There is no reason to think I’d be discussing this, the latest in North American antisemitism, above all others, if it were not for its too-perfect overlap with another of my beats: the state of heterosexuality today. Or in this case, the absolute state of it.

A gay male politician, Democratic congressional candidate and California state senator Scott Wiener, was mobbed at a trans parade he says he’s attended every year since 2004, accused of, among other things, not being “queer.” The ringleader (though seemingly not the omnicauser who yelled, “You stopped being queer the moment you started supporting Israel, you piece of shit”), the self-appointed saviour of the queers, is one of those assigned-male-at-birth men who dates women. Straight dude, as they’re also known. An anti-YIMBY activist-poster, but sex coach by trade, Dimitry Yakoushkin was attending the parade in his capacities as an ally, in the derogatory sense. He was there to make the event about himself and his own concerns. What percent of those are Palestinian suffering as versus opposition to high-rise apartment complexes I cannot say. Just the guy to gatekeep queerness! 

Andrew Sullivan (a pundit I once interned for), among others, flagged the absurdity. A gay man has lost his “queer” card, and at the behest of a hetero rabble-rouser. But the funniest part is the sort of straight person Yakoushkin is, or at least was in 2015 when he authored a Medium post about his Tinder usage:

“I’m used to dating gay or queer women—they don’t fit into the straight social paradigm, so they’re more likely to make decisions based on their desire rather than stick to a socially acceptable plan of not leading with sexuality.”

Queer, fine, this could mean bisexual. It could mean anything! (More on that in a moment). But “gay,” if words have meanings, would seem like a name for women who aren’t on the hunt for a Dimitry. A man so down-with-the-queer-community that he… dates lesbians. Good to know!

2015 was a while ago, and for all I know his sexuality has since evolved. But we are not in the realm of sexuality. Rather, we’re in the realm of “not gay as in happy but queer as in Free Palestine.”

In a video that Yakoushkin posted to Instagram, he begs for Wiener’s attention, pleading of him to Do Better on Gaza, while the band of omnicausers accompanying him chant, in the background, “We fucking hate you.” Yakoushkin, a prolific social media user, is adamant that he is no antisemite. It’s just that this one politician, who happens to be Jewish and pro-Palestine, and a Democrat, represents right-wing Zionism and rapacious landlords, or something.

And so, in the spirit of classic Onion headline, “Man finally put in charge of struggling feminist movement” and (my previous homage) “German gentile finally put in charge of struggling Jewish studies program,” we........

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