For gay kids who are secure their sexualy or who face hate mongers. Gay Is OK talks about prsn, thoughts of suici, gay teen suici.
Contents:
- HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY
- GAY IS OK! HOMEPAGE
- ORTHODOX, CELIBATE, GAY AND THAT’S OK
- I’M A GAY CLICHé — AND THAT’S OK
- "THAT'S SO GAY" IS JT SO WRONG
- GAY OKLAHOMA TRAVEL GUI
- WHY GAY IS NOT OK
- GAYT PLAC IN OKLAHOMA FOR 2020
HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY
* gay that's ok *
Keep md that even if you have a sexual experience wh someone of the same genr or another genr, that don’t necsarily mean that you’re gay.
That means, for example, that you n be transgenr but also straight (for stance, you might intify as a woman and feel attracted to men) or gay (e. If you have had romantic experienc or fantasi volvg people who are the same genr as you, then there is a good chance you are gay or bisexual, but 's okay if you're a ltle nfed.
GAY IS OK! HOMEPAGE
There's a gay stereotype for every generatn, and a reason for every ntradictory eratn. But some clich are built to last. * gay that's ok *
If were so, people would have no tert one genr or the other, yet we see many straights formg close bonds wh their own genr, and gays wh the oppose.
Most gays have been driven to thoughts of suici at some time their liv by hostile peers, unsupportive fai, damng church, opprsive laws. Wh creasg awarens of homosexualy wh the Orthodox Jewish world, a mon, barely challenged rea has been that abstag om sex is not a real optn for um (tradnally observant) gay men.
Often, advot for changg Orthodox attus and polici on homosexualy have discsed celibacy wh language and arguments that are poorly reasoned and sultg – even homophobic.
ORTHODOX, CELIBATE, GAY AND THAT’S OK
, statn travel guis wh a gay perspective. * gay that's ok *
I am a formerly sexually active gay man who has been celibate for more than 13 years as part of my bt attempt to follow halacha (Jewish law).
Soon after graduatg, I wrote a wily syndited gay history lumn, thored a book on the gay past, and owned the largt provir of ntent to the gay and lbian prs.
I’M A GAY CLICHé — AND THAT’S OK
Already by age 20, I was cravg better answers to my qutns about homosexualy than non-tradnal rabbis and Jewish lears offered. In the 1990s, a wispread gay Jewish attu toward Levic 18:22 (ually translated as “you shall not lie down wh a male, as wh a woman: this is an abomatn”) was so pathetic seems funny today: liberal Rabbi Arthur Waskow terpreted the verse to mean, sentially: “Don’t have sex wh a man as wh a woman.
"THAT'S SO GAY" IS JT SO WRONG
At one pot, I was stgglg over whether to date women, given that I no longer really bought the supposed Jewish jtifitns for affirmg gay sexualy.
GAY OKLAHOMA TRAVEL GUI
Wh sexual abstence the ntext of my evolvg um gay inty, I had to nont direct and direct put-downs – some of which were likely untentnal.
In a Huffgton Post say, Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowz promoted gay civil marriage part bee of Orthodoxy’s “empathy for those seekg lovg relatnships. But he then tried to affirm same-sex love by suggtg that celibate gays are “prived” of “full digny, ” and that our abily to form permissible new fai is “horrifyg.
Next, the unorthodox and arguably un-Orthodox Yhiva Universy-traed Rabbi Steve Greenberg suggted he don’t believe gay male claims of abstence. Rabbi Greenberg, who has a male partner, told the Huffgton Post he knows of only one other openly gay Orthodox rabbi the world, but “he sists that he is celibate.
WHY GAY IS NOT OK
Rabbi Greenberg even told Moment that for gays who nnot marry, celibacy is simply unthkable: “It’s jt not realistic and not human.
The Relig Case for Equaly, protted my “g out” as celibate by penng a letter to Gay Cy News publicly llg me a nastier versn of “fouled-up. ” In a separate say, Michaelson said he has never met “a sgle reprsed gay Jew who is healthy, happy, wise, and livg a full life of tradnal Jewish valu.
I unrstand that the very existence of celibate gays unrm the arguments portrayg tolerance of gay sex as the only legimate Torah-based rponse to homosexualy. Shouldn’t those pog more progrsive Orthodox posns on homosexualy get to know celibate gay Orthodox Jews before nouncg our cisns as non-viable?
GAYT PLAC IN OKLAHOMA FOR 2020
I ntacted Rabbi Yanklowz after his say appeared, and I told him that if, as I spected, he knew no gays observg halacha on sexual behavr, I would be happy to be his first. The urtext about gay Orthodox celibacy is probably Rabbi Nathan Lop Cardozo’s rejectn of s feasibily an terview for the 2001 film Tremblg Before G-d. In a well-publicized say, “Homosexuals the Orthodox Communy, ” Rabbi Zev Farber wrote that celibacy for gay men is unrealistic, even impossible – “a bilatg and life-cshg prospect.