Out against the occupation
Thursday August 10th, 8pm
Café Esperenza (5490 St. Laurent)
By Donation (a fundraiser for the Sanayeh Relief Center in Beirut)
An evening of film and discussion in solidarity with The Coalition to Boycott World Pride Jerusalem 2006
While Montreal’s GBLT community celebrates DiverCite and hosts the Out Games and its associated International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Conference, some prefer to ignore Israel’s current undeclared war on Lebanon and Palestine. Even as people flock to celebrate “Love Without Borders”, at this year’s World Pride in Jerusalem (August 6th – 12th) LGBT people in Lebanon and Palestine and their families and communities are occupied with surviving the military onslaught and doing relief work. Helem Beirut, a Lebanese based LGBT group scheduled to participate in the Out Games Human Rights Conference, was not able to attend due to Israel’s blockade and attacks. Meanwhile, Helem Beirut’s office has turned into the Sanayeh relief center, one of the many relief centers for one million Lebanese refugees displaced by the current attacks.
This year, there’s a global movement to boycott Jerusalem World Pride 2006 as part of the international boycott of, and divestment from Israel. World Pride is a global event that attempts to bring together sexual minorities from all over the world in order to protest the continued discrimination and violence. We strongly condemn holding World Pride in a city beleaguered by violence and conflict, and where a theme of “Love without Borders” belies a reality of separation, ubiquitous borders, destruction of homes and livelihoods, land theft, gross human rights violations, and the apartheid policies of Israel.
We ask Montreal’s Queer and Trans communities and allies to join us for a night of solidarity with all people of Lebanon and Palestine. The evening will include a discussion of the current situation and queer and trans responses to the war and a screening of Elle Flanders’ film “Zero Degrees of Separation”.
Zero Degrees of Separation is a feature-length documentary examining the situation of gay and lesbian Palestinian-Israeli couples contending with the realities of occupation.
