In its first pride parade, Ashdod comes out of the closet

Santiago Benjamin Hausz is a 17-year-old Hungarian immigrant living in Ashdod. Arriving in the southern city at the age of 11, Santi, as he likes to be called, had plenty of adjustment hurdles of deal with. One was learning Hebrew. Another was the fact that Santi is transgender.

This Friday, June 21, Santi plans to put any last remnants of his struggles behind him as he steps to a podium and announces the start of Ashdod?s first-ever gay pride parade, planned and executed by the teen and a contingent of his young friends.

Ashdod, a major Israeli port city, is a southern marvel of municipal planning, a true Mediterranean town of proud city squares and neat parks culminating in a breathtaking beachfront. It is also a place of tradition, a city with a tight-knit Haredi population that for decades has been known as a bastion of conservative family values.

It?s true that Ashdod is no Tel Aviv, says Assaf Shtilman, a gay rights activist who served as an adviser to the parade?s planning community. But that?s what makes this parade so special.

?It?s not something we?re trying to change,? he says of the city?s strait-laced nature. ?The Ashdod pride parade is meant to be Ashdodian in nature. It?s made for Ashdodians, it?s built around the theme of Ashdod. It should fit perfectly within the community because it?s made by the community and for the community.?

Along with being the first-ever gay pride march to grace Ashdod?s streets, this parade is the first in Israel to be executed without a single shekel of municipal support. The planning community, a group of 15 locals ranging in age from 14 to 30, drummed up cash from private donors, fundraisers and sympathetic businesses across the country.

For months, the group has met weekly at Aroma caf? in Ashdod?s Sea Mall, discussing their vision, brainstorming methods to gain more money, and breaking down the logistics of such a splashy event for such a sleepy city. They launched a Facebook page that now has more than 1,000 likes. They took detailed minutes. They coordinated with the police. And despite the majority of them being under the age of 18, they have undeniably pulled it off.

?It will be a parade in Ashdod. It?s as simple as that,? says Santi. ?We have a big community in Ashdod and it?s also really fun. I don?t know why we waited.?

But don?t expect a street party with gyrating, be-thonged dancers and floats blasting pop music. This parade, say its organizers, will be a PG-rated affair of balloons and banners, one that fits a city with a diverse, family-centric population.

?Tel Aviv is a city of parties, so the parade is like a carnival. And Jerusalem is a city of protests, so the parade is a protest. I think Ashdod is a city of diversity and it is going to be a very colorful parade, and going to have a lot of happiness. I don?t expect it to be too provocative,? says Dany Zack, a journalist and Ashdod native who is deeply involved with the city?s gay community.

The vast majority of that community, he says, are youth, because most gays who grow up in Ashdod leave for the army or university and then make their way to Tel Aviv, never to come back.

?Until I was 18 I thought I was the only gay in Ashdod,? says Zack, who finally tapped into a semi-underground community of local homosexuals courtesy of an online chat room. ?I grew up in a very tough era when people didn?t even use the words ?gay? and ?straight,? they used the words ?gay? and ?normal? ?. It was nine degrees of hell.?

Nowadays, thanks to the Israel Gay Youth Organization, known in English by the acronym IGY, things are a bit easier for Israeli kids looking to come out of the closet. And Ashdod, despite being only the fifth-largest city in Israel, is home to IGY?s biggest chapter.

?There is a community here,? Santi says. ?The problem in Ashdod is that we are not connected. There are little groups who are separated and I think the parade will bring us together.?

Togetherness is exactly what Shtilman is hoping for. Despite some media rumblings to the contrary, the parade?s organizers insist that the city of Ashdod, including its police force and even its religious sector, have been supportive of the march. Friday?s gathering, he says, may be just the ticket to energize the gay adults of Ashdod to show the same commitment to community that their younger peers have done.

?It?s true that parades are a party for a day, but it does bring people together,? Shtilman says. ?People create connections and they socialize and they build community events. Parades can be a catalyst for activities throughout the year.?

Zack sees an even greater benefit to a citywide showing of pride: a brightly colored dose of courage for the many gay teens in Ashdod who are still hovering behind the closet door.

?Throughout history, after every gay pride parade in the world, there are many coming outs. It raises confidence. It makes people feel like they?re not alone in the world,? he says.

The celebrations will begin at 10 a.m. with a ?Happening? of booths and speakers, modeled after the Gan Meir festivities that occur in Tel Aviv each year the morning of that city?s pride parade. Representatives from Meretz, Likud and Labor are all confirmed to speak. Santi, who also appeared on stage at this year?s Tel Aviv Happening, will appear at the podium and officially launch the parade into the streets.

The marchers, whom organizers estimate will number around 1,000, will leave from City Hall plaza and make their way to Kikar Mifarsiot, Ashdod?s iconic traffic circle marked by sculptures of several proud ships? hulls. They will then turn down Moshe Dayan Street and end their march at the beach. The parade is projected to reach the seashore at about 2 p.m., allowing out-of-town participants two hours to enjoy the surf and sand before the last bus departs Ashdod before Shabbat.

The owners of Zeh Pub, a swanky waterfront watering hole, are sponsoring a post-march party, and eager swimmers can even take advantage of a free two-hour bag check so they can shed their street clothes and go for a dip.

Certainly, Shtilman says, the parade will be fun. But he is also hoping that for members of the Ashdod community, particularly those who may be homophobic or simply unfamiliar with gays, it will also be a bit of a wake-up call.

?It?s going to show them something that they haven?t seen in a long time ??gay people,? he says. ?And it?s going to show them how incredibly unfrightening we are. How incredibly easygoing we are, and how we are happy and contributing members of society. And for the first time,? he says of the citizens of Ashdod, ?it?s going to show them something that they can participate in, too.?

Source: http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-its-first-pride-parade-ashdod-comes-out-of-the-closet/

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