6.8.13 Celebrating Pride Month -- around the world!!

    It is very sad, I understand how you feel, I love animals.
    Two years ago, I lost my best friend, who was with me for 18 years, and I still miss him ..
    My hug to you ..

seoulmate, FINALLY I'm back in Houston after almost 8 weeks in St. Mary's, Georgia.  I certainly won't miss the annoying gnats or the flies that bite, but it was a wonderful trip.

I followed Atop daily while away, but I found it difficult to post on my Google tablet, so I gave up and just lurked.  Now I should be able to pop in more often.

While admiring Adam sightings (he knows we want it! ), I thought, since the theme today is Pride aroud the world, to write a little something about Pride in Israel, for those who might be interested. Those who are all - please scroll.

Yesterday was Tel-Aviv's parade. Jerusalem's used to be in June as well, just like everybody else, until on August 1st 2009 there was a murder in a LGBTQ teen club in Tel-Aviv. It isn't a dance club, but a semi-hidden place where teens have group meetings with counselors. A masked person came in and started shooting all around, wounded 10 people and killed 2.
Since then, Jerusalem's parade is as close as possible to this date, and we've started marching to the Knesset (parliament):

This is being done in Jerusalem and not in Tel-Aviv, because the Jerusalem parade has always been more political. As you can see in the picture, the crowd is a bit more conservative, while Tel-Aviv's Pride is one big fun party.
Jerusalem's Open House for LGBTQ is the one that takes care of religious and even orthodox gays, and of Palestinian gays, which could be killed by their own families had they known about their sexuality. A few years ago a Plestinian gave a speech at Gay Pride in Arabic and we were all cheering like crazy even though we didn't understand a word, just because he had the courage to make himself visible and speak up.
The update on the teen murders: a couple of days ago, 4 years after the it happened, 3 people were arrested. Their motive was personal revenge, not a hate crime. Wiki says it was the most expensive police investigation in Israel's history so far .

As for the orthodox protests against the Jerusalem parade - they're a very organized and obedient bunch, and do what their Rabbis tell them. The Jerusalem parade started in 2002, and for 4 years was a peaceful event, with not as much as a blink from the orthodox community, until in 2006 someone decided it would be a good political move to show his power, and told the orthodox to protest. As a result, someone stabbed 3 of the participants (they were not killed). He was arrested right away and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.

But don't think we're all serious and don't party. Here are some happy pics from the Jerusalem Pride Parade:

         

Could be the first time I've respected Nigel for not trying to spin this into "I'm not coming back!" Firing confirmed!

Nigel Lythgoe ‏@dizzyfeet 3h
just had 10 days in the Bahamas, rain everyday. I get back to the States and get fired. Sad! Monday we choose our top 20. I'll smile again.

Nigel Lythgoe ‏@dizzyfeet 2h
Yes, don't worry I'm on #SYTYCD. FOX still loves me. It's not a personal thing they just feel IDOL needs new leadership after 12 Seasons.