February 18, 2013

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to you to address an email sent in a mass blind distribution that raises the question of whether the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) supports the offensive Facebook page, “Queer Support for Israel” (QSI).

As the director of IGLHRC, I want to make clear that IGLHRC deplores the views expressed on QSI. We reject the divisive, anti-Muslim tactics often promoted on QSI of utilizing LGBT rights to excuse or justify actions that intentionally harm, disempower, or demonize the people of Palestine, Iran and other Middle Eastern countries and/or to justify wars aimed at these countries.

On February 15th, someone sent a mass email asking, among other things, why IGLHRC would promote its work on the QSI Facebook page and why IGLHRC would “lend support to an Israeli campaign for a war with Iran.” This was in response to a Facebook post by a new IGLHRC employee stating that IGLHRC has initiatives in Iran.

Posting this remark to QSI was a personal decision. IGLHRC’s policy is to never engage with Islamophobic, racist, nationalistic or other offensive internet sites. When we learned what happened, we took immediate action to remove the post and to reprimand the employee.

Furthermore, we’ve created a new policy to better educate our employees why we do not engage racist views on racist websites, since doing so only serves to fuel Western exceptionalism and anti-Arab/Muslim sentiment.

If you have questions or feedback, please contact Hossein Alizadeh, IGLHRC Regional Program Coordinator: Middle East & North Africa (mena@iglhrc.org), or if you prefer, you can contact me directly (executive_director@iglhrc.org).

Sincerely,

Jessica Stern
Executive Director
International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission