The Gulf News article provides no other sources of information. I have a feeling that he was wearing just leggings, though.
From what I understand, he was beat up by fellow Palestinians, so it was not a racist issue. The Palestinian police seem to have protected him, but that is not definite. If they did protect him, then the government was at least somewhat supportive. He lived among the Israelis, and was handed back to them. There is no indication of what happened to him among the Israelis, but I assume that he was safe.
It seems to be a cultural issue.
What seems to bother me is somebody bringing homosexuality into this issue. Does the article say that the man is a homosexual? Nope. For all we know, these Palestinians could have disapproved of the man's outfit, whether or not he was gay. Are people not capable of disapproving of certain outfits, no matter who wears them?
I am definitely not defending that violence, though. According to the article, a lot of people have spoken out in defense of the guy. That is what we we need. It is unfortunate that he got beat up, but at least we can be happy about the positive outcome. Even if they are thinking of a different garment, then we can still gain some form of acceptance.
That being said, I would hate to live in that area of the world. Most of us live in such freedom, that we can wear almost wherever we want, and even get support and no rejection. We can be so overt that we could take out time in our day to debate about L'eggs not letting us enter a contest. I suggest that we take a moment to cherish our freedoms.
By the way, if any of you can confirm that he is gay or that he has claimed to be gay, then please let me know in the comments below. It is not relevant to this discussion, but I do want to set the record straight.
Thank you for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment