In the spring of 2004, I got an email from an acquaintance asking if I wanted to be nominated for LGBT Pride parade grand marshal. I was surprised, because I never thought of myself as grand marshal material. In point of fact, I've never been very much in tune with "marshals" - grand or otherwise. "Marshal" sounds too much like "martial" for my taste, and the marshals at demonstrations are always telling me to stand inside the yellow line or something.
But I agreed because, first of all, I understood that it wasn't about me, it was a way of spotlighting the work of queer folks in support of Palestinian liberation, and more broadly, of anti-assimilationist queers opposing U.S. militarism in all its manifestations.
br>And second, I assumed I wouldn't win. I was already back in Palestine when I got the notification that I'd been elected. I ended up concluding that I couldn't afford to come back for the parade, but before I did, the mayor cancelled a scheduled reception at City Hall, apparently in fear of what I might do.
The Parade Committee came in for plenty of abuse for honoring a "terrorist" but they basLically shrugged it off. It didn't hurt them at all. What it did do was make a lot of people who had been feeling less and less included in the mainstream queer community feel a little more connected.
Read More