The most common flag on display during the recent Pride Month, which celebrates the LGBTQ+ community in Western countries was the Gay Trans Palestinian Flag.

What do people in Middle Eastern countries think about this? There was a backlash when the US and UK embassies flew a pride flag in 2021: U.S. and UK embassies in UAE see backlash for flying Gay Pride flag (cnbc.com)

In many ME countries, homosexuality is punishable by death. On the other hand, according to reports from Middle Eastern friends, a much higher percentage of the population carries out acts that Westerners would consider gay in ME countries, over 50% in the rich Gulf countries, due to not knowing anyone from the opposite sex during their teenage years, but they do not identify as homosexual.

https://old.reddit.com/r/geopolitics/comments/1dyxwki/gay_trans_palestinian_flag_what_do_people_in_the/

17 Comments

  1. Accomplished-Ad5280 on

    We think that this symbol is ridiculous. I would like to see those LGBTQ+ communities do a parade across Gaza or Ramallah, they will get stoned to death.

  2. liftoff_oversteer on

    It is completely absurd and ridiculous. Gay and Trans people would have the hardest time in any arab areas, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to champion them.

  3. It seems like you are viewing this through the frame of “everyone in the ME is homophobic so why do queer people support Palestine?”. This view fundamentally misses the point that the solidarity movement transcends nations and states and is essentially a humanist movement, based on the principles of human rights which we in the West have been raised to believe in since birth.

    When you understand it this way that the flag represents solidarity with all oppressed peoples, irregardless of individual circumstance, whether they are POC, women, queer, Palestinian, Aborigine, working class, disabled or of any other group that tends to be systematically sidelined at best and killed at worst. When they fly that flag at the pride parade what they are saying is “I am queer, I come from a group that has faced extreme oppression for centuries, I see your struggle, and I stand with you in solidarity”.

  4. Good_Land_666 on

    Oppressed people tend to feel empathetic/compassion towards other oppressed people, even if they might not have the exact same views/opinions. It’s not that hard to understand tbh

  5. My take on this: People who discriminate others accepting that discrimination is ok and have no right to complain if they are discriminated themselves by others.

  6. “Why would you donate money to the Save The Tiger Foundation? If you met one it wouldn’t hesitate to eat you”

  7. Disastrous_Piece1411 on

    I wonder if part of the idea is that arabs may see the unwavering support they are getting from LGBT community and might soften their opinion on them? The most powerful weapon is love kind of thing.

  8. a_stray_bullet on

    They are doing it because “it’s really neat that one marginalised group is standing up for another!”, literal virtue signalling.

  9. Sorry but what exactly are you basing that first statement on? Google Gay Trans Palestinian Flag and exactly 0 images or news stories come up of people holding such a flag. There is an Israeli flag, and a Palestinian flag being held next to a pride flag being flown by Arab people in Tel Aviv. But there is none of this flag that is supposedly the ‘most common’.

  10. blueredscreen on

    Nobody cares about popular symbols in the West, certainly not the people in the West themselves who have better things to do with their time than to obsequiously march towards what is popular at any given moment.

  11. shitehead_revisited on

    I get the irony. But to me, when this occurs over cultural and geographical distances, it’s perfectly reasonable and moral to defend a group of people’s right to self determination and freedom even if that group does not support the same for a group you belong to.

    For example, many Jewish people themselves recognise the plight of Palestinians, many of whom are vehemently antisemitic.

  12. Electronic_Main_2254 on

    These stupid individuals are just naive and think that these extremists are their buddies or something, but they will kill them without giving it a second thought.

    Even the arabs in jaffa (which basically lives the good life) are against them and [pulled down](https://twitter.com/MosheKozak/status/1535718241871486983?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1535718241871486983%7Ctwgr%5Eb060cfb37dca94ba0634f83992e6926a27f7d479%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frotter.net%2Fforum%2Fscoops1%2F747790.shtml) the LGBT flags that the Tel Aviv municipality raised for the pride parade (and you can’t be too openly gay in Jaffa also), so it’s not like a problem in 3rd world countries only or something, it’s a religious thing for them.
    The irony is that these people will feel at home in most of the parts of Israel, but will get hanged in most of the Muslim countries but they are still siding with their enemies instead of their friends.
    It’s just a side effect of being progressive in our era, it’s almost like you’re becoming a stupid sheep automatically and can’t think about things rationally while protesting.