LGBT Center sit-in: weird success, failure & pix.

This evening's sit-in by Queers Against Israeli Occupation and Siegebusters, with support from QFOLC, went oddly unchallenged by the LGBT Center. About 60 people gathered in the lobby to hold the scheduled-then-banned QAIA meeting, since the Center had refused to allow QAIA to rent a room.

The meeting went on for about 90 minutes and broke just about every rule the Center has ever enforced about the lobby: meeting attendees sat on the floor, blocked the flow of traffic (not on purpose, but because there were so many people), spoke and applauded loudly, etc. The Center made absolutely no response -- staff just let the meeting go on. And amazingly, the sky didn't fall as queers discussed controversial topics and organized action.

While the Center was arguably wise to just let the moment pass without escalating (remember that in March they panicked and hired private security goons, ostensibly to protect the Center from the queer protest outside), it doesn't necessarily add up to good news. Instead, it seems like the Center will just go along with whatever pressure it most currently feels.

The LGBTQ community urgently needs the Center actually to stand up for queer space, for openness, for community and accountability. That includes refusing to be bullied into pushing queers out of the Center, making its operations transparent and public, and explicitly affirming that the Center is open to all facets of the community -- not just whenever it's convenient. Nothing like that happened tonight, and the fight goes on.

Here are photos from the sit-in. More will be listed here as we see them posted.
https://picasaweb.google.com/117132485970294538173/QaiaSitInPix#
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150269586599859.376954.716419858

Gay City News:

Critics of Israeli Occupation Occupy Center Lobby

Queer group terming treatment of Palestinians “apartheid” defies ban on its meetings

For tomorrow's LGBT Center Sit-In: the flyer.

Siege Busters statement on exclusion of all Palestine organizing groups

Siege Busters Statement - June 4, 2011
Regarding LGBT Center Exclusion of all Groups Organizing in Support of Palestine

It is with deep disappointment that we, the members of Siege Busters, receive the news that the Executive Committee of the LGBT Community Center has decided to extend the ban of our group to all of those organizing for justice in Palestine. It is clear from the established pattern that this decision reflects capitulation to an exceedingly small number of financially influential donors who have threatened to destroy the Center for renting space to groups who hold an opinion that differs from their own. In response to these threats, the Center has in every instance complied with the demands of this small number of donors by cancelling events, banning groups, and even disallowing an entire category of activism and speech from taking place within the facility.

Of particular concern to Siege Busters with this latest incident of exclusion is the adoption by the Executive Committee of demonizing language. By stating that all groups organizing around the Palestinian liberation struggle were to be banned due to “anti-Semitism in political expression,” the Executive Committee has chosen to promote the characterization of pro-Palestinian activism as hateful and racist. This despite the fact that a large number of the activists banned from the Center are themselves Jewish, and not a single incident of anti-Semitic language or action has been cited by the Executive Committee when this characterization has been challenged.

Gay City News: LGBT Center announces community forum

Gay City News was the source of news about the community forum for most of the groups and individuals (as well as Siegebusters) who protested the Center's actions.

Responding to Israel Flap, LGBT Center Announces Mar. 13 Community Forum
http://www.gaycitynews.com/articles/2011/03/04/gay_city_news/news/doc4d70e596b68b2049621442.txt

Dispute over pro-Palestinian event cancellation continues, Jewish state’s critics plan Mar. 5 protest on W. 13th St.

In the wake of an emotional debate pitting the LGBT Community Center and defenders of Israel against critics of the Jewish state’s treatment of Palestinians living in the territory it controls and other community members concerned about the cancellation of a fundraising party those critics had planned at the West 13th Street facility, the Center is now planning a “Community Forum” on Sunday, March 13 at 5 p.m.
...
The Center’s announcement of the March 13 forum followed by one day failed negotiations between its top staff and representatives of Siege Busters about the possibility of holding a town hall meeting the evening of March 5 at the time the IAW fundraiser had initially been planned.

Siegebusters rejects a Center-controlled forum... and the Center announces a forum

According to Siegebusters reps: on March 3rd, Siegebusters met with Glennda Testone. Hoping to let the Center back out of its corner, Siegebusters reps said they would be amenable to a community forum rather than the Israeli Apartheid Week fundraiser they'd planned. Their terms: that they would plan the agenda, that the event would be open to the media, and that it would still be a fundraiser.

Testone was not agreeable to those terms. Reportedly, she said that the Center would have to control the content, no media would be allowed in because that violated the "folksy way" of the Center, and that fundraising could happen, but not as the overt intent of the event.

With no resolution in sight, plans for protest at the LGBT Center (not organized by Siegebusters) went forward. The next day, Gay City News ran an announcement of the Center's plan to hold a public forum. True to Testone's word, the Center forum was planned without input from Siegebusters, the individuals and groups involved in organizing the protest, or those who had written to the Center to object to everything that had happened so far.

LGBT Center cancels "Israeli Apartheid Week" fundraiser, expels Siegebusters

Below is the press release from March 1, 2011, describing the LGBT Center's act to cancel Siegebusters' fundraiser party, and ban Siegebusters from meeting at the Center. (From http://newyork.apartheidweek.org/en/pr-lgbt-center-3-1-11.)

The release includes statements from queer groups, queer anti-Occupation groups and anti-Occupation groups that are heavily queer even if not directly queer-identified.

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