World
Reporter punished for revealing Dyke March antisemitism speaks out
Gretchen Hammond, the transgender Jewish journalist who revealed what took place, has spoken about what happened after her story was published
July 18, 2017 08:02
Gretchen Hammond, the transgender Jewish journalist who revealed what took place, has spoken about what happened after her story was published
July 18, 2017 08:02The organisers of an LGBT parade in Chicago who drew widespread condemnation for ejecting Jews from the march have been accused of directing antisemitic abuse at the journalist who first reported the outrage.
Gretchen Hammond, a transgender reporter who converted to Judaism last year, was removed from her role at the Windy City Times after she revealed how the organisers of the Chicago Dyke March threw out participants who were carrying LGBT pride flags bearing a Star of David.
The award-winning reporter initially refused to explain why she had lost her job at the LGBT publication.
However, she has since revealed that members of the Dyke March Chicago (DMC) had said they would “make sure your b**ch ass never writes in Chicago again”, and called her a “kike”.
On Sunday, Ms Hammond tweeted to the DMC: “You attacked, humiliated and robbed me of a job. No tears. I forgive you. Just hope you learn how destructive and pointless hatred is.”
Ms Hammond followed up with another tweet saying: “I will not comment on any decision made by my present employer or impugn the organization. The DMC threatened me then bragged about it.”
Award-winning LGBT reporter @GretchRHammond talks about being "silenced" after exposing anti-Semitism at the Chicago Dyke March: pic.twitter.com/xwsYgLe0Pz
— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) July 17, 2017
She went into slightly more detail on her Facebook page. Discussing a deleted tweet by the DMC which used the epithet “Zio”, a term popularised by neo-Nazis, she said that the march organisers had “attacked me in much the same manner only using words like “kike” and also said they would ‘make sure your bitch ass never writes in Chicago again’.
“However, both my God and learned pragmatism taught me to forgive and I do, with all my heart. Also, from what I have seen over the past couple of weeks, the majority of the LGBT community and those outside of it do not align themselves with vicious bigotry.”
Last Thursday, Ms Hammond spoke at the headquarters of the Algemeiner news site, which had broken the story that she had been removed from her reporting role.
She described the LGBT “landscape” in Chicago as “beautiful, but added there was also a “great ugliness” growing inside it.
“So two weeks ago, I ran afoul of that ugliness by reporting on this growing, cancerous sore within the community. Instead of sticking to a narrative where all our issues were the result of right-wing attackers, I simply wrote about a scene that demonstrated that we’re pretty good at causing problems for ourselves sometimes.
“So the rest of the world shook their heads in astonishment, some with a smug ‘what did we tell you about the left’, while the voices of these three [ejected] girls, who went to a Pride march, were silenced. And then, [so was] the reporter who told the story.
“When you lose your voice, even for two weeks, the isolation is unbearable… They say our profession is dying, they say that we’re obsolete or fake.
“But as long as we are brave enough to amplify their voices, and as long as we make sure that we never lose our own, our stories will not be silenced.”
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