Discussion on LGBTQ Rights in Gaza

Can you be gay in Gaza?

Yes, you can.

Really?

Yes, you can.

And live?

Absolutely, you can.

You know what? It's even more offensive because you

are saying-

I'm just asking 'cause I've heard different...

I've read-

You can be gays in Gaza.

Really?

I travel the Middle East.

Is there a gay bar in Gaza?

This is what I do- ... this is what I do for a living.

The Muslim community feel threatened and feel offended, and they are

underrepresented in the media and underrepresented in political

avenues. You never invite them here on these

issues.

Never invite them here? You're here.

On these issues.

Reza here is here.

On these-

They're, they're here all the time.

On these issues. But-

What do you mean on these issues?

I mean, I have been here-

I'm the one who says, "I wanna stop talking about this." I can't

because things happen in the news.

Reza was invited to talk about something else. It was August 1st.

Well, Reza's been here a lot.

I mean... and I'm happy that he's been here, and I've been here,

and I'm so happy

to be invited here. However, if you want to have a serious conversation

about

Islam, and I'm sorry to tell you this, Bill-

Every time I say something you don't like-

Have a con-

... it's not a serious conversation or I'm a bigot. I'm sorry.

In your world-

You can't compare-

... either I say exactly what you want me to

say-

No, no

... or else I'm a bigot.

Look, I'm-

And that just doesn't work for me.

If you... look, if you're-

My father was Muslim. He was Sufi. You don't even know the difference between

Sufi, Sunni, Shafi'i, Sunni, Hanbali.

Yeah, I do.

You don't.

I, well-

For you, you are, we are all jihadists, and it's not true.

I know, I know that in many places in the world

if you left your religion,

what would happen?

Guess what? Let me tell you something.

It would be okay.

Many people in Tunisia-

You could walk inside, you could walk inside a door in Gaza-

Many pe-

... and say, "You know what? I'm a Presbyterian today."

Maybe not in Gaza, to be honest. But you can do it in Jordan.

You can do it in Lebanon. The majority of...

you're blaming the majority-

I'm just-

... for the, for the criminal acts of a minority.

It, it, okay. All right.

Unfortunately, the majority are disorganized-

All right

... and there's a small minority-

All right

... that are well organized-

I, I got, I have to move, I have to-

... and they're controlling the narrative.

I have to move on. Um-

I'm, I'm happy that you move on, but I'm telling you-

Okay

... there's some people that lose- If you would have said some of the things

that

you would have said about African Americans and about Jews,

you would be fired.

But African Americans and Jews-

... don't belong to a religion that wanted

to kill Sal-

Jews, they do

... wanted to kill Salman Rushdie for writing

a book, if we wanna get back to

the free speech issue. So, I'm sorry, that's called false equivalency.

Okay. When Salman-

Not all religions are alike.

No, no. Um-

I have to move on