In the ’70s and ’80s, our letter-wrers went to battle over gay rights

Contents:

• 100 YEARS AGO, GERMANY’S ‘ESTE OF SEX’ BEGAN THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• LGBTQ PRI MONTH: OY VEY, WHY ARE SO MANY JEWS GAY?
• FIRST OPENLY GAY ORTHODOX RABBI ORDAED JESALEM
• MEET THE RABBI WHO BRGS ORTHODOX LBIANS TOGETHER WH GAY MEN SO THEY N HAVE KIDS
• ORTHODOX, CELIBATE, GAY AND THAT’S OK
• ‘RACISM IS VERY PREVALENT THE JEWISH MUNY.’ A BLACK, JEWISH, GAY LEAR SPEAKS OUT.
• JEWISH EDIAN MODI ROSENFELD, A MASTAY FOR ORTHODOX DIENC, IS GAY. SO WHAT?
• IN THE ’70S AND ’80S, OUR LETTER-WRERS WENT TO BATTLE OVER GAY RIGHTS
• AT HOME WH ELIAD COHEN, ISRAEL’S TOP GAY IN
• TOP 13 COUNTRI WH BIGGT GAY POPULATNS
• POWERFUL TE STORY OF GAY JEWISH UPLE WHO ‘RISTED THE NAZIS THROUGH LOVE’

100 YEARS AGO, GERMANY’S ‘ESTE OF SEX’ BEGAN THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Views about homosexualyBelieve God; absolutely certaBelieve God; fairly certaBelieve God; not too/not at all certaBelieve God; don't knowDo not believe GodOther/don't know if they believe GodSample sizeShould be accepted27%30%17%1%20%5%726Sample siz and margs of error vary om subgroup to subgroup, om year to year and om state to state. Views about homosexualyVery importantSomewhat importantNot too importantNot at all importantDon't knowSample sizeShould be accepted27%40%22%11%< 1%726Sample siz and margs of error vary om subgroup to subgroup, om year to year and om state to state.

Views about homosexualyAt least once a weekOnce or twice a month/a few tim a yearSeldom/neverDon't knowSample sizeShould be accepted13%54%33%< 1%726Sample siz and margs of error vary om subgroup to subgroup, om year to year and om state to state.

LGBTQ PRI MONTH: OY VEY, WHY ARE SO MANY JEWS GAY?

Views about homosexualyAt least once a weekOnce or twice a monthSeveral tim a yearSeldom/neverDon't knowSample sizeShould be accepted11%9%12%69%< 1%726Sample siz and margs of error vary om subgroup to subgroup, om year to year and om state to state.

FIRST OPENLY GAY ORTHODOX RABBI ORDAED JESALEM

Views about homosexualyAt least once a weekOnce or twice a monthSeveral tim a yearSeldom/neverDon't knowSample sizeShould be accepted27%9%6%57%1%726Sample siz and margs of error vary om subgroup to subgroup, om year to year and om state to state.

Views about homosexualyAt least once a weekOnce or twice a monthSeveral tim a yearSeldom/neverDon't knowSample sizeShould be accepted34%20%14%31%1%726Sample siz and margs of error vary om subgroup to subgroup, om year to year and om state to state. Views about homosexualyAt least once a weekOnce or twice a monthSeveral tim a yearSeldom/neverDon't knowSample sizeShould be accepted42%19%16%22%1%726Sample siz and margs of error vary om subgroup to subgroup, om year to year and om state to state.

Views about homosexualyThere are clear standards for what is right and wrongRight or wrong pends on the suatnNeher/both equallyDon't knowSample sizeShould be accepted19%79%2%1%726Sample siz and margs of error vary om subgroup to subgroup, om year to year and om state to state. Views about homosexualyAt least once a weekOnce or twice a monthSeveral tim a yearSeldom/neverDon't knowSample sizeShould be accepted10%7%10%73%< 1%726Sample siz and margs of error vary om subgroup to subgroup, om year to year and om state to state.

MEET THE RABBI WHO BRGS ORTHODOX LBIANS TOGETHER WH GAY MEN SO THEY N HAVE KIDS

Views about homosexualyWord of God; should be taken lerallyWord of God; not everythg taken lerallyWord of God; other/don't knowNot the word of GodOther/don't knowSample sizeShould be accepted4%22%< 1%66%7%726Sample siz and margs of error vary om subgroup to subgroup, om year to year and om state to state. Views about homosexualyStricter environmental laws and regulatns st too many jobs and hurt the enomyStricter environmental laws and regulatns are worth the stNeher/both equallyDon't knowSample sizeShould be accepted19%78%2%1%726Sample siz and margs of error vary om subgroup to subgroup, om year to year and om state to state.

ORTHODOX, CELIBATE, GAY AND THAT’S OK

Views about homosexualyEvolved; due to natural procsEvolved; due to God's signEvolved; don't know howAlways existed prent formDon't knowSample sizeShould be accepted67%17%5%9%1%726Sample siz and margs of error vary om subgroup to subgroup, om year to year and om state to state. As early as 1990, the Rabbil Assembly’s Commtee on Jewish Law and Standards, which sets halakhic (legal) policy for the Conservative Movement, stated their sire to “work for full and equal civil rights for gays and lbians our natnal life.

‘RACISM IS VERY PREVALENT THE JEWISH MUNY.’ A BLACK, JEWISH, GAY LEAR SPEAKS OUT.

In rponse to the Supreme Court’s lg favor of marriage equaly, the Unn of Orthodox Congregatns released a statement, sayg, “We reerate the historil posn of the Jewish fah, enunciated unequivolly our Bible, Talmud and Cos, which forbids homosexual relatnships and nmns the stutnalizatn of such relatnships as marriag. For their weddg, Greenberg and Cohen turned to Rabbi Steve Greenberg, the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi, to velop a ceremony which bed bs partnership ntracts wh Jewish tradns of vow-takg and oaths to create a bdg agreement of obligatns unr Jewish law.

JEWISH EDIAN MODI ROSENFELD, A MASTAY FOR ORTHODOX DIENC, IS GAY. SO WHAT?

She wrote several books cludg a memoir, Survivg Madns, a Therapist’s Own Story, and Permanent Partners: Buildg Gay and Lbian Relatnships, which the LA Tim says has been referred to “as a how-to manual for same-sex upl tryg to stay together.

As social attus toward lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer (LGBTQ) people have unrgone a sea change globally, stanc taken by Jewish lears and movements have changed along wh, same-sex marriag are regnized by the Reform, Conservative, Renewal and Renstctnist movements, and each movement’s rabbil semary ordas LGBTQ stunts. All the chang were preced by the Renstctnist movement, which began beme the first movement to accept gays and lbians as rabbil stunts 1984 and whose rabbis have long been ee to officiate at same-sex while the liberal Jewish muny has shifted markedly on this issue, homosexualy remas a vexg issue Orthodoxy, which ntu to hold fast to the Torah’s seemgly flexible rejectn of homosexual acts.

IN THE ’70S AND ’80S, OUR LETTER-WRERS WENT TO BATTLE OVER GAY RIGHTS

” Many thori nsir this prohibn to be one of Judaism’s rdal ss and believe mt not be transgrsed even at the threat of one’s Readg the Prohibn Agast Homosexualy ContextEven the most tradnally-md terpreters of the verse acknowledge that the Torah do not prohib homosexualy as such, but merely one specific sexual act — generally unrstood to be anal sex between two men. The biblil vers are also generally not unrstood as rejectg homosexuals as dividuals, but merely homosexual differ sharply along nomatnal The Reform movement was the first of the major nomatns to take a liberal posn toward homosexualy, adoptg the first of many rolutns on behalf of gays and lbians 1977.

Conservative: In 2006, the Conservative movement nclud a polarizg bate over homosexualy wh the endorsement of two ntradictory opns — one upholdg the movement’s prev rejectn of gay relatnships, and another retag the Torah prohibn on male anal sex but allowg for other forms of sexual timacy between members of the same sex.

AT HOME WH ELIAD COHEN, ISRAEL’S TOP GAY IN

The Reform movement now nsirs same-sex marriage to qualify as kiddh — the rabbic term for betrothal, a holy unn between two 2012, the same three Conservative rabbis who thored the more liberal opn on homosexualy noted above published a seri of ruals and documents pertag to same-sex marriage ceremoni and divorce. Though the largt Orthodox rabbil group, the Rabbil Council of Ameri, had at one time mend JONAH’s work, publicly whdrew s endorsement 2012, cg evince that the therapy was effective and had potentially negative the Orthodox muny still support nversn therapy, however, part bee they believe is impossible that homosexual sir uld be both unchangeable and proscribed by the Torah.

Israel has regularly touted s achievements on gay rights as a sign of s progrsive Wtern worldview, a practice some crics have rid as an attempt at “pkwashg” — that is, to distract om s treatment of the more on LGBTQ Jewish life, vis MyJewishLearng’s Khet blog.

TOP 13 COUNTRI WH BIGGT GAY POPULATNS

Kameny’s Wiki b also stat that he was an Ashkenazi Jew, and this ma me wonr: Are Jews overreprented the gay muny jt as they areas of our society, such as publishg, televisn, news media, the film dtry, porn dtry, amia, the arts and bankg?

The liberal Jewish movements have unrgone dramatic shifts their approach to gay, lbian and transgenr Jews the past two s, but among the Orthodox the chang have been far ls dramatic — and many quarters, virtually seemgly clear biblil nunciatns of homosexual sex, as well as the rp of rabbic mentari and legal s based on those vers, lim how far Orthodox Judaism, marked by s fily to tradnal unrstandgs of Jewish law, or halacha, n move on this several efforts have emerged recent years to lend more support to Orthodox Jews experiencg homosexual sir and make the muny more passnate and welg toward them, all the efforts stop short of sanctng gay relatnships. The two pol of this bate are fairly well leated by two petg statements on the first, entled “Statement of Prcipl on the Place of Jews wh a Homosexual Orientatn Our Communy, ” was drafted by a faculty member at the liberal Orthodox rabbil school Yhivat Chovevei Torah and released 2010.

POWERFUL TE STORY OF GAY JEWISH UPLE WHO ‘RISTED THE NAZIS THROUGH LOVE’

While acknowledgg the halachic (Jewish legal) ban on homosexual sex and rejectg any acceptance of same-sex marriage, the statement neverthels asserted that gays should be weled as full and equal members of Orthodox muni and should, most s, not be enuraged to marry someone of the oppose genr. The Statement of Prcipl cled to weigh on the qutn of whether homosexual orientatn is geic and unchangeable, or if is a choice, as some people 2016, the Israeli Morn Orthodox rabbil group Be Hillel issued a siar statement, urgg that gays be allowed to serve “any munal pacy.