Are you interested in earning $1 million? A watchdog organization has announced a provocative $1 million offer to any US LGBTQ advocacy group willing to host a gay pride parade in Gaza or the West Bank, Fox News reported. The New Tolerance Campaign (NTC) says the initiative is designed to be a "wake-up call" to groups like "Queers for Palestine" that have emerged since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Gregory T. Angelo, president of NTC and former president of Log Cabin Republicans, told Fox News Digital, "I don't want people to just shrug off this campaign as some kind of publicity stunt or something that is supposed to be comical. It actually is a legitimate offer."
The campaign aims to highlight the stark contrast in LGBTQ rights between Israel and Palestinian territories, where homosexuality remains deeply taboo and LGBTQ individuals often face severe persecution.
"This campaign emerged to call out these purported advocates of LGBT equality and put our money where their mouths are," Angelo continued. He added that the offer could either expose the challenging conditions for LGBTQ people in Palestinian territories or potentially serve as a "breakthrough moment for pluralism and peace in the Middle East."
NTC plans to promote the campaign using mobile billboards near Columbia University, the Human Rights Campaign headquarters in Washington, DC, and UCLA. The organization has also set up a system for Americans to directly message leaders of prominent LGBTQ rights groups, encouraging them to advocate for LGBTQ rights in Palestinian territories and Arab countries.
Angelo criticized what he sees as a tendency on the left to equate all forms of oppression, telling Fox News, "On the left in the United States, all oppression is the same oppression. And I think the left, quite to their disservice, lumps everything from racial discrimination to sexual orientation discrimination to gender discrimination to Islamophobia, all under the same umbrella. That's certainly not the case."
He contrasted the legal protections and social acceptance for LGBTQ individuals in the US with the situation in Palestinian territories, where same-sex marriage is not recognized and there are no employment protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The campaign comes against a backdrop of ongoing tension in the region. In 2019, Palestinian Authority police banned a gay and transgender rights group from holding events in the West Bank and threatened to arrest participants. Meanwhile, Israel has actively promoted its tolerance of LGBTQ issues, with Tel Aviv known as a popular destination for gay and lesbian travelers, especially during the time of the annual parade.
The New Tolerance Campaign describes itself as a "watchdog organization mobilizing Americans to confront intolerance double-standards by establishment institutions, civil rights groups, universities, and socially-conscious brands." Its website states that "NTC action campaigns empower ordinary Americans to hold accountable self-proclaimed arbiters of tolerance when they betray their own stated values."
