Kerryn Phelps and wife Jackie Stricker-Phelps join chorus of concerned gay Jews over Mardi Gras letter

Kerryn Phelps and Jackie Stricker-Phelps accuse organisers of ‘advocating for a culture where they would not last five minutes’, expressing dismay at an open letter calling for a Gaza ceasefire.

Kerryn Phelps and Jackie Stricker-Phelps speaking out about a letter sent from the Mardi Gras chief executive. Picture: John Feder

Veteran gay rights campaigners Kerryn Phelps and Jackie Stricker-Phelps have joined a chorus of members of the LGBTIQA+ Jewish community expressing dismay at an open letter on the Israel-Hamas war issued by the chief executive of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

The couple, who led the marriage equality movement in Australia, say the conduct of Mardi Gras leadership has made them feel marginalised, after Dayenu – a key body representing Sydney’s gay Jewish community on Thursday warned that it was reconsidering participating in this year’s famous event due to concerns over the safety of its members.

Dr Phelps, a GP and former AMA president and independent federal MP, said she had contacted Mardi Gras organisers after chief executive Gil Beckwith last month released an open letter to Anthony Albanese calling for “an immediate and enduring ceasefire in Gaza.”

“I was really not satisfied with the response,” said Dr Phelps, who converted to Reform Judaism more than 20 years ago after committing to her relationship with now wife Ms Stricker-Phelps, who was born Jewish and had many family members killed in the Holocaust.

“The statement was silent on the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, and its ­impact on Israel, and on the Australian Jewish community. They only spoke of violence in Gaza.

“There was no statement about Hamas, or the treatment of the LGBT+ community in Gaza, or in Palestinian culture.

“I have yet to see a statement from Sydney Mardi Gras about life for LGBTIQ people in Iran, or Saudi Arabia, or Yemen or ­Afghanistan.

“Where are the statements about other conflicts, and where are the statements about countries where the LGBT+ community risks the death penalty, persecution, and violence?

“The best that can be said about this statement is that it is well-meaning but highly selective. As a humanitarian, I understand the distress about all people affected by the October 7 attacks and its ­aftermath. Realistically, there can be no lasting ceasefire unless all hostages are safely returned, and Hamas is disarmed.”

Ms Stricker-Phelps said the letter mentioned violence only in Gaza, making no mention of the October 7 attack on Israel.

“They are advocating for a culture where they would not last five minutes as an out and proud gay or lesbian person. The Israeli gay and lesbian community, by contrast, has the support of their government and culture, so it is a false equivalence,” she said.

“I have fought hard for equality for the LGBT+ community for over 20 years, and am shocked at the statement by Mardi Gras, which further marginalises the Jewish gay and lesbian community. It is at best misguided, and at worst reckless.”

Mardi Gras organisers did not respond to a request for comment.

New body formed to fight ‘threats and exclusion’

Queer Israeli woman Ofra Ronen, who has lived in Australia since 2003, founded new national group “Jewish-Israeli Pride Australia” late last year, “out of the need to counter the threats and exclusions that LGBTQI Jews face in online and offline spaces, especially from those who deny Israel’s right to exist.”

“It is in my opinion a much bigger issue than do we feel safe to go to Mardi Gras,” Ms Ronen said. “We haven’t felt safe since October.”

Pro-Israel protesters are seen at the Israel Atrocities event at Prince Alfred Park, Surry Hills in Sydney on December 17. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone

Sydney-based Ms Ronen said she had been working with the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies on ways to ensure the safety and wellbeing of queer Jews during Mardi Gras celebrations, which take place during February and March, as well as in the LGBTIQA+ community more broadly.

She said a Melbourne cell of JIPA was working with Victoria’s Pride Centre to discuss concerns over the safety of Jewish community members at the upcoming Midsumma festival.

Lonely on the Left

Academic, filmmaker and gay man Adam Lippmann said he formerly saw himself as part of a community on the radical left, which proudly describes itself as “anti-capitalism” and “ruthlessly progressive”.

But his views as a proudly Zionist Jew have put him into conflict with people he once regarded as friends.

“One is pro-Yemen and pro-jetski protests against Israeli shipping. Another, the day news of the October 7 attack broke in Australia, posted online: ‘decolonisation was never going to be pretty’,” Mr Lippmann said.

“I have received the most violently terrorist apologist stances from people, and these are all queer people.

“The queer community is small. It’s very tight-knit, and it is otherwise warm, inclusive, protective … These are environments where you’re not just tolerated, you’re embraced.

“But here, in this context, otherwise prideful and virtuous intersectionality fails to admit proudly Zionist Jews. It’s an interesting one, because Zionists have somehow become a pariah. Zionism is just a recognition of the Jewish right to self-determination in our ancestral lands. That’s it. If you believe that Jews should have a state, you’re a Zionist. I don’t understand at what point what is essentially the most successful decolonisation project in the world, how that became vilified — and Israel is not even an ethnostate, it’s a pluralistic, secular democracy.”

Protesters are seen during a Pro-Palestine demonstration at Hyde Park in Sydney on December 23. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone

 ‘Forced to choose between two sides of my identity’

Fellow Jewish gay man Josh Roth lives near central Sydney, close to an area which has become home to anti-Israel protests since October.

“For almost three months, at least once a week, I have had to sit in my apartment and hear genocidal calls for the end of Israel and the Jewish people,” he said.

Mr Roth said he usually attended Mardi Gras with a group of gay and straight friends.

“My straight friends come to support me as an LGBT person; and in keeping with that support, they will not attend this year to support me as a Jewish person,” he said.

“I will not be boycotting Mardi Gras this year just because I am deeply ashamed of the organisation. I will be boycotting it because I am scared. The hatred for Jews and Israel has trickled into every corner of society, and organisations like Mardi Gras are to blame by endorsing this behaviour.

“Instead, as this year’s parade proceeds below my apartment, I will fly my Israeli flags and sadly not my rainbow flag. The Mardi Gras organisers have forced me to choose between two sides of my identity — how is that in line with what they claim to represent?”

Executive director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, Colin Rubenstein. Picture: SUPPLIED

Mardi Gras stance ‘defies comprehension’

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said: “The Mardi Gras committee’s failure to name, let alone condemn, proscribed terrorist entity Hamas — which started this war on October 7 in perpetrating its savage massacre and is one of the most extreme anti-LGBTQI organisations in the world — and instead focus mainly on Israel, one of the most LGBTQI friendly countries in the world — defies comprehension and is deeply disappointing.”

“So too is the committee’s apparent failure to realise that calling for an immediate ceasefire will ensure Hamas survives and allow it to repeat the appalling mass rapes, torture, murders and kidnappings ‘again and again’ as it has promised to do, inflicting its brutality not only on Israelis but also ensuring continuing misery for Gaza’s civilians,” Dr Rubenstein said.