As a gay
Palestinian, I was intrigued with your Jew and Arab in love
cover but am appalled by what you chose to publish. In this
film, everyone, including the Arab co-lead is actually
an Israeli citizen. Hollywood abandoned black face and
war paint on whites years ago, apparently not The
Advocate when Israelis portray Palestinians in 2007.
As movies don't always accurately reflect reality, your
accompanying article about LGBT life in the holy land
could have set the record straight so to speak.
Appropriately, an Israeli discusses LGBT life in
Israel. Why then do you ask an Israeli and not a Palestinian
to comment on gay life in Palestine? Would The
Advocate print a KKK members slander on African
Americans, a nazi on Jewish life or the religious right on
gay issues? Needless to say, your author's racist
comments on Palestine's gay life does not match my or
other Palestinian LGBT experience. Gay life in
Palestine as elsewhere is evolving as we tell the truth
about ourselves. I would have hoped printing an
Israeli's anti-Arab rants would be beneath a
publication that has spent decades trying to educate and
lend pride to the LGBT community that has similarly
been targeted by lies and stereotyping. Repeating and
printing false stereotypes about any group or
individual while expecting truth about your own is
hypocritical and small.