Quote# 128548
Shoshany Anderson said she had attended Dyke March for four years, and she attended the event this year with a Jewish Pride Flag because "I really wanted to just be Jewish and gay in public and celebrate that." She made a shirt for the march that said "Proud Jewish Dyke" and asked her friend Grauer to march with her. Grauer provided the Pride Flags with Star of David symbols, which Shoshany Anderson describes as "the ubiquitous symbol of Judaism."
"My overwhelming feeling is a sense of hurt at being excluded from my community for nothing more than having a Jewish symbol," she said. "It was truly nothing more and nothing less than that."
Shoshany Anderson said a Dyke March organizer first questioned her about her flag shortly after the march kicked off from its starting point at 26th Street and Lawndale Avenue.
"One of the organizers said, 'Is that an Israeli flag? Because we don't allow imperialist flags here.' I said, 'No, it's a Jewish Pride Flag.' and [the organizer] said 'OK,'" she said. The exchange made Shoshany Anderson feel confused and uncomfortable, but she continued to march without incident, until later in the afternoon when the marchers arrived at the park and began a rally and celebration with music and food.
At the park, she said a Dyke March organizer chanted "Viva La Palestina" in response to seeing her flag, and later two march participants, one carrying a Palestinian flag, confronted her about her flag.
"They started yelling and they swore and they said, 'You have an Israeli flag here and it's not OK.' I said no, it's not an Israeli Flag, it is the Star of David, the symbol of Judaism," she said. It didn't feel like they wanted to have a conversation with her, she added, "so I just walked away."
Shoshany Anderson said that she decided she would either refuse to engage in an argument or simply walk away if someone confronted her again. In contrast, Grauer opted to talk with the people who opposed their flags. The women got separated at one point in the afternoon, and Shoshany Anderson later received a phone call from Grauer saying Dyke March organizers had kicked her out of the park.
"I felt extremely vulnerable, like if I moved they would come find me and kick me out next," she said. "The only thing I had done was carry this flag. I've seen accounts saying I was tracking down Palestinians and harassing them, and nothing could be further from the truth. I really just wanted to be there, as a Jew—that's all I wanted to do, and I took a lot of care in what I said and what I expressed."
Shosany Anderson and Grauer reunited at the edge of the park, where a Dyke March attendee who identified as Jewish approached them and said she was asking them on behalf of Dyke March to either fold up their flags or leave.
"Her words exactly were: 'This flag looks too much like an Israeli flag, it's triggering people, and it's making them feel unsafe.' Again, I tried to explain, this isn't an Israeli flag," Shoshany Anderson said. "Some people have said I was spouting pro-apartheid rhetoric. But the only time I even said the word Israel was when I said 'This is not an Israeli flag.'"
Chicago Dyke March,
Chicagoist 2 Comments [6/26/2017 9:24:55 PM]
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