Don’t Be Fooled By The Uproar Over Dem Getting Hounded Out of Trans March

People should not be taking the wrong message from the incident in which California State Senator Scott Wiener (D) was hounded and heckled at a march in support of trans people over the Gaza issue.

State Sen. Wiener was chased out of San Francisco’s annual Trans March this past weekend by hecklers who shouted things like “I think your policy on the genocide is terrible!” and “We f*cking hate you!”

One heckler shouted “You stopped being queer the moment you started supporting Israel!”

But Wiener — who is gay and Jewish — is a strong LGBTQ+ ally who has also spoken out against Israel over what he has called the “genocide” of Palestinians.

On Monday morning’s edition of MS NOW’s Morning Joe, Wiener made some really important points about the incident, pointing out that the people in the video were “not representative of most attendees at that event, or most people in the trans community” and defending his record on Gaza:

Brzezinski followed up by asking about the “sharpness” around the Israel issue among liberals, and Wiener set the record straight about his own record:

MS NOW’S MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Yes, and what do you think is happening here with, I mean, in Gaza, where a pro-trans rally would never happen? What’s happening to the issues that liberals champion as it pertains to this sharpness now in terms of support for Israel?

How do you explain it?

STATE SENATOR SCOTT WIENER (D-CA): Well, yes, I mean, I’ve been very — I’m Jewish and Israel is home to half of all Jews on the planet, and it matters to Jews globally. And the Israeli government is an abomination. And I’ve been very clear that I believe that the Israeli government has committed genocide in Gaza and that I do not support U.S. funding for the Israeli military. I’m not going to support U.S. funding for the destruction of Palestinian communities. And I support trans people. So, you know, I think I try to take a pro-human approach.

People should be able to live and thrive, not be killed, not be bombed, and be able to live in peace. That’s what I want. And I think it’s what most Democrats want.

MS NOW’S MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Yes, and what do you think is happening here with, I mean, in Gaza, where a pro-trans rally would never happen? What’s happening to the issues that liberals champion as it pertains to this sharpness now in terms of support for Israel?

How do you explain it?

STATE SENATOR SCOTT WIENER (D-CA): Well, yes, I mean, I’ve been very — I’m Jewish and Israel is home to half of all Jews on the planet, and it matters to Jews globally. And the Israeli government is an abomination. And I’ve been very clear that I believe that the Israeli government has committed genocide in Gaza and that I do not support U.S. funding for the Israeli military. I’m not going to support U.S. funding for the destruction of Palestinian communities. And I support trans people. So, you know, I think I try to take a pro-human approach.

People should be able to live and thrive, not be killed, not be bombed, and be able to live in peace. That’s what I want. And I think it’s what most Democrats want.

There are a few ways in which this incident is being misused, one of which is to demonstrate the limits of allyship. Mika Brzezinski alluded to this when she tried to raise an irony about a trans march in Gaza. It’s a popular trope to deride liberals for standing up for people in countries and cultures that conflict with liberal values.

But Wiener torpedoes that notion by standing by his opposition to the killing in Gaza, and by noting that this wasn’t an entire community; it was a handful of activists who are openly campaigning for his opponent. He made the wise choice to leave and not give the conflagration more oxygen.

Now those activists have every right to their opinions — they, like the ones who protested President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — have the right to prefer a candidate who is more anti-Israel than the people they’re protesting. There’s no requirement for wisdom in free speech.

They’re not entitled to physical contact.

There are some who would love to make this reflect poorly on trans people and trans allies — good for Wiener that he did not allow that.

And there are some who portray Wiener’s denunciation of Israel as a flip-flop. Don’t be fooled. The accusation stems from a candidate forum where he didn’t accuse Israel of “genocide” in one of those dopey “raise your hand”/Yes or No paddle questions. If it was me, I’d be like “Do you also have a paddle with a middle finger on it?”

But a few days later, he explained his hesitancy:

STATE SENATOR SCOTT WIENER (D-CA): For those of you who saw the debate clip from last week, I want to clarify that I do believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. And I want explain why I hesitated at the debate.

For the past two years, I have harshly opposed Israel’s escalations in Gaza, and I’ve used phrases like total destruction and catastrophic levels of death and moral stain, but I haven’t used the word genocide. I want to explain why. As a Jew, I am deeply aware that the word genocide was created in the wake of the Holocaust, which was the industrial extermination of six million Jews.

For many Jews, associating the word Genocide with the Jewish state of Israel is deeply painful and, frankly, traumatic.

But despite that pain and that trauma We all have eyes, and we see the absolute devastation and catastrophic death toll in Gaza inflicted by the Israeli government.

And we all have ears, and hear the genocidal statements by certain senior members of the Israeli Government. And to me, the Israeli has tried to destroy Gaza and to push Palestinians out, and that qualifies as genocide.

I think Wiener was right in the first place — whatever you want to call the atrocities in Gaza, “genocide” carries connotations that Jews have every right to resist. It’s not a simple matter of dictionary definitions.

Scott Wiener wasn’t fooled by the actions of a few people in an immense community, and neither should you be.

Watch above via MS NOW’s Morning Joe.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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