How Do You Say "Come Out of the Closet" in Arabic?: Queer Activism and the Politics of Visibility in Israel-Palestine

In this essay, I draw on ethnographic interviews with Israeli and Palestinian queer activists in Israel to interrogate the centrality of the politics of visibility in "mainstream" queer activism. I suggest that queer Israeli activists' reliance on visibility as a political strategy is embedded in and supportive of the racist discourses of Israeli nationalism and the violent practices of the Israeli state. I argue that the "checkpoint," rather than the "closet," offers a more productive metaphor against which queer activists and thinkers might organize their efforts. I conclude with a discussion of the subversive potential of queer Palestinian activism as a politics that challenges multiple oppressions and undermines, rather than naturalizes, the racist, antidemocratic logic of the nation.