LGBT Communities in Jerusalem

Hello everybody. :)

In the minds of most people, Jerusalem is unequivocally linked to religion, whether it be Judaism, Christianity and Islam. And while I admit to being quite ignorant to what the Torah and the Qur'an say about homosexuality, I'd be willing to bet some money on it not being very supportive.  From my experiences growing up in a very conservative part of the country, I know that intolerance runs deep. I witnessed some pretty nasty, hateful things happen to my gay friends. One of my friend's entire family was asked to leave the church because of their son being gay (there was also quite of lot of "he's going to burn in hell" statements being thrown around). One of my best friends in high school got written out of his grandparents and his father's will within the week of his coming out and one of his cousins spray painted "FAG" on his car. One of my friends is a Lesbian, and her parents (who have no idea about her sexuality) are running an anti-gay campaign in their church. While it's true that this sort of behavior is becoming less and less prevalent in the United States, it doesn't look like the end is in sight any time soon (or . . . ever).

That being said, I cannot even imagine how it is in Jerusalem. I suppose one of the most telling things was the ultra-orthodox man attacking gay-pride marchers with a knife in the documentary City of Borders. I was curious about Jerusalem Open House so I did a little more research on it (that's to say, I went to Wikipedia). It receives no funding from the local or federal government or commercial sponsorship. I didn't find this very surprising, but I thought that it might receive some aid especially seeing as they provide health services such as HIV/AIDS testing and prevention. While there is not a very significant number of people with AIDS in Israel, the number of infections is on the rise (according to the World Health Organization) so it has the potential to become a major health concern for Israel. 

(Holy off-topic Batman!)  

Anyway, I can honestly say that  'Jerusalem' and 'active gay community' never really mixed in my mind, but I'm very glad it exists. It has received a lot of flak, especially from the religious community.  Other than the stabbing incident I mentioned above, radical Israeli right-wing activists declared a "holy war" on the parade, and many people held signs that said things like "Jerusalem is not San Francisco." That being said, I can understand that these people felt like their sacred place was being trampled on. I'm actually surprised that that is the worst that has happened.

This is a major conflict between the concept of Jerusalem being a "sacred space" versus it being a city where real, living, breathing people live. It is inevitable that some of these people have values and lifestyles that are at odds with the conservativeness of the city.