D.C. Dyke March Organizers Ban Star of David Because It "Creates An Unsafe Space"

For all the absurdities of the Trump Administration, there are reasons why I cannot bring myself align myself with the political Left. Here is but the latest via The Forward:


A gay pride parade in Washington, D.C. has been criticized by Jewish and LGBTQ groups for banning Jewish and Israeli symbols from its Friday event.


The D.C. Dyke March is designed to include people of diverse races, religions and gender identities who feel excluded from the more mainstream Pride parade, organizers told The Washington Post.
The march will also ban “nationalist symbols,” including flags that represent what event organizer Yael Horowitz called “nations that have specific oppressive tendencies.”


“This includes Israeli flags, as well as flags that resemble Israeli flags, such as a pride flag with a Star of David in the middle,” march organizer Rae Gaines — who is herself Jewish and a member of the left-wing Jewish group IfNotNow — wrote via Facebook Messenger to would-be participant A.J. Campbell, the founder of the lesbian Jewish group Nice Jewish Girls.


American flags aren’t welcome either, but a Palestinian flag would be accepted, Gaines told the Forward.


“The issue [with the Jewish Pride flag] is where the Star of David is positioned in a way that looks like an Israeli flag, it creates an unsafe space,” she said. “It really is a shame that Israel took this symbol of Judaism and turned it into this nationalist symbol….I understand the Jewish pride flag is a symbol that a lot of Jews have come to embrace, but there are so many other Jewish symbols that we can use to express our Judaism, like a Star of David [on a necklace], like a yarmulke, a tallit.”


Let's see if I have this straight. A Star of David creates an unsafe space, but a Palestinian flag is welcome. Last I checked, identifying oneself as a member of the LGBTQ community is punishable by death in the Palestinian Authority. Lots of luck in organizing the Pride Parade in Ramallah.


This isn't the first time anti-Semitism has reared its ugly head in a Dyke March. Several Jews carrying rainbow flags with the Star of David were kicked out of Chicago's Dyke March in 2017 because, you guessed it, it “made people feel unsafe.”


Until the LGBTQ community gets over anti-Semitism I don't want to hear any lectures about the proposed Straight Pride Parade in Boston, silly as it may be. This is the far greater affront.