Not In Our Name

On homonationalism, justifying violence, and the shape of bigotry.

**Content warning: Palestinian genocide, violence against queer and trans people, general American fascism**

As a genocide rages on in Palestine, marginalized people from around the world are using their voice to speak out against it. We are seeing political discourse change on a day-by-day basis as people of all demographics are sharing resources to learn about the history of Palestinian oppression. Since Israel just cut out Palestinian access to Internet a few days ago, it’s more important than ever that we keep spreading information about the genocide as much as we can (while being ever-vigilant about misinformation).

Before we begin (and before the paywall), here’s the best resource I’ve found: The All Out for Palestine Toolkit, produced by The Palestinian Feminist Collective. It has tons of readings, Palestinians to follow, and ways to get involved in their freedom. Access it at: bit.ly/PFCToolkit

Among the many voices screaming to stop this violence are LGBTQIA+ people, who even in an American context, have gotten a taste of genocide. While queer and trans Americans as a group aren’t the most educated about Middle-Eastern politics, it doesn’t take an expert to condemn genocide, or to recognize the commonalities between American fascism and other forms of oppression.

But one particular type of comment has been appearing in a lot of queer content creators’ comments sections whenever they bring up Palestine.

A racist, Islamophobic post on r/facepalm. A picture of queer, pro-Palestinian protestors with the caption, “Do they not realize that in Palestine, queer people routinely face violence up to and including beheadings?” I suggest reading the comments with a critical eye; or not at all! (Reddit)

“But Palestinians would have you hanged for being queer!”

“Those middle-eastern countries are so backwards, do you know what they do to gay people over there?”

“Why are you supporting a Muslim country when you would never be allowed to live there?”

Sometimes these comments come from white gay people, sometimes they come from wholesale bigots. Unfortunately, these sentiments are nothing new, and have existed in the milieu of our culture for as long as LGBTQ+ people have had a modicum of social acceptance.

We could unpack this from several different directions, including…

• Not all Palestinians are Muslims; some are Christian!

• Being queer in America is currently not very fun, and truly never has been!

• Israel isn’t the glowing bastion of LGBTQ progress that their propaganda makes it out to be! (Let’s not be antisemitic though, Judaism is a religion of peace and Israel does not reflect that!)

• Queerness is a Palestinian experience! Queer people are everywhere, including the places where it’s hard to be queer.

…but I want to hone in on one point that can teach us a lot about American bigotry.

Homonationalism is a concept from sociology that acknowledges how we talk about global politics. It was coined by Jasbir Puar in 2007 and, in plain English, it’s a phenomenon where we use progress on LGBT rights as a yardstick to gauge how “moral” another society is. Usually, this is a way to contrast “morally evolved Western countries” with “morally backward Eastern countries”. Puar used the term to describe how the U.S. presented itself as LGBT-friendly to contrast itself with “homophobic” Muslims during the invasion of Iraq in the early 2000s. (You know, the early 2000s, a great time to be queer in America!)