The first WorldPride event, in 2000, was in Rome. The second, in 2005, will be in Jerusalem. That leaves Mecca, Saudi Arabia, as the proposed host for 2010.
That’s a joke making the rounds in the LGBT community, as plans are under way to hold this international celebration of queer culture in a city that has decidedly mixed feelings about hosting it. The 10-day event will be held next August.
Hagai El-Ad, executive director of Open House, Jerusalem’s LGBT community center, gave a candid picture of the challenges faced in hosting such an event where a good percentage of the city’s population is virulently opposed to homosexuality.
Though the World Pride organizing body had its reservations about selecting Jerusalem, it decided in favor nonetheless. Meanwhile, the fervently religious mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, has been less than welcoming.
“The mayor is not pleased,” El-Ad said during a recent visit to San Francisco. “Before he was elected over a year ago, all the candidates were asked what they thought of Jerusalem Pride, as a litmus test, like if he can deal with this, he can deal with anything.”
Lupolianski responded that every group should be able to have a parade if it wants to. But it only took 17 days after he was elected to recant his statement, said El-Ad.
Regardless of how the city’s religious citizens feel about it, though, the response from everyone else has been incredible, El-Ad said. The Jerusalem Cinemateque has agreed to co-sponsor an LGBT film festival. Hebrew University of Jerusalem is teaming up with Yale University to co-sponsor a conference for academics in LGBT studies. Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem is working with the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches to plan a program for LGBT clergy members.
El-Ad added that European LGBT groups have been very supportive; he singled out Sweden and France as two countries in particular that plan to send sizable delegations.
“The response is amazingly positive,” he said. “The idea is so out there, that that’s convincing enough. And if you bundle that with a really interesting program, plus the fact that people everywhere want to go to Jerusalem at some point in their lives,” people will be drawn to the city, he believes.
He said an event like this promises to bring at least 5,000 tourists at a time when they are sorely missed. That could translate to at least $10 million to the local economy.
Opposition at the past three pride parades in Jerusalem has been exaggerated by the media, said El-Ad, in that participants have outnumbered protestors 100 to 1.
Really, he said, Jerusalem is the logical place to hold WorldPride, in that the Open House is completely committed to serving all of Jerusalem’s citizens, not only the Jewish ones.
Emphasizing the theme of 2005, “Love Without Borders,” El-Ad said, “This is really where we can make a statement for tolerance and pluralism, for peace and for pride.”