The radical left’s rainbow symbolism obscures the implicit tensions within its Utopian mysticism, reflected in a prism of constant conflicts that pit former social justice allies into bitter division. A recent display of this irreconcilable intersectionality was exhibited by gay rights advocates in Vermont divided over Palestine.
The Pride Center of Vermont has “celebrated gay culture” since 1983, but it shifted mission in December 2023 via a controversial, one-sided endorsement of a Palestinian state and condemnation of Israel for “the ongoing assault on Palestine.” There was no criticism of the October attacks against Israeli civilians, or of calls to eliminate the State of Israel entirely. Three of the Pride Center of Vermont’s seven board members, themselves gay Jews, subsequently resigned, and a prominent founder alleged that “she and a contingent of queer Jews … have been ignored, silenced and sidelined by the Burlington-based nonprofit.”
A 40-year mission “to celebrate, educate, and advocate with and for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) Vermonters” has morphed into a woke catch-basin for simplistic opposition against ubiquitous “oppressors,” including dreaded Zionists. The organization’s kaleidoscope statement chirped with Leninite vitriol:
Our commitment to anti-oppression extends to all corners of the world and to all people being harmed by the myriad manifestations of the violence of colonialism and white supremacy[.]
One of those myriad oppressions is genocidal maniacs calling for the annihilation of Jews and the Jewish state, often fashioned in the call to reclaim Palestine “from the river to the sea.” Vermont’s gay group became the “oppose white and Jewish people for their race and ethnicity” group, overnight. Small wonder shocked gay Jews recoiled in disgust.
These fractures extend throughout identity politics and its self-immolating ideology. When a liberal Burlington newspaper named Seven Days reported complaints against the Pride Center, there was no retraction or more balanced position proffered (e.g., all genocide is bad) by the Pride Center regarding Israel. Instead, the gay advocacy facility threw Jewish gays under the Palestinian bus, elevating the Middle East conflict above a historic focus on AIDS and homophobia.
The sister cabal of confused reactionaries lashed out in bizarre support of the Pride Center — not for gays, but against Zionists. The Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation (VCPL) issued a sharp rebuke of Seven Days for “[giving] Zionists a platform to defame the Pride Center’s statement as “antisemitic,” portrayed “the Palestinian struggle as part of queer and collective liberation,” and praised the Pride Center for “[upholding] the tradition of queer internationalism.”
Apparently, queer internationalism is not collective when gay Jews are at the table. In its scathing diatribe, VCPL displayed the racist antisemitic toxicity that is shattering gay unity at the Pride Center in the name of collective opposition to Israel, or “anti-Zionism”:
Each Zionist repeats the false allegation that criticizing Israel, even as it commits genocide, is anti-semitic[.] …
Only Zionists — whether they are Jewish, secular, or Christian (Christians are in fact the vast majority of Zionists) — support Israel, its apartheid state, and its genocidal war. Supporting or opposing Israel is a political position and not one that can be equated with an entire religious or racial group.
The Zionists base all their slanderous accusations against the Pride Center on pinkwashing, on painting Israel as a beacon of gay liberation in a sea of Middle Eastern homophobia. But, in reality, Israel is a homophobic society like all societies throughout the world. No society has ended homophobia and no society has a monopoly on that prejudice.
The kaleidoscope cultural-Marxist eyes are spinning red here. “Supporting or opposing Israel is political and not to be equated with an entire religious group,” but “Christians are in fact the vast majority of Zionists.” The gay Jewish critics in Burlington did not “base all their slanderous accusations … on pinkwashing”; they felt marginalized and racially excluded and complained that the Pride Center was one-sided in its position.
Neither the Pride Center nor VCPL denounces the hostage-taking of Israeli civilians on October 7. VCPL “demands” the release of “all Palestinian prisoners,” including proven criminals, but not Jewish civilian hostages being used as shields by terrorist Hamas. VCPL joins Muslim extremist Hamas in calling for the eradication of the State of Israel and the ejection (genocide?) of Jews, not a two-state solution. Such extremist, indefensible positions have nothing to do with pinkwashing.
The fractious absurdity of these mindless “groups” is a harbinger of future splinterings within social justice alliances. Identity politics faces a fatal ideological cancer: it seeks to employ statist totalitarianism to impose absolute individual liberty (for sexual perversions, fantasy pronouns, and criminality, at least). Yet it stifles critical and thus individual thought, once considered an important aspect of, say, gay liberation or the battle for free speech and equal rights. (Such things as the colonialist, white supremacist Bill of Rights must not intrude on the great Utopian mission!)
VCPL is a hodgepodge of hateful lost souls, including the Central Vermont Democratic Socialists of America, the Champlain Valley Democratic Socialists of America, the Party for Socialism and Liberation Vermont, the Tempest Collective (“a revolutionary socialist collective”), and a bizarre coven of wrinkled white shame-mongers self-identified as Lost River Racial Justice:
We recognize that all indigenous peoples in the occupied land-base known as the United States have the right to self-determination and access to clean and safe land and water. Those of us who are descendants of white settler-colonialism must work to unlearn and dismantle the ongoing colonialist practices of exploitation, domination, entitlement, and individualism that foster disconnection from each other and the land.
Kamala Harris burns with jealousy at this marvelous, head-spinning word salad. The white-people Lost River collective exploits “invisibilized” indigenous people to advance wealth transfers for people “of color” and will magically ensure “rights” to clean and safe water. It also apparently supports Palestine, and gay people.
The social justice milieu clouds further with every rally, statement, and virtue-signaling rant. This monster eats its own, every time.
This is the downside of “intersectionality” — not all interests intersect. As the bizarre magnetism of gripes and whining extends beyond sexual identities and the confused-crowd question-mark alphabet, the endless horizon of revolutionary theories expands. Racist caste systems, hatred of Jews, climate alarmism, and every trendy cause célèbre in the crazy-coot arsenal of weaponized grievances gather. Chaos ensues as the impossibility of this irreconcilable intersectionality atomizes common sense, giving way to anarchy and entropy, deconstructing everything in its radioactive path.
Attorney-farmer John Klar hosts the Small Farm Republic Substack and podcast from his Vermont farm. His recent book is Small Farm Republic: Why Conservatives Must Embrace Local Agriculture, Reject Climate Alarmism, and Lead an Environmental Revival.
Image: hendricjabs via Pixabay, Pixabay License.
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