Anastasia Michaeli: Gay People are Miserable

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
First it was scuffles and water fights in Knesset; now it’s homophobia. Anastasia Michaeli just doesn’t seem to get the conventions of normal inoffensive behavior.
You probably remember the model turned politician from the ugly saga in January when she threw a cup of water at Israeli-Arab lawmaker Raleb Majadele during a Knesset discussion. Or maybe from even earlier, when in 2010 she physically threatened another Arab lawmaker, Hanin Zuabi, a participant in the Gaza flotilla, who was talking about the activist voyage.
Today, she chirped in and declared that homosexuality results from abuse. “I think that most homosexuals are people that experience very difficult sexual abuse from a very young age,” she said in a session of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women.
In a recording it is clear that she also generalized that gay people “are miserable” and “in the end they commit suicide when they are 40.”
There’s something a bit freaky here. It was almost exactly six months ago (six months and five days) that Michaeli threw the water. It’s as if she has a checklist of minority groups to offend, and tries to tick of one every six months — Arabs, check; gays, check. Anybody know who is up next.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
