The organisers are hoping that Jerusalem WorldPride, to take place from Aug. 6. to 12. will be a “massive demonstration of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) pride and human rights” and an opportunity to make a “global statement of pride and tolerance,” the event’s website states.
The event was due to be held in 2005 but was postponed until this year following a massive protest sparked by American pastor Rev. Leo Giovinetti which resulted in petitions being distributed and signed by numerous members of the Knesset and many representatives from Christian and orthodox Jewish faith communities.
One Christian who is upset by the announcement over plans by the activists once again to stage a massive ‘gay pride’ festival in the Holy City, is former homosexual and member of Rev. Giovinetti’s San Diego church, James Hartline.
He said that Jerusalem represents the very foundation of his faith and that he cannot understand “why anyone would want to engage in sodomy and pornography at the holy sites of our religious heritage”.Hartline, who had informed Rev. Giovinetti of the festival last year, said that the other members in his congregation are heartbroken by the news of the latest Jerusalem WorldPride event.
He added that it was a “cruel display” for the “hurt and wounded” citizens of Israel to have to see “nearly naked homosexuals and pornographers march through the city”.
Hagai El-Ad, one of the organisers for this year’s WorldPride event, explained why it had to take place in Jerusalem.
"The struggle for acceptance and pride is particularly pointed in Jerusalem, a city that is home to three of the world´s great religions. The greatest traditions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism affirm the dignity of human beings and our creation in the divine image.
“Yet these same faiths have often been the source of hostility and intolerance to LGBT people. WorldPride 2006 will bring thousands of us to Jerusalem to confront preconception with reality, prejudice with an opportunity for understanding, in a way that will capture the attention of the world."
Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of Liberty University and senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, said that homosexuality is a chosen lifestyle and that Christians must love homosexuals despite disagreeing with this lifestyle.
He cautioned, however, that El-Ad and the other homosexual activists are making a mistake in staging their event in Jerusalem as some kind of “in-your-face statement to Christianity and Jews”.
Rev. Falwell warned that continuing on to stage the event in the Holy City “will hurt their cause internationally”.
