(UPDATED) Happy Pride Message from Israeli Defense Forces

The above picture was posted to the official Facebook page of the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) with the caption: "It's Pride Month. Did you know that the IDF treats all of its soldiers equally?"

The ball's in your court, Pentagon!

Hat/tip Joe.My.God


UPDATE 06/13/2012 14:43
Joe.My.God has since reported that the above photo was "staged" by the IDF and that the two guys holding hands are not a couple, and one of them is not even gay! The Times of Israel has the dish:

The newly hip, multimedia-savvy IDF Spokesperson’s Office posted Monday on its Facebook page a photo of two ostensibly gay soldiers, one seeming to belong to the Givati Brigade and the other to the Artillery Corps, holding hands and walking on a city street.

In fact, the two soldiers in the photo are not a couple, only one of the two is gay, and both the soldiers serve in the IDF Spokesperson’s Office.

The picture appears to have been taken on Itamar Ben Avi street in Tel Aviv, around the corner from the Spokesperson’s Office headquarters.

Contacted by The Times of Israel, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office did not deny the photo was staged, offering the following statement: “The photo reflects the IDF’s open minded attitude towards soldiers of all sexual orientations. The IDF respects the privacy of the soldiers featured in the photograph, and will not comment on their identities.”

The photo has garnered thousands of “likes” on Facebook and has been hailed by the Foreign Ministry as evidence of the Israeli army’s unique tolerance toward homosexuality.

What do you think? Does it matter that the picture was part of a marketing campaign and is not of a real gay couple? To me, the more important point is that IDF is deliberately trying to market itself as a tolerant organization, one that would recognize gay pride. There is a question if they are so tolerant why couldn't they find an actual gay couple to pose for the photo. So maybe IDF is trying to claim they are gay-tolerant when they actually aren't?