveals the Anti-Homosexuality Act has cost Uganda up to $1.6 billion since President Yoweri Museveni signed it in May 2023, note the draconian law is not just “regressive” to LGBTQ rights, but also the economy.   

The report that Open for Business, a coalition of leading global organizations that champion LGBTQ inclusion, released on Oct. 10 identifies foreign direct investment, donor aid, trade and tourism, and public health and productivity as major areas that economic losses have impacted.

“Combined losses over five years are projected between $2.3 billion and $8.3 billion,” the report states.

The estimated annual loss breakdown to Uganda’s economy includes $75 million in foreign direct investment, more than $1 billion in donor funding, $312 million in the fight against HIV/AIDS and other public health efforts, $99 million in tourism and $500,000 in trade for tariff payments after the Biden-Harris administration suspended Kampala from the preferential Africa Growth and Opportunity Act.

Other projected annual losses over the next five years because of the Anti-Homosexuality Act are $24 million in labor production because at least 15,000 queer people have fled Uganda, $58 million in national productivity from homophobic stigma and legal repercussions for LGBTQ people, and $500,000 from over-policing and legal costs associated with the law’s enforcement.

The recorded and projected Uganda’s economic losses are attributed to its strained relations with international partners, such as Western countries that imposed sanctions on Kampala over the Anti-Homosexuality Act, and global financiers, such as the World Bank Group that suspended funding.

The Open for Business report notes Kampala’s damaged global relations and funding suspension has impacted Ugandans’ access to antiretroviral therapy because of shortages and medical workers who refuse to treat queer patients because they fear that authorities will punish them.

It also indicates the impact on Uganda’s tourism sector because of the Anti-Homosexuality Act’s negative global perceptions has indirectly affected the hospitality, transport, and retail industries.  

“As the global economy becomes more interconnected and competitive, countries that fail to embrace diversity, and inclusivity are likely to fall behind,” the report states.

The report points out that nearly half of the 49 percent of Ugandans who sought asylum in the UK last year said homophobia prompted them to flee the country. It warns this exodus diminishes Kampala’s growth potential and urges Museveni’s administration to amend or repeal the Anti-Homosexuality Act to restore international confidence in economic support and investment.   

“Uganda continues to enforce the AHA (Anti-Homosexuality Act) without addressing international concerns, leading to severe economic isolation,” the report states.”In this scenario, FDI (foreign direct investment) and donor aid could decline sharply, tourism might collapse, and key partners could impose more trade sanctions.” 

Uganda Minority Shelters Consortium, a local NGO that supports and advocates for the rights of LGBTQ people who are homeless and/or victims of violence, described the report’s findings as “alarming,” and added it shows how the Anti-Homosexuality Act and other anti-LGBTQ policies affect the economy.

UMSC Coordinator John Grace told the Washington Blade that the Ugandan government should heed the report’s warnings and “take immediate action to repeal the AHA in its entirety” and not to hurt the country’s economic development.  

“The economic cost of this discriminatory law is too high and the human rights violations it perpetuates are unacceptable,” Grace said.

Grace also noted the projected exodus of 15,000 LGBTQ people from Uganda because of the Anti-Homosexuality Act would be a “tragic loss” for the country in terms of skilled manpower. 

Let’s Walk Uganda, a local lobby group that openly LGBTQ people lead, also responded to the report, noting its findings add more economic pain to the “ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“The anxiety within the investment and general business community as a result of the AHA cannot be underestimated,” Let’s Walk Uganda Legal Manager Alex Musiime said. “The ridiculous law should be dropped. The court (Supreme Court) ought to do the right thing and annul this apartheid law.”

Musiime said the World Bank and Uganda’s other international partners and financiers should “intensify dialogue” with Museveni’s government to repeal the Anti-Homosexuality Act to save the vulnerable population from the suffering that the freezing of crucial aid to them has caused.

“The Ugandan government should be moved to commit to respecting the rights of LGBTQ+ persons in the implementation of World Bank projects. It should treat this piece of hate in the AHA as no law at all,” he said.

Both Musiime and Grace applauded the Uganda’s Human Rights Commission’s recent plea for the government to decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. They consider it a “positive step” that should be “followed by concrete actions” to end homophobic discrimination, violence, and harassment.

SOUTH KOREA

Eleven same-sex couples have applied to register their marriages in what the group are saying is the first step in a legal challenge for same-sex marriage rights in South Korea. 

The couples had their marriage applications rejected by the local district offices, so they filed objections with the local courts. The couples allege that the current law, which bans same-sex marriage, violates their constitutional rights to equality, and the pursuit of happiness.

Among the couples pursuing the cases is Kim Yong-min and So Sung-wook, who earlier this year won a case at the Supreme Court seeking to require the government to provide health benefits to same-sex partners. The National Health Insurance Service has, however, continued to deny claims by same-sex couples in defiance of the ruling, saying that there are no clear legal standards of what constitutes a same-sex couple.

South Korea does not have any legal framework for recognizing same-sex couples, and the country lacks national-level discrimination protections for LGBTQ people. Legislators have also tended to be hostile to queer rights, with the Seoul Queer Culture Festival facing repeated bans from the city government.

The courts have also taken an inconsistent view on LGBTQ rights. In 2022, the Supreme Court severely curtailed a law that banned soldiers from having same-sex intercourse, a ruling that was overturned the following year by the Constitutional Court, a co-equal top court of South Korea’s judicial system. 

CYPRUS

The Cypriot parliament began debate this week on a bill that would stiffen existing penalties for hate crimes, following a string of violent attacks on LGBTQ people on the island over the past year.

The bill would raise the maximum penalty for anti-LGBTQ hate crimes from three years to five years in prison and double the maximum fine to €10,000 ($10,924.35.)

The bill comes after more than 10 anti-gay attacks have been reported to police on the Mediterranean island of 1 million people this year alone. 

Last month, a gay man claimed he was assaulted by a security guard outside a Limassol nightclub. 

Last year, police issued arrest warrants for five students at Limassol’s Technical University of Cyprus, alleging they threw smoke bombs into an on-campus event hosted by Accept-LGBTI, the country’s leading queer advocacy group, then vandalized the room and assaulted a student attendee.

Separately, the government approved the drafting of the country’s first National Strategy for LGBTQ people.

The strategy will be drafted by the country’s human rights commissioner with representatives from the ministries of justice, education, interior, and health, as well as representatives from Accept-LGBTI and academia.

The goal of the strategy is to align Cyprus’s legislation with European Union directives, addressing discrimination, ensuring equality and security, and promoting an inclusive society for the LGBTQ community.

Currently, Cyprus lacks comprehensive anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people and does not have a straightforward process for transgender people to update their legal gender, both of which are increasingly norms expected of EU members. The state also does not allow same-sex marriage or adoption, although neighboring Greece legalized both earlier this year.

NETHERLANDS

The Dutch government’s statistics bureau released a report on National Coming Out Day that estimates that LGBTQ people make up approximately 18 percent of the country’s population, or approximately 2.7 million people.

The estimate is drawn from a study the bureau conducted last year on safety and criminality, which also asked its 182,000 participants about their gender identity and sexual orientation.

The study found that bisexual people make up by far the largest cohort of the country’s LGBTQ community, with 1.7 million people, or just over 11 percent of the population, with about 20 percent more bisexual women than men. Conversely, gay men make up about 1.8 percent of the population, while lesbians account for 0.7 percent of the population

Asexuals make up just under 2 percent of the population, while just over 1 percent identified as some other non-heterosexual orientation or said they didn’t yet know their sexual orientation.

About 1 percent of the population is estimated to be trans or nonbinary, just under 200,000 people. The study estimated the intersex population at about 45,000, or 0.3 percent of the population.

The study found that LGBTQ people tended to be younger and more likely to live in urban areas than the general population. It also found that the proportion of LGBTQ people born outside the Netherlands was slightly higher at 17 percent, compared to the general population, at 14 percent.

GERMANY

The German government has announced it plans to update adoption law to recognize co-maternity for lesbian couples and allow unmarried couples to adopt.

The government says the new law will recognize modern realities of adoption and procreation.

Married same-sex couples have had the right to jointly adopt since same-sex marriage became legal in Germany in 2017. However, current law still presents challenges for some couples. 

For example, when a lesbian couple conceives a child through assisted reproduction, the non-birthing parent is not automatically recognized as a parent, and must go through a legal process to adopt their own child.

The proposed law will address that issue, but it will not address male couples who conceive a child using a surrogate, as German law currently only recognizes single paternity.

The Federal Constitutional Court delivered a ruling earlier this year that opened the door to legal recognition of multi-parent families, although it gave legislators until June 2025 to figure out how that would work. The draft law, however, states that children will continue to have only two legal parents.

“The hassle of stepchild adoptions for two-mother families must be brought to an end. After all, children from rainbow families have a right to two parents from birth, and regardless of their gender,” says Patrick Dörr, a board member of the Queer Diversity Association, Germany’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, in a statement to German newspaper DW.

The proposal would also allow more flexibility in adoptions, by allowing unmarried couples to jointly adopt. Under current law, if a couple is unmarried, only one person will be legally recognized as the adopted child’s parent.

The draft bill is now out for consultations with Germany’s state governments.

HONG KONG

Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal heard a case seeking to establish that same-sex couples can inherit property from each other last week, the latest same-sex couples’ rights case to reach the city’s top court. 

Last month, the Court of Final Appeal heard a case challenging the city government’s unequal treatment of same-sex couples seeking access to social housing. Both cases come after a 2023 ruling that found the government must give legal recognition to same-sex couples by a 2025 deadline.

The inheritance case was filed in 2019 by Edgar Ng, after he learned that his husband Henry Li could not inherit his government-subsidized apartment without a will. Ng passed away in December 2020, and Li has continued the case.

The government’s attorney told the court that the city does not recognize Ng and Li’s overseas marriage, and that they differ from a heterosexual married couple because heterosexual couples have a legal responsibility to financially support each other. The government’s position is that the court should not address inheritance rights until the government creates a framework for registering same-sex couples, as that could give rise to inconsistencies in the law.

Li’s attorneys, meanwhile, contested the suggestion that the inheritance issue could be settled with a written will, arguing that most people in Hong Kong die without a written will, and that written wills can be contested, unlike a legal marriage.

The court reserved its judgment for a later date.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, was returned to China in 1997, with the understanding that it would continue to operate as an autonomous unit for 50 years.

A gay couple was beaten and paraded in public this week because of their sexual orientation.

In a video clip shared by Portharcourt Specials on X, the couple who appeared half naked were being insulted and slapped on the back, with one showing trails of blood on his back. The incident took place in Rumuewhara in Port Harcourt.

Although consensual same-sex sexual relations are criminalized in Nigeria and punishable by death on some states, many Nigerians viewed the attack against the couple as distasteful, arguing rapist or pedophiles don’t face the same treatment.

“This is where you will see Nigerians very active on; on matters that don’t concern them because why is someone’s sexual orientation your problem? We are well deserving of politicians that punish us well,” said Rinu Oduala, a human rights activist.

No Hate Network Nigeria, an LGBTQ rights organization, said the couple’s public victimization was a stark reminder of the rampant homophobia in the country.

“The brutal attack on the gay couple is appalling and unacceptable,” said the organization. “It’s a stark reminder of the rampant homophobia and intolerance in Nigeria.” 

“Such violence is often fueled by discriminatory laws, societal norms, and lack of education, this incident highlights the urgent need for increased advocacy, education, and protection for LGBTQI+ individuals,” added No Hate Network Nigeria.

No Hate Network Nigeria also highlighted the plight of LGBTQ people in the country who are constantly under attack due to current laws and cultural and religious norms.

“The LGBTQI+ community in Nigeria faces extreme risks, including violence, harassment, and persecution, the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act of 2014 exacerbates these challenges, effectively criminalizing LGBTQI+ individuals,” said No Hate Network Nigeria. “Many live in fear, hiding their identities to avoid persecution, the community requires enhanced support, safe spaces, and robust advocacy to ensure their basic human rights.”

For many LGBTQ people in the country, remaining in the closet is the only way they can preserve their life. They often flee Nigeria if they decide to come out.

There is currently no appetite from any lawmakers to amend or repeal parts of Section 21 of the Criminal Code Act (Penal Code) that are used to arrest, charge, and prosecute those who identify as LGBTQ.

In northern states where Sharia law is practiced, one who is found to identify as LGBTQ or is an advocate may face death by stoning.

Although not widely practiced, death by stoning is the preferred punishment in many of the northern states if a Sharia court finds someone guilty of engaging in consensual same-sex sexual relations. A number of local and international human rights organizations in recent years have condemned this punishment. It is, however, still enforced in some of these states.

No Hate Network Nigeria said amending parts of the Criminal Code Act and repealing the Same Sex (Prohibition) Act might give relief to LGBTQ people in the country.

“Repealing or amending discriminatory laws, like the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, implementing education and awareness campaigns to combat homophobia, establishing safe spaces, and support networks for LGBTQI+ individuals and strengthening law officials’ response to hate crimes as well as holding perpetrators accountable, will aid in averting and combating attacks on LGBTQI+ individuals,” said No Hate Network Nigeria.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Carmel Gat on Oct. 6, 2023, traveled to Be’eri, a kibbutz near the border of Israel and the Gaza Strip where she grew up, to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah with her parents, brothers, and extended family.

Gat and her brother, Alon Gat, planned to go for a run at around 6:30 a.m. the next morning.

“At 6:29, the bombing and the alarms started and the whole family went into the safe room,” her cousin, Shay Dickmann, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “We have this last picture of Carmel with her running clothes on, in which she was later kidnapped, reading a book to Geffen (her young niece.)”

“It is just typically Carmel in this moment of distress when there are rockets around, the rumors start running that there are terrorists inside the kibbutz, she just had the inner power and stability to take care of others and help her niece, her 3 and 1/2 year old niece, try and calm her down,” said Dickmann.

Dickmann said Gat’s mother, Kinneret Gat, left the safe room at about 10:30 a.m. to get some food and water. Her father, Eshel Gat, went to the bathroom.

Dickmann said Kinneret Gat saw Hamas militants from her kitchen window.

“The last thing she managed to do was to warn her husband, Eshel, from the terrorists and shush him with her finger on her lips and she signaled him to go back to the toilet and hide himself,” recalled Dickmann. “She didn’t know at that point she saved his life.” 

Dickmann said the bathroom in which Eshel Gat was hiding was the one room in the house the militants did not search.

“He was safe, but from the window of the toilet he saw his family taken one-by-one by the terrorists,” Dickmann told the Blade.

She said the last time Eshel Gat saw his wife she was bending down in the kitchen, “and she was the first to be taken by the terrorists.”

“They came into the kitchen, and they took her,” she said. “They tied her hands and walked her through her own kibbutz barefoot with a bunch of people from Kibbutz Be’eri.”

The militants then put Carmel Gat in a car with two teenagers who were brother and sister.

“The car was moving, driving through the point where Carmel saw her mother lying down on the sidewalk, her head shot and she realized that she saw her mother dead and this is the last thing that Carmel saw when she was taken hostage into Gaza, her beloved one dead,” said Dickmann.

She said her cousin did not know what happened to the rest of her family: Her father, her two brothers, her sister-in-law, Yarden Roman-Gat, and her niece Geffen. Her younger brother, Or Gat, had already left the kibbutz.

The Blade has previously reported the militants placed Roman-Gat, Alon Gat, and their daughter into a car.

Roman-Gat and Alon Gat jumped out of it with their daughter as it approached Gaza. Roman-Gat handed her daughter to her husband because he was able to run faster.

Alon Gat hid with his daughter for 18 hours before they reached Israel Defense Forces soldiers at Be’eri. He told Gili Roman, his brother-in-law who lives in Tel Aviv and is a member of the Nemos LGBTQ+ Swimming Club, he last saw his wife, Roman’s sister, hiding behind a tree to protect herself from the militants who were shooting at her.

“My brother saw a video on Telegram of Kinneret lying down on the sidewalk with a pool of blood next to her head, said Dickmann, recounting how she and her family learned the militants had murdered Kinneret Gat.

“We started looking for Carmel and for Yarden and for 50 days we didn’t know anything about them,” added Dickmann. “Just imagine we were worried sick and not even knowing if their body might be found here or were they kidnapped alive.”

Hamas on the second day of a week-long ceasefire in November released the two teenagers who had been kidnapped alongside Carmel Gat.

“It was amazing to see how 13 children and women are coming back to us and their families, and they were among them,” said Dickmann. “Unfortunately they discovered that their mother was murdered and at the time they were informed that their father was kidnapped. Today we know that their father was murdered as well. They are orphans.”

The teenagers confirmed that Carmel Gat was alive.

“Carmel was with them since the moment that they were put into the car taking them into Gaza and until the moment they were released and they say she was their guardian angel,” Dickmann told the Blade. “She was just keeping them sane in captivity, supporting them. She was handling a diary, writing down songs and sentences to bring their spirits up and she was practicing yoga with them in captivity.” 

“This was the most amazing thing that we learned, just having that inner power in this situation. We know that they were starved. We know that they experienced violence there, that they were held in an apartment, in a baby’s room, having to lay on the floor, given one pita bread a day they had to share, and being held against their will, far from their families, not knowing if they are alive or not, but she had the powers to give to others and knowing that Carmel is there, being Carmel, choosing to live, it gave so much hope, and to this hope we were holding on, day-by-day, in the hope that the next day she would be on the list of people realized.”

Hamas on Nov. 29, 2023, released Roman-Gat, along with 11 other Israelis and four Thai nationals. She reunited with her family a short-time later at an Israeli hospital.

“On the fourth day Yarden came back,” said Dickmann. “I can’t even describe the feeling.”

Hamas was supposed to release Carmel Gat on the eighth day of the ceasefire, but it only lasted seven days.

“Carmel was supposed to be freed on the eighth (day), and she wasn’t, and she was left behind,” Dickmann said. “For us it was devastating, but we also knew that Carmel is holding on to hope, and we were holding on to her hope and we did it in her way.” 

Carmel Gat’s family every Friday practiced yoga, “inspired by her, and giving power to others.” They invited other hostage families to speak about a loved one who was in Gaza.

“We did it for weeks, week after week, 40 weeks, that we spoke about the hope, that we were holding the hope, that she was surviving there, waiting for this moment, for the deal that will free her,” said Dickmann.

The Israeli government on Sept. 1 announced Hamas had killed Carmel Gat and five other hostages — Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Eden Yerushalmi — in a tunnel beneath Rafah, a city in southern Gaza that borders Egypt. The hostages “were shot at close range” by militants on Aug. 29 or Aug. 30 before the IDF could rescue them. 

“Carmel survived for 328 days,” Dickmann told the Blade. “She survived, until the day that she was brutally executed by her captors. She survived everything. She survived the tunnels.” 

Dickmann said she and her family received a video that showed where the militants killed Carmel Gat and the five other hostages.

“The conditions were horrible,” said Dickmann. “They were 20 meters underground, suffocating, moist. It was moldy. They had very little food. The six bodies were found thin and starved.” 

The video also showed bottles filled with urine and blood alongside the tunnels. Dickmann said the bodies also showed signs they had been tied up.

“She survived it all, but she couldn’t survive the bullet in her head, and her life was finished in a tunnel, shot, 328 days from her mother’s same destiny, but Carmel we could save, for 328 days we could save her,” said Dickmann. “We could have made a deal that could have brought her back home alive.”

Dickmann also told the Blade she “could also imagine” her cousin, who was an occupational therapist, helping Goldberg-Polin, who lost part of his arm when militants attacked him after he fled the Nova Music Festival in Re’im, another kibbutz that is near Gaza. She was also “imaging her having conversations” with Lobanov about what to name his second son to whom his wife had given birth while he was in Gaza.

“She believed in the possibility to live here with our neighbors,” said Dickmann, who added her cousin and Kinneret Gat were also studying Arabic. 

“There are so many people still alive there surviving, waiting for us to make the deal that will save them,” she said. “There are so many families who can still get this hug, the hug that I was waiting for and I’ll never get.”

Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis launch rockets, missiles towards Israel on Oct. 7 anniversary

The Blade spoke with Dickmann hours after she and her family attended the Bereaved Families Memorial Ceremony in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park that marked a year since Oct. 7.

Organizers had originally allocated 40,000 free tickets for the event, but only 2,000 family members and reporters attended because the IDF Home Front Command had limited the number of people who could attend large gatherings because of increased threats of rockets and missiles from Hamas and Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based militant group.

A ballistic missile that Houthi rebels in Yemen launched towards Israel prompted sirens to go off in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas, but the country’s air defense system intercepted, less than hour before the event began.

Hezbollah a few hours later launched five ballistic missiles from Lebanon towards an IDF base north of Tel Aviv. The Iron Dome air defense system intercepted them. It also intercepted four of the five rockets that Hamas launched towards Tel Aviv — shrapnel from one of them that struck the ground slightly injured two women.

Or Gat is among those who spoke at the Bereaved Families Memorial Ceremony. 

Many of the hostage families refused to attend a government-organized memorial that Israeli televisions broadcast later on Monday.

Cousin was a ‘person of peace’

Dickmann told the Blade that while she was at the memorial she was “very concentrated on the struggle to bring back the hostages on time, understanding that it’s both critical in the manner that is life or death matter and it is also urgent, understanding that our people are held by their captors who at any time aim a gun at their heads.”

“They must be returned before they’re executed so, I was very concentrated on that,” she said. 

Dickmann also said the memorial — and marking the first anniversary of Oct. 7 — made her “understand there are thousands of families affected by Oct. 7.”

“On this day, so many youngsters were burned alive in their cars trying to run away from the Nova festival,” she said. “In the safe rooms there were so many couples of parents hiding their children in closets and underneath beds and shushing them in order to allow them to survive the attack on their houses and today I just realize there are … so many orphans left and so many stories of people who left everything behind, who left their whole families behind to come and try to save lives on this day of the attack. Some of them managed and rescued my uncle and some of them managed to save lives and lost their own.”

She also noted 101 hostages remain in Gaza.

“This is the most important thing and most urgent thing; to get back all of them to their houses and their families,” said Dickmann. “They deserve to be set free, and this is what I’m fighting for.”

She ended the interview by describing her cousin as a “person of peace.”

“We lost so much, on both sides of the border,” said Dickmann. “I’d really like this war to end; everybody to come back to their homes; the Palestinians to their homes with no one else getting hurt; residents of northern Israel going back to their houses and being safe and secure, residents of the South being able to go back to their houses and most of all the people being held hostage to come back, to safety, to their house, to their families and not ever being having to be worried about whether they will be separated from their parents or children or brothers and lives again.”

“I really hope that soon, as soon as possible, we will be able to reach a deal that will bring everybody home and bring peace upon us and we will be able to live alongside each other in peace,” she added.

TEL AVIV, Israel — I was sound asleep at 11 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) on Monday when Tzofar, an app that notifies users of incoming rockets, started to go off. The blaring alarm woke me up. It indicated a “red alert” for “incoming (missiles and rocket fire.)”

I sat up in bed, opened the app to see whether I was under “red alert.” I was just south of it, so I did not need to seek refuge in the stairwell, which is the building’s designated safe room. Less than a minute later I heard a series of loud booms that shook the building.

Hezbollah launched five ballistic missiles from Lebanon towards an Israel Defense Forces base north of Tel Aviv. The explosions that I heard were Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system intercepting them.

The whole situation was over in less than two minutes — it was the third “red alert” for “incoming (missiles and rocket fire)” that I received on my phone on Monday, which was a year since Hamas launched its surprise attack against southern Israel.

Hamas at around 11 a.m. (4 a.m. ET) launched five rockets that triggered alerts in southern Tel Aviv. Iron Dome intercepted four of them. Shrapnel from the rocket that hit the ground left two women slightly injured. I heard the interceptions in the distance. I walked onto my balcony a couple of minutes later, and saw a man hugging a young woman who was standing on her balcony across the street. She was clearly upset.

I walked to a nearby coffee shop about half an hour later, and ordered an iced coffee. I walked back to my building and started working again. I called my mother a short time later to let her know that everything was fine. I also sent several text messages to my husband and other loved ones and friends that reiterated that point.

The Houthis in Yemen launched a ballistic missile towards Israel shortly after 5:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. ET) that the IDF intercepted. I was in Hostage Square outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art when I heard warning messages on people’s phones. I looked at the Tzofar app, and saw Hostage Square was outside of the “red alert” area. I then logged onto two Israeli media outlets’ — the Times of Israel and Haaretz — websites that I have bookmarked on my phone and read the IDF had intercepted the Houthi missile.

More than a thousand people were gathered in Hostage Square less than 90 minutes later, watching an Oct. 7 memorial concert on a large screen that had been set up. The IDF Home Front Command has limited the number of people who can gather in one place in Tel Aviv because of the continued threats of rocket and missile attacks from Gaza and Lebanon.

This limit is 2,000.

The sounds of war have been a constant backdrop of this trip.

I begin every day with a swim in the Mediterranean Sea at Hilton Beach, which is Tel Aviv’s gay beach. These swims help me stay somewhat sane while I am here in Israel. 

Israeli fighter jets and helicopters with missiles strapped to them regularly fly north along the coast towards Lebanon. Drones can also be heard. This scene plays out against the context of people swimming, kayaking, and paddleboarding in the water, and others walking and jogging on the nearby beach promenade.

The Nova Music Festival site where Hamas militants killed 360 people and took 40 others hostage on Oct. 7 is located outside of Re’im, a kibbutz that is roughly two miles from the Gaza Strip. It is about an hour and 20 minutes south of Tel Aviv.

I visited the site on Oct. 5.

Large IDF Home Front Command banners warn visitors they had 15 seconds to reach makeshift shelters — large concrete barriers placed together — in case of incoming rockets. 

“If you receive an alert, lie on the ground and protect your head with your hands for 10 minutes,” the banner reads.

There were no alerts while I was at Nova. I did, however, hear several Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.

I stopped at a roadside restaurant in Yad Mordechai, a kibbutz that is roughly three miles north of the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza, after I left Nova. I had a sandwich for lunch and ordered an ice coffee for the drive back to Tel Aviv. I was walking to my car and I heard two distant Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. The second one shook the ground beneath my feet.

I was back in Tel Aviv less than an hour later. It was the last day of Rosh Hashanah, and Shabbat. Hilton Beach, where I had taken my morning swim earlier in the day, was packed.

Life, at least for Israelis who live in Tel Aviv, goes on amid the sounds of war.

Editor’s note: International News Editor Michael K. Lavers will be on assignment in Israel through Oct. 14.

HERZLIYA, Israel — Hundreds of people on Tuesday attended a memorial service for a gay Israel Defense Force major who was killed while fighting Hamas militants in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Sagi Golan, 30, was at home in the Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya with his fiancé, Omer Ohana, when the militant group launched its surprise attack against from the Gaza Strip.

Ohana told the Washington Blade during an interview after the memorial service that Golan woke him up at around 6:30 a.m. after rocket sirens began to sound.

“We ran to the shelter in our house,” he said. “After that we just opened the news and the headline was ‘Hamas terrorist attack in Israel.'”

Ohana said people in the Israeli communities around Gaza were “begging for help.” Golan started to pack his IDF uniforms, and Ohana made him coffee.

“10 minutes later we were already at the doorstep kissing goodbye,” Ohana recalled. “That was the last time I saw him.” 

“I told him not to be a hero,” he said. “He gave me a kiss, he told me we’re getting married in a week, don’t be silly.”

Golan deployed to Be’eri, a kibbutz that is near the border between Israel and Gaza.

He sent Ohana a heart emoji message to him via WhatsApp every hour “just to reassure he’s there.” Golan sent his last message to his fiancé and “to anyone” at 12:18 a.m. on Oct. 8, 2023.

Ohana told the Blade the next three days were “unbearable suffering, searching for Sagi under every rock in Israel, at every hospital emergency room, at every ‘hamal’ (IDF war room.)”

“We went everywhere, we did everything we could to find him,” said Ohana.

An IDF officer three days later “knocked on our door” to notify Sagi’s family that he had been killed. The officer did not speak with Ohana because the IDF did not recognize him as Sagi’s partner.

(The couple had planned to marry — virtually — in Utah on Oct. 14. Israel recognizes same-sex marriages that are legally performed abroad. The couple’s marriage celebration was to have taken place on Oct. 20.)

“I asked for something, and they said I had to request his parents,” Ohana told the Times of Israel. “It made me so angry. I was the one who loved him. But I’m not taken into account. And he wasn’t taken into account.”

The Israeli government says Hamas militants killed roughly 1,200 people, including upwards of 360 partygoers at the Nova Music Festival near Re’im, a kibbutz that is a few miles southwest of Be’eri. The Israeli government says the militants also kidnapped more than 200 people on Oct. 7.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed more than 41,000 people in the enclave since Oct. 7.

The International Criminal Court in May announced it plans to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders — Yehya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh. 

Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, said the five men have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and Israel. (A suspected Israeli airstrike on July 31 killed Haniyah while he was in the Iranian capital of Tehran to attend Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s inauguration.)

Hamas, which the U.S. and Israel have designated a terrorist organization, claimed responsibility for an Oct. 1 attack at a Tel Aviv light rail station that left seven people dead and more than a dozen others injured. A Bedouin man on Sunday killed an Israel Border Police officer and injured 10 others when he attacked a bus station in Beersheva in southern Israel.

Reuters on Friday reported the Lebanese Health Ministry said Israeli airstrikes in Beirut and elsewhere in the country over the last two weeks have killed more than 2,000 people. 

Iran on Oct. 1 launched upwards of 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to an Israeli airstrike in the Lebanese capital a few days earlier killed Hassan Nasrallah, the long-time leader of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group. 

Hamas and Hezbollah on Monday launched fired rockets that triggered sirens in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas. The Houthi rebels in Yemen on Oct. 7 also launched missiles and drones that prompted additional warnings in central Israel. 

Israel’s air defense system intercepted almost all of the rockets. 

This reporter heard two of the interceptions — the first at around 11 a.m. Israel time (4 a.m. ET) and the second at around 11 p.m. Israel time (4 p.m. ET). The second interception shook the building in which this reporter has been staying.

Ohana was building a bench for children in a garden that Golan planted in Bat Yam, a city that is just south of Tel Aviv, when the first sirens went off.

‘If we are equal in death, we should be equal in life too’

Ohana, with the support of the Aguda, the Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel, and other Israeli advocacy groups began to lobby the Knesset to amend the country’s Bereaved Families Law to recognize LGBTQ widows and widowers of fallen servicemembers. Lawmakers last November approved the changes.

“Sagi became a symbol for the LGBTQ+ community in Israel,” Ohana told the Blade. “With Sagi as a symbol, we were able to pass the amendment in the Israeli Knesset.” 

“It wasn’t me,” he added. “I couldn’t have done it if Sagi wasn’t becoming a symbol. Having a gay hero in Israel is something new, something new for the community here.”

Aguda Chair Yael Sinai Biblash was among those who attended Golan’s memorial service.

She described the campaign to change the Bereaved Families Law as “a big effort, and a big success.” 

“I hope that people understand that if we are equal in death we should be equal in life too,” said Sinai.

Gay Israeli pop star performs at Golan’s funeral

Golan had written his wedding vows on his phone.

Ohana told the Blade that his fiancé at 11:44 p.m. on Oct. 7 opened the memo on which they were written, and read them. Golan was shot less than 90 minutes later.

“I imagine Sagi having a notification that the event is about to be completed, because it was 10 until midnight for a whole day at the seventh of October, and just having a moment with himself, remembering love, having a good thought right before he died.” he said. “Knowing Sagi thought those happy thoughts just an hour before he died, saving Israeli citizens from this terror attack is filling me with pride in Sagi. That’s why he became a symbol. That’s why he’s a gay symbol.

Ivri Lider, a gay Israeli pop star, was to have performed at the couple’s wedding celebration. He instead performed at Golan’s funeral.

סרן במיל׳ שגיא גולן ז״ל שנפל בעת קרב בקיבוץ בארי נגד מחבלי החמאס, היה מיועד להתחתן עם בן זוגו עומר בעוד שבוע לצלילי השיר ״זכיתי לאהוב״. הערב הזמר עברי לידר הגיע לבצע את השיר בהלוויתו. שגיא ירד ביום שבת, מבלי לחכות לקריאה לקיבוץ בארי כדי להציל חיים ומשפחות נצורות. pic.twitter.com/epOVTVCMnY

— האגודה למען הלהט"ב בישראל | The Aguda (@AgudaIsraelLGBT) October 12, 2023

“[Sagi] was very special,” said Ohana. “He was very special to all of us.”

Exactly one year ago today, I was working at The Wall Street Journal as a Digital Innovation Fellow when news broke one early morning — a terrorist attack had rocked the Nova Music Festival near Re’im, sending the world into a catastrophic and schismatic debate over life, death, war, zionism and settler colonialism.

What many people may not know is that Israel had already made 2023 the deadliest year on record for Palestinians. Before this attack on Oct. 7, Israel had already killed over 200 Palestinians in the West Bank and zionist settlers were responsible for other killings and enforcing violence on civilians in Gaza. 

Before that, the history of settler colonialism and zionist attacks against the Palestinian people goes as far back as 70 years. 

What a lot of people don’t know is that Gaza was already a nation of refugees who were forced to flee oppression and casualties of military rule from the Egyptian army. The Ottoman Empire held rule over Gaza until 1917 and it then passed from British to Egyptian to Israeli rule. What it had become prior to the current genocide and displacement, was a fenced-off enclave that served as the refugee location of over 2 million Palestinians. 

The end of British rule over the area ended in 1948, where conflict and tensions then arose between Arabs and Jews. This conflict escalated and culminated in war between the newly formed State of Israel and the surrounding populations of Palestinians. 

During the 1950s and 60s, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency provided a refugee agency that, to this day, provides services for over 1.6 million registered Palestinian refugees. 

During the Middle East war in 1967, Israel violently captured the Gaza strip. 

In 1987, Hamas – an extremist organization was formed out of the first Palestinian intifada. 

The uprising was due to the continued siege of the area and settler and zionist colonialism which continuously oppressed Palestinians. 

The war then intensified and the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood formed into Hamas. The armed branch dedicated itself toward destroying Israel and re-establishing Islamic rule in what was then, occupied Palestine. 

The conflict and killings continued as Israel continued to enforce its power over Palestinians, who had already fled prosecution and were displaced due to military rule. 

In 1993, The Oslo Accords were signed between Israel and Palestine, creating a moment of peace. The agreement allowed Palestine to have limited control over Gaza and Jericho in the West Bank. 

Israel then accused Palestinians of undertaking the security agreements and Palestinians were angered by Israel’s accusations and continued settler colonialism. 

This led Hamas to carry out bombing to derail the peace agreement because Israel would not allow Palestinians to live freely after nearly 5 decades of conflict and war. 

During this time, many innocent civilians lost their lives, businesses, homes and any form of stability that they once knew. 

A second intifada happened in 2000 and Israel destroyed the Gaza International Airport – the only direct link for Palestinians to the outside world that wasn’t controlled by Israel. 

Israel then cut off the fishing industry and greatly reduced the output of fish, creating another direct human rights violation to innocent Palestinians. 

In 2005, Gaza was controlled by Israel and completely fenced off to the outside world. 

In 2006, Hamas gained control of Palestinians by overthrowing the successor of Yasser Arafat, President Mahmoud Abbas. 

This is the point in history where international aid was cut off to the civilians that had already endured the casualties of war because Hamas was deemed as a terrorist organization. Israel then left Palestine virtually in the dark by destroying Gaza’s only electrical power plant, causing blackouts. 

Palestinians were literally left in the dark, cut off from the world and its resources, and civilians struggled to survive. 

In 2014, some of the worst casualties of war took place – thousands of Palestinians were murdered, while Israel only counted 67 dead soldiers and six civilian deaths. 

On Oct. 7 2023, Hamas gunmen launched an attack and killed hundreds, while taking dozens of others as hostages. 

This did not begin a war – it further perpetuated a war that had been on-going for over 70 years. 

The Washington Blade returned to Israel to report on the one year mark of the Hamas attacks and spoke to LGBTQ+ sources who condemned Hamas’ actions that led to the retaliatory attacks from Israel following Oct 7. 

The Blade’s article on the LGBTQ+ Palestinian perspective, has since then been censored and removed by Meta. 

The fear behind many publishing platforms and Western media outlets is that pro-Israeli extremists will attack any conscious efforts to report on all sides of the issue fairly – often referencing anti-semitism and other types of hate associated with Jews. 

During my fellowship at WSJ, I felt that I was at a disadvantaged standpoint in my career because there I was – at one of the most prestigious and long-standing newspapers in the country during my first year in the professional world — but in the lowest position possible and with no real power to enact change or share much of my opinion in a way that had any impact. More than that, I was scared to speak up and now realize that this fear was nothing compared to the fear that the murdered and martyred journalists felt at the time leading up to their deaths, or the fear that journalists like Bisan Owda feel everyday as they continue to report from Gaza. 

Being a fellow at a high-ranking newspaper during this pivotal and chaotic time in recent human history, taught me how to be and how not to be a reporter. I learned to report on facts and the facts are, that this war has been greatly disproportionate in terms of a death toll and amount of casualties resulting in one of the largest and most complex human rights issues in history. 

One thing is for sure – I never want to be the type of journalist who reports on such deep and intricate issues, without the care and empathy to understand all the sides involved and the historical background that gives an issue the context necessary to form an opinion. 

The anti-Palestinian movement quickly gained traction because of Hollywood celebrities who took to social media to share their uninformed views on the issue and spearhead campaigns to fund the settler state of Israel that has been colonizing and murdering Palestinians for over 70 years. 

Palestine has been at the forefront of the news for 365 days because of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas – an extremist group of militants that does not represent the entire Palestinian community.

Blaming the entire population of civilians in Gaza for the monstrous attack on Oct 7, would be like blaming the entire population of the United States for a terrorist attack that an extremist group like The Proud Boys or the KKK spearheaded and using that event to justify an entire genocide of North American people. 

On an academic level, Pro-Palestinian liberation is not about destruction, death or creating more casualties of war – it is about liberating themselves from all of those things. It is about Palestinians finally gaining the same rights to live freely and safely as we do here in the United States. 

The frustrations, emotions and anger that are fueling the hate against Palestinians is deeply misplaced and misdirected. 

From a human rights perspective – the only perspective that should really matter – innocent civilians are being murdered, displaced, starved and disappeared on all sides – which is fundamentally wrong. 

Hamas was formed out of frustration, desperation, hate and anger toward settler colonialism, which has only brought on only more pain and suffering to all involved. 

There is ultimately no excuse to fund war or to continue the genocide of Palestinian adults, children and even animals. 

Looking at the numbers, it is evident that Israel’s retaliation against Palestinians for the actions carried out by Hamas has been greatly disproportionate. The death toll became innumerable for the Gaza Health Ministry only a month into the newest phase of this war against Palestinians and lost count as a result of blackouts, a high death toll and the collapse of the healthcare system in Gaza. 

The Gaza Health Ministry estimates that over 40,000 Palestinians – including children, infants and journalists – have been murdered since last October. 

In comparison, ABC 7 reported that the Israeli death toll is estimated to be around 1,200.

None of it is truly justified and we have to hold ourselves, eachother and corporations that fund genocide, accountable for actions that further incites this phase of the war.

LGBTQ+ people especially, have a responsibility to hold people accountable for carrying out acts of hate and creating or further perpetuating human rights violations. 

Being pro-Palestinian does not mean being pro-Hamas and it does not mean being anti-semitic. It simply means that the movement supports Palestinian peoples’ liberation from war, death and zionism. 

In the words of Marsha P. Johnson, ‘no Pride for some of us, without liberation for all of us.’

Though the movement called ‘Queers for Palestine’ has dealt with a lot of negative backlash, they held a march and rally at Saturday’s Day of Action in Los Angeles. More events and information can be found on their social media channels.

Editor’s note: International News Editor Michael K. Lavers will be on assignment in Israel through Oct. 9. Meta also removed this article from Lavers’s Facebook pages shortly after he published it.

Two LGBTQ Palestinians who spoke with the Washington Blade last week condemned Hamas’s surprise attack against southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. They also expressed condemnation of the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli government’s policies towards the Palestinians.

Zaheer Subeaux is a queer Palestinian producer, DJ, emcee, and community organizer who lives in California. He is originally from Deir Dibwan, a small city on the West Bank that is a couple miles east of Ramallah, the Palestinian capital.

“Nothing justifies Oct. 7,” Subeaux told the Blade during a Sept. 30 telephone interview. He added the “international community, I think specifically the United States, has this perception that Oct. 7 is this new thing.”

“There’s a very short-lived memory for the American public, and there’s this concept that Palestinians are just creating more trouble,” said Subeaux.

He told the Blade that Jewish settlers before Oct. 7 shot his nephew “just for being on (their) land.” Subeaux said the situation on the West Bank “have been getting worse and worse and worse, and have continued to get worse and worse and worse up until this point, up until October of last year.”

“For a lot of Palestinians who have family back home, this seemed like a proportionate response to an oppressed people,” he said. “For everyone else who’s not paying attention, who allow their tax dollars to continue fund this genocide, for them it’s like, oh, shocking, oh, wow, right out of the blue, because they’re not paying attention to what’s happening.” 

“For the rest of us who actually are, this seemed like a completely reasonable thing for a people to feel during a time like this,” added Subeaux. “I don’t think a lot of people have the context for that.”

Hannah Moushabeck is a queer, second-generation Palestinian American who lives in Massachusetts.

Her family is from West Jerusalem. Moushabeck has relatives in Ramallah and in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, and has friends in Gaza with whom she has “been in daily communication.”

“My immediate reactions on Oct. 7 were obviously horror and fear of what’s to come and the violence that happened that day,” she told the Blade on Sept. 30 during a telephone interview.

Moushabeck said it is “not unusual for Palestinians in the diaspora to experience some of this violence happening in our homeland.”

“This is honestly something that’s been going on since well before I was born,” she said. “So, growing up, whenever my parents seemed upset or, Palestinians were being shown in the news, I knew it was likely because they were being killed or involved with some kind of intense violence.” 

Moushabeck said “a lot of Palestinians kind of had an instinct to go through the motions when Oct. 7 happened.”

“We also recognized that it was really unprecedented, and that the reaction and the revenge that the Israeli government took out on Palestinians would be like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” she added. 

Monday marks a year since Oct. 7.

The Israeli government says militants on that day killed roughly 1,200 people, including upwards of 360 partygoers at the Nova Music Festival near Re’im, a kibbutz that is a couple miles from the Gaza border. The Israeli government says the militants also kidnapped more than 200 people on Oct. 7.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed more than 41,000 people in the enclave since Oct. 7.

Hamas, which the U.S. and Israel have designated a terrorist organization, claimed responsibility for an Oct. 1 attack at a Tel Aviv light rail station that left seven people dead and more than a dozen others injured. A Bedouin man on Sunday killed an Israel Border Police officer and injured 10 others when he attacked a bus station in Beersheva in southern Israel on Sunday.

Reuters on Friday reported the Lebanese Health Ministry said Israeli airstrikes in Beirut and elsewhere in the country over the last two weeks have killed more than 2,000 people. Iran last Tuesday launched upwards of 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to an Israeli airstrike in the Lebanese capital on Sept. 27 that killed Hassan Nasrallah, the long-time leader of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group. 

An Israeli airstrike in the West Bank city of Tulkarem on Oct. 3 killed 18 people in a Palestinian refugee camp. 

The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet, the country’s security agency, said the airstrike killed Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, a senior Hamas commander, and 11 other Hamas operatives. The Associated Press reported the airstrike also killed a family of four, including two young children.

The AP cites Palestinian officials who say an Israeli airstrike on a mosque in Deir al-Balah, a town in central Gaza, killed at least 19 people.

The International Criminal Court in May announced it plans to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders — Yehya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh. 

Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, said the five men have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and Israel. (A suspected Israeli airstrike on July 31 killed Haniyah while he was in the Iranian capital of Tehran to attend Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s inauguration.)

The Montreal-based Queering the Map — a “community generated counter-mapping platform for digitally archiving LGBTQ2IA+ experience in relation to physical space” — is an “interface to collaboratively record the cartography of queer life.” Several people who have used Queering the Map are from Gaza.

A person who placed their post near Netzarim Junction in central Gaza notes it was the place where they fell in love with someone in 2021, “the last major Israeli bombardment on Gaza.” The person notes their beloved is a student who has left the enclave.

“Israeli occupation bombs may take everyone and everything you ever loved away: Your mom, your home, your memories,” they wrote in on Queering the Map. “I am so sorry the world failed you, that your mom, sister, best friends, everything is lost in this genocide.”

Another person who used Queering the Map posted their message near Beit Hanoun, a city in the northeast corner of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli city of Sderot less than four miles away.

“IDK how long I will live so I just want this to be my memory here before I die,” reads the post. “I am not going to leave my home, come what may.” 

“My biggest regret is not kissing this one guy. He died two days back. We had told (sic) how much we like each other, and I was too shy to kiss last time. He died in the bombing. I think a big part of me died too. And soon I will be dead. To Younus, I will kiss you in heaven.”

The posts do not indicate when their authors wrote them. The Blade on Saturday heard Israeli airstrikes in Gaza while at the Nova Music Festival memorial and in Yad Mordechai, a kibbutz that is roughly three miles north of the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza.

Moushabeck told the Blade she helped raise funds that allowed her friend, his wife, and two children to leave Gaza and relocate to Cairo. Moushabeck also said she receives photos from other friends who remain inside the enclave.

“Seeing things happen in the news, and then getting personal video, not a video, but a personal video from my friend who’s watching the same things unfold; that was really horrifying,” she said. 

“I’m safe, and I have a lot of privileges living in the diaspora, and so I felt it was my responsibility to bear witness to these,” added Moushabeck.

Tarek Zeidan, the former executive director of Helem, a Lebanese LGBTQ rights group, has launched a fundraiser for a group of transgender women who Israeli airstrikes have made homeless. The campaign has raised more than $19,000.

“While it is contradictory to be focusing on any specific community, vulnerable or otherwise, at a time when entire populations in Lebanon and Gaza are being indiscriminately eliminated, the bitter reality is that humanitarian aid and services will not be available to the majority of queer people in need, especially trans* and non-conforming members of our community,” wrote Zeidan in his appeal. 

“Many humanitarian organizations are not capable or even willing to help, and are now even less likely to given that it is a crisis response,” he added. “We learned this hard lesson during the pandemic and in the aftermath of the 2020 Beirut port explosion and since then little has changed.”

Outright International, National LGBTQ Task Force have called for Gaza ceasefire

Outright International and the National LGBTQ Task Force are two of the many LGBTQ organizations in the U.S. and around the world that have called for a ceasefire in Gaza. 

Upwards of 200 people in February marched from Dupont Circle to the Human Rights Campaign and called upon it and other LGBTQ rights groups to “demand an end to the genocide and occupation of Palestine.” No Pride in Genocide, which describes itself as a “coalition of queer and trans Palestinians, Arab, and SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) people, Jews, and allies,” organized the event.

“As a queer Palestinian, my identity has sort of been weaponized against us for what is ostensibly a propaganda campaign by the State of Israel,” Moushabeck told the Blade. “We refer to it as ‘pinkwashing.’ They have pumped millions of dollars into what they call Brand Israel in order to project this idea of a queer utopia, queer haven, which, you know, a lot of Israelis say is not accurate.” 

“Certainly, Palestinians are not being asked their sexuality is before their homes are bombed or their families are killed,” she added.

Moushabeck also criticized HRC.

“We have organizational leaders like the Human Rights Campaign who are taking money from war profiteers like weapons manufacturer, Northrop Grumman, giving social capital to those profiting off of this violence,” she said.

Subeaux echoed Moushabeck.

“Our narrative of survival in the United States and in the West for queer rights is being co-opted to fear monger,” said Subeaux. “I don’t want that to be done on my behalf. I don’t want a genocide to be done on my behalf. I don’t want a genocide to be done on queer people’s behalf.”