The Jewish National Fund of Canada has decided that they do not need to be linked to transphobia and so has canceled its invitation to Mike Huckabee to give the keynote address at Ottawa's Negev Dinner to benefit autism research in Israel.
JNF CEO Josh Cooper said that Huckabee had been invited because "he is a staunch supporter of the state of Israel" but the invitation was withdrawn because "the media spotlight has recently focused on Mr. Huckabee’s comments about issues that bear no relevance to JNF or autism." Cooper said that a replacement speaker would be announced in the coming weeks.
Michael Gennis, Ottawa real estate agent who is active in both Ottawa's Jewish and LGBT communities had helped to raise concerns of the invitation.
Gennis said he first learned of Huckabee being named JNF’s dinner speaker months ago, and although he generally supports JNF, he objects to the way its choice of speaker disenfranchises community members like him who are appalled by Huckabee’s “horribly offensive transgender comments.”
He also thought it was “a typical knee-jerk reaction from a Jewish organization bringing a speaker that supports Israel… without doing a lot of research about what people like [Huckabee] stand for.”
News of the cancellation was posted on Facebook by Mira Sucharov, political science professor at Carletion University and Canadian Jewish News columnist.
She told The CJN she objected to Huckabee because JNF Ottawa’s Negev dinner is the city’s highest-profile Jewish event and said JNF has the responsibility to choose “a speaker that’s appropriate.”
Further, Israel aside, Huckabee’s views on many issues are not in step with the Canadian Jewish community’s, and the optics of it make it look like the Jewish community has moved to the far-right fringes of social discourse.
Groups such as JNF and the Jewish establishment at large are increasingly willing to overlook unconscionable policies or public statements made by an individual if that individual holds far-right views on Israel. Sidling up to the far-right evangelicals in the United States causes a dangerous precedent.
--Sucharov
Video recently surfaced of Huckabee speaking before the National Religious Broadcasters’ convention in which he joked he should have pretended to be trans in high school so he could shower with girls.
Last Wednesday Huckabee appeared on a right-wing radio show hosted by anti-LGBT "pundit" Steve Deace and doubled down:
I take nothing back from that speech. I’m kind of glad it’s posted because people, if they watch the whole clip, what they’re going to see is that I’m giving a commonsense answer to the insanity that’s going on out there.
--Huckabee
Huckabee's claim that boys will "pretend" to be transgender to gain access to girl's locker room is the true insanity.
--Sunnivie Brycum, The Advocate