Orange is the New Black‘s Lea “Big Boo” DeLaria and Scottish stage actor Alan Cumming are in Israel for Pride Week and are posing for selfies with whoever recognizes them.
DeLaria and Cumming agreed to act as this year’s special Pride ambassadors for Tel Aviv Pride 2016.
Rainbow pride flags are up around the city of Tel Aviv and huge posters announcing tomorrow’s annual Pride Parade are ubiquitous. This year’s Pride Parade theme is “Women for a Change”– highlighting the role of women in the LGBTQ community.
“There are apparently no ugly women in Israel,” DeLaria, who is gay and plays a gay inmate nicknamed Big Boo on the Netflix prison drama, told Ynet, shortly after arriving on Tuesday.
Both Cumming and DeLaria have hit the tourist circuit and are posting selfies at Masada, the Israel Museum, the Kotel, the Dead Sea, and in Tel Aviv of their adventures.
Cumming visited Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and posted on Twitter that it was a moving experience.
https://twitter.com/Alancumming/status/737614580734529538
DeLaria also posted that she had tried to get into the Temple Mount complex but was barred because she’s “a woman with tattoos.”
https://instagram.com/p/BGCBB9fxyVg
Speaking to The Advocate from Israel, DeLaria gave kudos to Orange is the New Black for giving women more screen time and a real presence in the entertainment world.
“When was the last time you saw that many women in any media sitting around talking, and they weren’t talking about whether or not their butt looked fat in their jeans. It’s like real women’s lives,” she said.
In addition to being a Pride ambassador, Cumming is taking part in TLV Fest — Tel Aviv’s LGBT Film Festival (May 29 to June 7).
The Tel Aviv Pride events begin on June 3 at 10 a.m. in Meir Park with speeches, shows and music. The Pride Parade kicks off at 12 p.m. with floats, music and over 100,000 participants. A beach party follows at Charles Clore Park until sunset.
“The Pride Parade has turned into one of the symbols of the City of Tel Aviv with hundreds of thousands of participants and tourists from all over the country and the world. I believe that Tel Aviv-Yafo, a city of tolerance, is a beacon to other cities in this issue,” said Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Ron Huldai.
Last year’s Jerusalem Pride March, which usually takes place a month after the Tel Aviv parade, was marred by a fatal stabbing.
“Places where people are being stabbed simply for being who they are are the exact places I need to be,” DeLaria told The Advocate. “If you want to live a good life, you see something that needs to be changed, and you’re saying to yourself ‘this needs to be changed,’ well, you’re probably the person that needs to be changing it.”
https://twitter.com/Alancumming/status/736972232690372608
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