Silence is indeed not an option
BY ELLE FLANDERS | As a Jewish member of the LGBTQ+ community, I agree with Ethan Felson: “Silence is not an option.” I have never been silent, mind you, and while it’s not easy to raise your voice, especially with views that are counter to the mainstream, I have been taught all my life in one form or another, that Silence = Death.
I do think, however, that it is crucial to fill in some of the gaping silences Mr. Felson’s article leaves out, because it is in these holes that we can find the necessary empathy that could allow us to get past the binary that only results in ongoing conflict and mass killing.
Empathy, by its very definition, is not a one-way street. We cannot have true empathy for one and not another and as queers, if we know one thing it is that embracing difference is key to overcoming oppression.
I myself am a child of Zionists who immigrated to Israel. I grew up in Jerusalem. I came out in Israel at a time when there was no visible LGBTQ community to speak of.
