In June, TruthRevolt's Tiffany Gabbay wrote about how "an LGBT group dubbed the -- wait for it -- Chicago Dyke Collective -- expelled at least three Jewish participants from its "Dyke March" Saturday for carrying rainbow flags emblazoned with the Star of David. The social justice group asserts that the flags were threatening and made other participants feel 'unsafe.'"
Well, apparently, the backlash they received for being closed-minded hateful bigots took a toll on them. According to Legal Insurrection, "There was swift and widespread condemnation of these actions, so much so that the organizers have struggle to form a new narrative of why they did what they did. The Dyke March Chicago organizers issued a statement reframing the original explanations for targeting and expulsion, and claiming the people kicked out were disruptive to their anti-Israel message. In other words, they are blaming the victims." The statement includes this deceptive nonsense:
The group in question was heard disrupting chants, replacing the word “Palestine” with “everywhere,” saying: “From everywhere to Mexico, border walls have got to go.” One of the individuals, Laurel Grauer, is the Regional Director of A Wider Bridge, an organization with ties to the Israeli government that was protested for pinkwashing at the Creating Change Conference in Chicago in 2016. It was later revealed that Laurel was aware of Dyke March’s anti-Zionist position from pro-Palestine memes and art that were posted on the Dyke March page, and was also aware of the fact that her flag could be interpreted as being at odds with that position. The night before, she contacted an organizer to ask if her flag would “be protested.” The organizer told her the flag was welcome, but reminded her that the space is one that supports Palestinian rights.
This caused Emily Shire to write that "We Were Kicked Off Chicago’s Dyke March for Not Being ‘the Right Kind of Jew.’" But hating Jews just takes so much energy that the Chicago Dyke Marchers need a break before launching more resistance. According to their Facebook page:
We’re so grateful to have such amazing friends and allies who care about our mental and emotional health and have launched this fundraiser to send our organizers on a much-needed self-care retreat! If you came to Dyke March this year and enjoyed yourself or just want to show some love and to be in solidarity with us from afar, please share among your networks and consider dropping us some coin so we can heal and rest up for more resistance this year! Thank y’all so much & we love you!!
Image credit: Eric Allix Rogers on FlickR