Queer Intifada   

by Josh Healey

 

 

Queer Intifada

I'm back in DC

on my way to the march

against the Israeli occupation

 

I get off the Red Line at Judiciary Square

and the first thing I see are

two middle-aged white women

wearing matching black tank tops

with pink letters across the chest that read

Two Moms are Hotter than One

 

apparently

the Palestinian Solidarity March

is right across the street from

the Gay Pride Parade

 

it's clear as the Dead Sea

who is going to which:

kaffiyehs and peace signs to the left

leather boots and nipple tassels to the right

 

four lanes divide the crowds

but have no power to stop

the two sound systems

from becoming one

explosion of human noise:

 

  FREE FREE PALESTINE!

                                    GAY LIBERATION NOW!

  FREE FREE PALESTINE!

                                     GAY LIBERATION NOW!

            FREE PALESTINE... NOW!

             GAY LIBERATION...PALESTINE!

                        FREE GAY PALESTINE!!

                        FREE GAY PALESTINE!!

                        FREE GAY PALESTINE!!

 

I imagine...

Mahmoud Abbas

Prime Minister turned Minister

performing the first marriage

in liberated Ramallah

and pronouncing the two

new citizens Husband and Husband

 

while Ellen Degeneres

and the Human Rights Campaign

stage a hunger strike outside the UN

to demand the LGBT Right of Return

 

and I wonder

if we can build a Queer Intifada

what other coalitions are possible?

 

but I am here

straight and Jewish

white and American

 

solidarity is not just my offering

at the movement dinner table

it's the first invitation I got

to sit down and eat

 

but I remember a time at Ellis Island

when I was hungry myself

 

and I remember that the same day

German soldiers forced yellow stars

on my family's coats,

they pressed pink ones on my friends

 

my friends,

Anne Frank is Matthew Shepard

Guantanamo is Auschwitz

Gay Marriage is Palestine

and we are all walking on occupied land

 

    the protestors are shouting their final chants now

I start making my way back to the Metro

see a young woman walking

on the other side of the street

 

she is wearing a hijab

body covered from the knees up

except her hands

toned like olive trees

in her left palm waves a small

but unmistakable rainbow flag

 

it is June in DC

the moon is rising early

in the evening sky

 

not a crescent

not a rainbow

the moon is full tonight

full and bright

and marching ever higher