Why does the Queer Community care about Palestine?

This was a question asked on Reddit recently which has since been deleted, that asked why Queer people cared about Palestine when it seemingly didn't affect us, with the usual argument that the political ideology of Palestinian leadership doesn't align with the rights of Queer people. This post is a response to that question.

Justice cannot be something that is afforded only to the people you think are "worthy" such a stance breeds complacency and empowers fascism and oppression of people by their own governments. If justice is only served to people deemed "worthy" then the definition of worthy is modified until it eventually amounts to null and is served to none.

Injustice should not be tolerated, even if it's perpetrated against people you don't agree with, or feel no connection to, or even people who hate you. The way someone treats others is how they will eventually treat you, and if you don't oppose the mistreatment of others out of the belief that "as long as it's not me I don't care" then you have no defence when it is eventually turned on you.

The novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a warning as to the means by which totalitarian governments come to power, how they weaponise hate, how they dehumanise people, and how they place themselves beyond criticism. There's a scene in it that epitomises this stance with the famous line where Winston begs in Room 101 not to have his face devoured by rats screaming "Do it to Julia" - his outspoken criticism of Big Brother and his spirit is broken by the threat of brutality, to the point of complacency; Winston is led to tolerate heinous acts so long as they are committed against someone else not him.

Queer people understand intimately that the government of the day being on our side isn't something we can count on remaining the case, and the older you get, not because of age but simply by living long enough to witness it, the more you will witness the political pendulum swing back and forth. Within living memory gay rights have been fought for and won, enshrined in law, repealed and lost again, and fought for all over again. Complacency is not something we can afford, no foothold of oppression should be tolerated regardless of who the focus is, that's why the community takes this stance, because this is about Palestine but it is also about much more than that.

Queer people also understand the divergence between people and countries, the politicians who lead countries are not always representative of their people, arguably there is no democracy on Earth that can actually claim to truly represent its people. Even in countries like Greece, the birthplace of Democracy whose language the word itself is derived from, even in the UK where sits the Mother of All Parliaments that forms the basis of most western political systems as they exist today, and even in the US where the extent to which gerrymandering has perverted the vote so far that the person with the most votes still loses the election, with some 3 million more people voting for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in 2016 and she still lost because of the antiquated Electoral College system.

The Queer community has a long history of surviving in countries where the political establishment is not only opposed, but actively oppresses our community, which is still the case today in many countries, and even in the US and the UK there are political factions fundamentally opposed to our community that actively seek legislation to curb our rights and roll back the progress we have fought for. The Political leadership of Gaza does not represent the entirety of the Palestinian people, it represents the most ardent, most vocal, and visible faction which during a time of open conflict will always be those who fight as is the case in any country.  The leadership of Gaza does not ally itself with the Queer community and actively oppresses it, this isn't excusable, support for the Palestinian people is not contingent on agreeing with their leadership though, I don't even agree with the leadership of my own country, I'd still be incredibly vocal and opposed to genocide if it were being committed here too.

Closer to home the boundaries of Europe are threatened, again by an oppressive force that does not represent all of the people that it claims to. Domestic political opposition to it is oppressed, imprisoned, and widely believed to have been assassinated. Even the UK's political position on this matter can seem paradoxical, seemingly taking the side of the oppressed at the edges of Europe but taking the side of the oppressors in the Middle East, two sides that are diametrically opposed and a political position that amounts to nothing more than hypocrisy. As I said however as Queer people we are used to having governments that do not represent us, something that many minorities can relate to, the establishment is there to preserve the status quo, not to protect you, and even those in the straight community ironically during the pandemic of all times got a taste of what it's like to be opposed to the establishment and its attempts to curb your civil liberties which for many this was the first time in their lives they found themselves on the other side and look how it turned out.

Palestine is a barometer, which side you fall on when it comes to this conflict indicates how susceptible you are to fascist rule. Oppose this conflict and the oppression of the Palestinian people and there is still hope for you. Support this conflict and the oppression of the Palestinian people and you support oppression outright, and there is no hope for you.

For those that argue this is false equivalence, it is not. Oppression is not a rainbow or a scale, it is binary, it is or it is not. There is no grey area, there is no two sides in this debate. Genocide can never be justified and any attempt to redefine the term amounts to nothing more than enabling injustice. Bloodlust, revenge, and retribution are weapons used by fascists to emotionally manipulate people into complacency, to tolerate heinous acts perpetrated against others because "they deserve it" and deny justice because they "are not worthy" - if justice is only served to people deemed "worthy" then the definition of worthy is modified until it eventually amounts to null and is served to none.