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By Jesse Monteagudo Recently the authorities at the New York Aquarium made a startling discovery about two of their favorite love birds. It seems that Wendell and Cass, two 14 year old penguins who have shared a nest for 8 years, are both male.
Since penguins don't have external genitalia, Aquarium authorities presumed that Wendell and Cass were a boy and girl pair. Not till they carried out blood tests did they learn that the tuxedo-ed two are both boys. According to Angie Pelekedis, a spokeswoman for the New York Aquarium, Wendell and Cass are "one of the most dedicated couples in the penguin enclosure." Like other gay couples, one is a top and the other is a bottom, though they sometimes switch. "I was only seeing one mate with the other, but then one of the other keepers saw it happen the other way," said penguin keeper Stephanie Mitchell. "Cass tends to be a rather aggressive bird. Wendell is very nervous; always has been. He's on edge all the time.
This does not mean that men are incapable of love; on the contrary. Though all the forces of church, state, science and society conspired against them, men have had love relationships with other men since time immemorial. And like the fabled rose in Spanish Harlem, male love grows through the concrete of some of the world's worst circumstances. Which brings us to Jerusalem, a city whose holiness is both a blessing and a curse. There the overriding concern is not being gay but staying alive in an environment where death leads to more death; and Palestinian suicide bombs and Israeli missile attacks follow each other in an endless circle of hate. In such surroundings love seems impossible, especially love between an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian Arab who both happen to be men. "We feel like rats. They run after us all the time," said Ezra Yitzhak, a successful Jerusalem business owner, to Salon's Flore de Préneuf. He and the much younger Selim, who also works for Ezra, have been together for 3 years. "We have to think carefully about where to go, who to go with and always have papers ready to explain our situation." Both men could face arrest at any moment: Selim for being illegally on Israeli soil and Ezra for "helping, hiring and sheltering" a Palestinian outlaw. Selim's presence in Jerusalem raises eyebrows in a political climate where any Palestinian might be carrying a bomb.
"I can't count the number of times we've been stopped together," said Ezra. Selim was in fact jailed in October of 2000, only to be released after Ezra successfully appealed.
In straight Israeli-Palestinian marriages, the Palestinian partner gains Israeli residency rights. As part of a gay couple, Selim does not have that privilege. But it is racism, not homophobia, that threatens to separate the two men. "The relationship between Jews and Arabs can only be one way. We are the masters and they are the servants," said Ezra, who added that most Israelis "can't imagine an equal relationship." An Israeli policeman went so far as to ask Ezra if he was afraid that Selim might kill him. Even so, Ezra and Selim are not without friends in Israel. The Jerusalem Open House, an Israeli GLBT organization, has taken up the cause of a couple who dare to love in the midst of war. "In many ways [Selim] should have been the poster boy of the Oslo agreement," said Hagai El-Ad, the director of Jerusalem Open House. "He was engaged in terror during the first Intifada, and now after a turnabout he's in love and living with an Israeli." El-Ad hopes that his group's efforts would move the Israeli government to grant Selim his much-needed Jerusalem ID papers. Meanwhile, Ezra and Selim's love against all odds is an inspiration to all of us who are men who love men, and a small, bright spot in an otherwise dismal situation. |
Jesse Monteagudo is a South Florida-based freelance writer.
He and his life partner have been together longer than Wendell and Cass,
though they don't look as good in tuxedos. Jesse can be reached at 
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