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If you haven’t had the chance to see the Israeli feature film Yossi & Jagger, here’s another reason why you should: Entertainment Weekly just released a list of the 50 Sexiest Movies Ever, and at 49th place the 2002 movie just made the cut. Here’s what EW had to say:

The titular men (Ohad Knoller and Yehuda Levi) are sturdy Israeli soldiers stationed at an icy outpost on the Lebanese border. Like a less tormented version of Brokeback Mountain’s Jack and Ennis, they keep their coupling a secret.
Sexiest Moment: The guys go at it, fully clothed, on a snowy hillside. Because we see mostly close-ups of their faces as they make out, joke, and laugh, what’s sexy is their sweet delight in one another.

You can buy the movie here, and download or rent it here. Check out Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 50 Sexiest Movies Ever, and their 25 Least Sexy Movies Ever.

Jonathan Danilowitz, Adir Steiner, Uzi Even, Tal and Avital Yaros-Hakak – each of these individuals have helped Israel shape its laws and grant equal rights for queer people, that much cannot be disputed - but I contend that all these people have helped very little in softening the collective Israeli heart towards gay people, compared to one transsexual singer who granted Israel its first Eurovision Song Contest victory in nineteen years. As simplistic (dare I say, moronic) as that may sound, I believe that when Dana International performed on stage in Birmingham, England in 1998, she granted mothers and fathers from the generation right above mine a night of many firsts, as for most of them it was the first time they ever rooted for a queer person and the first time a queer individual had flooded them with feelings of pride and patriotism.

Just like straight men have an easier time accepting the idea of lesbians over gay men, as it is not perceived as a threat to their own masculinity, I believe that many straight men and women have an easier time accepting the idea of transgendered people over other queer individuals, as it is not perceived as a threat to the boy-meets-girl dogma.

Being a minority, any minority, is probably not much fun wherever you may live, but the fact that this country is so tiny must make it that much harder for individuals to surround themselves with enough people that love them, so that they would not be forced to constantly see the masses that hate them. This coming Thursday, Israeli Channel 10 will feature a documentary named ‘Mom, I Didn’t Kill Your Daughter‘ about two F2M transsexuals living in Israel who are also a couple. The film, directed by Orna Ben-Dor, received rave reviews in festivals around the world.

Here’s a snippet:

‘Mom, I Didn’t Kill Your Daughter’ will air this coming Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 9pm on Israeli Channel 10. You can also watch it online here. Happy Passover, the Jewish festival of freedom from slavery!

PC is great! I really love it! Replacing pejorative terms with neutral ones makes a lot of sense and I even think it takes quite a bit of courage. Just this week, the hearing impaired parents of a fallen Israeli soldier were called deaf-mutes by the Israeli media, even by TV channels that featured interviews in which the so-called mute father spoke coherently about his loss.

What I hate about American Political Correctness is the notion that anything bad one might say can be taken back by an apology. Made a catastrophic faux pas? No worries! As long as you are on US soil you can just apologize and move on. Forgiveness is automatic.

Recently, Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern gave a speech in which she expressed her anti-gay beliefs. After the speech was secretly recorded and made public, The Cimarron Alliance, a local LGBT group asked Speaker of the House that she be censured if she does not apologize. I completely understand the request for a censure, but what use would an apology make? Anyone who listens to her speech can appreciate how articulate her hatred is, and how she firmly believes homosexuality is “the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam”. It is quite possible that public pressure will force her to apologize in a day or two, but what good does an apology do when it comes from someone who thinks gays “want to get our young children into the government schools so they can indoctrinate them”.
 
 

Aside:
There are now claims that Rep. Kern is the not-so-proud mother of a gay son named Jesse. Yes, it is a worn out cliché and it should not make a difference, but it needs to be pointed out. Mysteriously, her official bio page was very recently changed and now does not mention any of her children:

Before (March 4, 2008)	After (March 13, 2008)

In light of the 2007 Israeli Pride Parade, commencing today at noon in Tel-Aviv, and later this month in Jerusalem (God willing), and in light of two recent articles discussing the ‘Glass Closet’ (Michael Musto for Out Magazine, Gal Uchovsky for Time Out Tel-Aviv), I just wanted to convey it is a shame that successful people in the media cannot summon up the courage it takes to come out of the closet, and become a role model for teenagers struggling in life. Izhar Cohen missed the opportunity to tackle gay invisibility in the seventies, Ofra Haza missed the opportunity to raise AIDS awareness in the nineties, but it is never too late to be a hero in the eyes of Israeli teens. I reckon that singers with sold-out events and songwriters who write hit songs about love, have no business avoiding what everyone in this tiny country already knows.

Here are some positive role models:

And others who can be positive role models:

In a changing world
There’s so much you could be
Why can’t you choose your self
Like your enemy?
Have you ever imagined
A new you?
I could be someone else
Somebody new.

I want a positive role model

– From The Musical ‘Closer To Heaven’ by the Pet Shop Boys