It is improbable, if not impossible to grasp all nuanced messaging which exist in the eating disorder community. There is far too much dysfunction, self-absorption, insecurity, fear, egomania and fractured souls. Families suffering from eating disorders have become an afterthought as radical therapists and advocates spew forth their hate filled messaging and dark opinions and viewpoints on life.

Shouldn’t we all be able to embrace a future filled with hope and recovery led by therapists and advocates who can set aside their own personal vendettas and views on social justice, politics and indigenous person’s land use rights for the sake of people who are suffering and dying from eating disorders?

Shouldn’t we be able to sincerely ask those social justice warriors and pretend advocates why did they get in the eating disorder community to begin with? Was it to save lives? Or has it always been merely a platform they could exploit to spew forth their self-loathing, anger and hatred?

It has reached a point where some advocate’s messaging has passed the boundaries of not just inanities but decency. They don’t care who they hurt or who they damage so long as “their truth,” is spewed forth for all to see. Not only do they utilize social media to parade their ignorance, but they become grand marshal of their ignorance parade.

The latest example of this abomination is the manner in which radical advocates in the eating disorder community intentionally harm, intimidate and silence anyone who does not agree with their pedantic views on the Israel/Palestinian conflict. These therapists attempt to suppress anyone who does not agree with their view that the Palestinians are oppressed, that Israel is committing genocide and that Israel has no right to exist. From the River to the Sea dammit!

Of course, I can’t help but wonder how many of these therapists can even explain which river and which sea are involved. Have they even traveled to that part of the world? Have they experienced “real life?” Or does the totality of their existence consist of what they read on the internet and the marches they attend along with persons who are paid by extremist organizations to incite hatred and division?

Moreover, the fundamental question is … what in the blue hell does a therapist’s views on the Israeli/Palestinian issues have to do with eating disorder treatment? Or treating your fellow professionals with such derision if they do not agree with your opinion? Please provide us all answers to those questions.

I have spoken with a number of therapists who have said they have been bullied, derided, and ostracized because they do not agree with the radical element’s views about Palestine. That they do not feel welcome at events hosted by these oppressive elements. It has digressed so far that those who feel oppressed have begun to organize their own events where they can discuss, oh I don’t know, eating disorder issues respectfully and professionally!

Even so, we must continue to have an open mind. Perhaps those radical therapists have formal training and education in foreign affairs and international diplomacy. Perhaps they have attended master’s programs emphasizing the complexities of foreign policy. Perhaps they attended, and maybe even graduated from the Kennedy School at Harvard, or the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University, or the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, or the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton. Perhaps they are not just using their short sighted, uneducated opinions to create division and rancor! …

But, let’s give them a chance. Let’s give them an opportunity. Let’s ask them which of the following may best describe them and their viewpoint?

We understand the social justice warrior often uses the term “intersectionality.” This word represents the notion that a common thread exists amongst all oppressed groups. By their “logic,” LBGTQIA++ people are oppressed, fat people are oppressed, Palestinians are oppressed, everyone except for white men are oppressed. Therefore, all struggles are automatically tied together. For one to succeed, they must all bond together, beside, and for, each other. All for one! and None for all! … What a crock of bullshevick.

This radical leftist viewpoint is tinged with a misguided transposition of Western identity politics onto the Middle East. This collapses all nuance and reduces a complex situation into a simple binary of “oppressor versus oppressed.” As such, leftists in English-speaking nations tend to see Palestine (including Hamas) as an oppressed, brown victim class whose freedom-fighting “resistance” against their oppressive, white, US-backed colonizers in Israel is a righteous cause with which to stand in solidarity. 

Their argument also lacks logic, facts, reason and quickly falls apart. Not only would most Palestinians recoil at defending LGBTQ rights, (which the eating disorder social justice warriors hold dear) but the Palestinian cause falls far from the circle of the “oppressed.”

Israel is at the forefront of LBGT rights in the Middle East. In Israel, LGBT people are visible members of society with legal protections, civil rights, and a plurality of public acceptance. Tel Aviv began holding pride parades in 1993, long before many other Western cities, and today it stands as a leading mecca of gay culture alongside giants like San Francisco and Berlin. Even the holy city of Jerusalem, Israel’s capital known for tradition and freedom of worship, now hosts an annual pride parade.

Contrarily, the “Queers for Palestine” movement seeks to meld LGBT advocacy with Palestinian liberation. Queers for Palestine absorb the false leftist binary of seeing the world split between the oppressed and oppressor and standing with the seemingly oppressed, even if that means standing against their own interests (or against human rights, in general). This juxtaposition has precipitated a whirlpool of ridicule and criticism due to the fact that LGBT rights scarcely exist within the Muslim world, and the Palestinian territories are no exception. This fallacious binary does a disservice to both the theory it claims to honor and the reality it comes to address – rendering it so ersatz and two-dimensional that it no longer actually exists in the real world.

In October 2022, Ahmad Abu Marhia, a gay Palestinian man was found beheaded. Independent reports found that four Palestinians were killed because they were homosexual. Sharia courts have been set up where homosexuals are threatened with the death penalty by stoning, burning and hanging.  These courts also declare persons suspected of homosexuality to be ‘outlaws’, who can be murdered with impunity.

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-5-2003-1346_EN.html

Today in 2025, Palestinian culture ostracizes, humiliates, jails, tortures and often murders people simply for being gay.

Unfortunately, facts, logic, and sound reasoning fall upon deaf ears of the radical element in the eating disorder community. Of course, we could be wrong. Perhaps, the Jihadists would embrace the radical obesity movement and the leftist ideology!

In late February 2025, the Houston Eating Disorder Specialists (HEDS) organization cancelled its seminar entitled, “The Ethics of Modern Eating Disorder Care … Exploring Nuances and Opposing Perspectives.” Its keynote speaker, Gloria Lucas is a Palestinian supporter, and the term “anti-Semite” has been directed toward Ms. Lucas. HEDS’s seminar was cancelled because HEDS could not and did not embrace opposing perspectives and it chose to support the radicalism of one person over the needs of the eating disorder community. Those pesky, whiny families struggling with eating disorders! How dare they seek assistance!

The organizers behind Weight Stigma Awareness Week 2025 are doing their bit to stoke the flames of derision and hatred among eating disorder therapists.

One of the speakers that week is Caleb Luna, a self-described artist, public scholar, theorist of the body and particularly proud, plural pronoun proponent. Luna’s views on intersectionality are as follows: “Considering what is happening to Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank; white supremacy, racism, colonization, forced displacement, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide, those of us who claim to be for liberation, including healthcare providers aligned with HAES®, must stand up for what is right. The liberation for fat people, Black people, indigenous people, queer & trans people, AND Palestinian people are interlocked. Our liberation is tied up in one another’s. There is no hierarchy of oppression. If we are all to be free, we must take measured action.” 

The manner in which Luna is woefully off base is legion. Nevertheless, the organizers of this event will allow him to spew forth his illogical, ill-informed opinions during Weight Stigma Awareness Week. He will be applauded by sheep like followers numbering in the “tens” who are desperate for a place they can regard as “home.” No matter how many other people are hurt in the process.

So, for those therapists and professionals who have been bullied, pushed around, ostracized, harassed and demeaned by the Anti-Semitic, Pro Palestine at All Costs, Intersectionality Uber Alles, militant advocates, a few words of advice.

Ignore them, or;

Laugh at them, or;

Confuse them with facts, or;

Confuse them with reason, logic and accountability, or;

Remind them what the eating disorder community is really about, that is, helping families, or;

If all of that is to no avail, then …