• The Message: Jerusalem World Pride 2006 (WP), a week-long international event, is a unique opportunity to make a global statement of pride and tolerance. The message sent from Jerusalem World Pride will echo worldwide, redefining LGBT identity, faith, and vision. This boundary-crossing event will be a massive demonstration of LGBT pride and human rights. In these times of intolerance and conflict, from the home of three of the world's great religions, we will proclaim that love knows no borders.
  
• The local organizers: Since 1997, the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance (JOH) is the local LGBT community and advocacy organization, working to serve the community -- irrespective of religion, nationality, gender or sexual identity, and to advance social change, promoting tolerance and pluralism. In the space of a few years JOH has become one of the Middle East's leading LGBT service and advocacy organizations. It has been the first to take up new challenges, and is the force behind the development of regionally -- and sometimes, globally -- unique projects, such as an LGBT health empowerment project; religious services, and groundbreaking Palestinian community programming.
  
• Love Without Borders: Since 2002 JOH has been producing the annual Jerusalem Pride -- Love without Borders, reaching a peak attendance of 10,000 participants last year. Licensed by InterPride, Jerusalem WorldPride 2006 will be the second WP event ever, following the historic first WP held in Rome in 2000.
  
• WP and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The agonizing reality of a violent conflict, decades-long occupation, walls being built up and all the other ingredients that make the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so horrifying makes the holding of WorldPride in Jerusalem, the city at the heart of the conflict, all the more worth it. That is the reality in which the Palestinian and Israeli LGBT community in Jerusalem lives, and works for social change. The JOH is one of few organizations in Jerusalem where Palestinian and Israeli are building a community -- and indeed, a new reality -- together, as demonstrated by the Palestinian community programming, one of the key projects of the JOH. We are the only organization working from and with the Palestinian LGBT community, assuming leadership in providing information, support, and community services in Arabic.

JOH is deeply committed to human rights and WP in Jerusalem is essential for all those seeking to advance human rights in the Middle East and beyond. We believe that there is no other city than the divided Jerusalem that could benefit more from positive, powerful examples of human diversity in its streets, bringing an effective message of different people coming together beyond boundaries.

• Key information: the WP events will take place over a week – August 6-12, 2006. Information is already available at the WP website www.worldpride.net (in English, Arabic, Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian). For more information, email info@worldpride.net. Basic information, graphics, web linking HTML code, credit-card donations, and much more are already available from the website, with more updates, press package, and PDF versions forthcoming soon. WorldPride was originally scheduled for August 2005, but as the Israeli government announced that the Gaza pullout would take place at exactly the same time as WP, holding WP at its original date became simply impossible. Thus, the event has been rescheduled and will take place in August of 2006.
  
• International support and media coverage: previous Jerusalem Pride events were featured widely in the international media, including the BBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, QX Magazine, and many others.

WorldPride itself already received wide press coverage, including on the front page of The New York Times. WP has been officially endorsed by a proclamation from the City of West Hollywood, Human Rights Campaign HRC), and the Task Force's National Religious Leadership Roundtable (NRLR) -- amongst others.

 

The Program: JOH has successfully partnered with a team of key international and Jerusalemite organizations, which will together provide the unique content for Jerusalem WorldPride 2006. This content includes (but is not limited to) the following program items:

WorldPride March(cancelled for safety reasons, due to Israeli-Lebenese conflict) and Outdoor Festival
Human Rights Day (with Amnesty International-Israel)
Interfaith LGBT Clergy Conference (at Hebrew Union College; Conference co-chairs: Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, Congregation Beth Simchat Torah; Bishop Troy Perry, Metropolitan Community Churches; Rabbi Naamah Kelman-Ezrachi, HUC)
LGBT Health Day (Dealing with Health issues and needs of the LGBT Community, organized by JOH and the NY-based Callen-Lorde Community Health Center)
International LGBT Youth conference (with GLSEN)
Academic conference "Sexuality, Religion, and the Nation State": first day devoted to academic lectures, second day to student meetings and workshops.
LGBT Film Festival (Jerusalem Cinematheque)
Theatrical Performances
Keshet Gaava annual conference
Art Exhibitions
LGBT Parties

Download the updated program Word version   PDF version

From WorldPride 2005 (rescheduled to 2006)

Gay Israelis show their pride - SF Chronicle, June 4, 2004

Jerusalem Mayor Against the LGBT Community: "I tried to stop the parade but failed." - 02net.co.il, June 2004

WorldPride and CBST on the front page of the New York Times