A famous LGBTQ bookshop in Toronto held an anti-Israel history seminar hosted by two drag queens, where the terrorist group Hamas was glorified.
Glad Day Bookshop, the self-proclaimed “oldest queer bookstore in the world,” held an event on May 30 titled “History With a Drag Queen: Zio No You Better Don’t! A History of Palestine.”
The evening event was hosted by two drag queens— Victoria Bucholtz, better known as Karla Marx, a history professor and stand-up comedian, and Selena Vyle, a podcaster.
For $15, attendees joined Bucholtz and Vyle for an “educational evening of drag and history” where the duo would talk about the Israel-Hamas war and the notable events leading up to the conflict, “from the mouths of informed drag queens.”
An attendee of the event shared a photo with journalist Adam Zivo depicting one of the drag queens talking to an audience with the emblem of Hamas projected in the background.
Since the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel, many LGBTQ activist organizations have expressed their opposition to Israel and their support for Palestine. Capital Pride, for example accused Israel of committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip and expressed support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions initiative against Israel.
The “queers for Palestine” movement has gained momentum despite the fact that Gaza is one of the worst countries in the world for LGBTQ rights, ranked 158th out of 197 on Equaldex’s equality index.
In October 2022, a gay Palestinian man, Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, was decapitated in the West Bank because of his homosexuality after years of fearing for his life.
According to a 2023 Gallup poll, only four per cent of people in the “Palestinian Territories” agreed that their local area is a “good place” for gay and lesbian people, in stark contrast with the much higher levels of support in Western countries.
On Vyle’s Instagram page, he shared a story asserting that Hamas had not raped any Israeli women during the October 7 attack, despite the claim being disproven.
Bucholtz gained notoriety for being a left-wing university educator while openly moonlighting as a drag queen and comedian.
Bucholtz held a meeting with Alberta MLA Jennifer Johnson, who accepted the meeting with the drag queen in an effort to make amends for comments she’d made about gender ideology in the province’s education system and be welcomed back into the United Conservative Party.
In the meeting, Bucholtz berated Johnson for refusing to accept her assertion that transgender women are women, denying the MLA’s conciliatory request to agree to disagree.
Despite Bucholtz later releasing a statement condemning Johnson, the MLA for Lacombe—Ponoka was later reinstated to the UCP caucus.