{"id":85777,"date":"2026-04-27T13:01:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/85777\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T13:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:01:17","slug":"the-government-of-israel-promoted-a-pride-event-and-the-right-flipped-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/85777\/","title":{"rendered":"The government of Israel promoted a Pride Event, and the right flipped out."},"content":{"rendered":"

The MAGA world is increasingly split over its feelings toward Israel. On one hand, you have many evangelical leaders who love Israel because they see its existence as a critical component of the second coming of Christ. On the other hand, you have influential voices on the right, like Tucker Carlson, decrying Christian Zionism as \u201ca brain virus\u201d and \u201cdangerous heresy.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

But there\u2019s one thing everyone can agree upon. Anything LGBTQ+ is really bad.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

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Last week, the government of Israel\u2019s social media account promoted an event called Pride Land, \u201cthe biggest LGBTQ+ festival ever in the Middle East.\u201d As might be expected, the right flipped out. <\/p>\n

\u201cWickedness like this is why Christians take issue with any thought of standing shoulder with & celebrating the modern state of Israel,\u201d pastor Tom Ascol posted on X<\/a>. (Ascol, who delivered the invocation at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a>\u2018 (R) second inauguration, had defended the Uganda law calling for the death penalty for gay people<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

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Other infuriated right-wing Christians piled on. The Israeli government was already getting slammed by evangelicals for an image of an Israeli soldier in Lebanon desecrating a crucifix in the front yard of a family that had been forced to flee their home.<\/a> (The government said that the soldier would be punished for his actions.)<\/p>\n

As it turns out, the event, which is billed as \u201cfour days of nonstop celebration of community and connection,\u201d is taking place at a spot on the Dead Sea traditionally associated with the site of Sodom and Gomorrah, fueling the right\u2019s outrage and providing a handy comparison.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas there a Pride parade in the Sodom & Gomorah part of the Holy Land?\u201d read one post. \u201cIsraeli gov\u2019t desecrates Holy Land with massive LGBT \u2018pride\u2019 event,\u201d read another. \u201cFrom the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah, we\u2019re reminded once again why Pride is a deadly sin. This is a mockery of God,\u201d was another comment. <\/p>\n

In fact, the Israeli government is not responsible for the event, which is separate from Tel Aviv Pride. Tel Aviv Pride is a huge event that was canceled last year<\/a> out of concern about retaliation from Iran following Israeli military strikes. <\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t stop the critics from blaming the Israeli government for even allowing the event, surfacing a simmering split between pro-Zionists and anti-Zionists on the right. \u201cThis is why the American soldiers had to die for Israel so they can enjoy the Alphabet parade,\u201d one post complained.<\/p>\n

However, Israel had problems with a more secular audience as well. Although Israel has a reputation for being LGBTQ+-friendly, LGBTQ+ critics of Israel\u2019s occupation of Gaza<\/a> say that doesn\u2019t extend to Palestinians who live there. Opponents of Israel\u2019s policy say that efforts to use LGBTQ rights to promote an image of Israel as a progressive society amount to pinkwashing. <\/a><\/p>\n

Promoting Pride Land would serve to boost Israel\u2019s flagging tourism economy, which is reeling because of the war with Iran and Gaza<\/a>. Ironically, prior to the announcement of the Pride Land event, the government had been pinning its hopes for a rebound at least in part on American evangelicals traveling to the Holy Land. <\/p>\n

Subscribe to the\u00a0LGBTQ Nation newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The MAGA world is increasingly split over its feelings toward Israel. On one hand, you have many evangelical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1160,30598,37,7616,30599,30600,30601],"class_list":{"0":"post-85777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-commentary","9":"tag-conservative-evangelicals","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-post","12":"tag-pride-land","13":"tag-tel-aviv-pride","14":"tag-tom-ascol"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116476804069165677","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}