To addrs the subject of homosexualy and Judaism, we spoke to a gay Jew and had the followg exchange:
Contents:
GAY AND LBIAN JEWS
In North Ameri today, is timated that 100,000 Reform Jews - and 500,000 members of the larger Jewish muny - are gay or lbian. Over the last fifteen years, the UAHC has admted to membership four synagogu wh an outreach to gay and lbian Jews. Hundreds of men and women who once felt themselv alienated om Judaism and unwele mastream ngregatns have joed the synagogu, addg their strength and mment to our relig muny. * do jews accept gays *
While that rolutn urged that ngregatns not discrimate employment, did not addrs rabbic employment, pendg the report of the CCAR ad hoc Commtee on Homosexualy and the Rabbate. Two vers Levic (Levic 18:23 and Levic 20:13) exprs unequivol nmnatn of male homosexual sex (although is not clear whether what is referred to is terurse or all sexual acts between men).
”READ: Puttg The Prohibn Agast Homosexualy ContextAs evint by s language, the biblil prohibn do not extend to female homosexual acts, though later mentators disapproved of lbianism. Nohels, the tradnal Jewish posn on homosexualy is still difficult for many liberal-md Jews, and the liberal nomatns have bated the extent to which gays and lbians n be fully tegrated to relig Conservative Halakhah and HomosexualyThe first and least ntroversial step taken by the Conservative, Renstctnist, and Reform movements was to endorse civil equaly for gays and lbians.
Th some Jewish thori have argued that sce homosexualy is not chosen, s exprsn nnot be, the Reform movement do not nmn homosexual sex, and openly gay people are eligible for admtance to Reform rabbil schools. In addn, the Reform movement approv of rabbic officiatn at same-sex marriag and mment Denomatnal Approach on Ordag Openly Gay and Lbian RabbisDaniel Siegel, the Rabbic Director of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, has endorsed same-sex marriage specifilly bee he believ that hols should not be limed only to certa people and certa relatnships.
LGBTQ PRI MONTH: OY VEY, WHY ARE SO MANY JEWS GAY?
Usg this as her startg pot, Rebec Alpert, a Renstctnist rabbi, has argued that the ernment’s refal to regnize same-sex marriage vlat relig rabbis wh the Conservative movement also ce the ncept of on ( which an dividual has no real choice) permtg homosexual sex. In December 2006 the Conservative Movement’s Law Commtee voted to accept two ntradictory thuvot (posns) on homosexualy halakhah — one reaffirmg the stat quo, and one affirmg change. The rult of the vote is that rabbis, synagogu, and other Conservative stutns may choose to ntue to not perm mment ceremoni and not hire openly gay or lbian rabbis and ntors, or may choose to do so.
The cisn also paved the way for the movement to orda openly gay recent years, there has been an creased awarens of the prence of gays and lbians more tradnal Jewish muni as well. 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.
Acrdg to Wikipedia, Kameny is “one of the most signifint figur” the Amerin gay movement, bee he was the first known person the Uned Stat to make a civil rights claim based on sexual orientatn a U. 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? Denise Eger, first female and the first openly gay Print of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California; March 2015 she beme print of the Central Conference of Amerin Rabbis, the largt and olst rabbil anizatn North Ameri.
“ARE THERE GAY JEWS?”
Sandra Lawson, beme the first openly gay Ain-Amerin and the first Ain-Amerin admted to the Renstctnist Rabbil College 2011; beme the first openly gay, female, black rabbi the world 2018. Organizers of a 2017 LGBT-rights ftival Chigo were acced of anti-Semism after they expelled marchers displayg symbols of gay-Jew pri bee “ma people feel unsafe, ” BBC reported. Jewish adults intify as gay or lbian (4 percent) bisexual (5 percent); 88 percent say they are straight, 1 percent say they are somethg else, 1 percent say they don’t know and 1 percent cled to answer the qutn.
Especially followg the acceptance by non-Orthodox movements of homosexual members and clergy, the topic of homosexualy has bee a particularly sensive and ntent issue wh the Jewish muny.
Orthodoxy, wh a cidly more nservative approach to Jewish law, has remaed steadfast s fense of the biblil prohibn, wh var nuanc velopg how to unrstand this proscriptn and s s larger list of illic sexual behavr, the Torah explicly prohibs male homosexual perative terurse: “You shall not lie wh a man as one li wh a woman; is an abomatn (to’eva)” (Levic 18:22). While some scholars emed female homosexual activy a biblil junctn (Kiryat Sefer Issurei Biah 21:8), others unrstood as a rabbic prohibn (Prisha EH 20:2) forms of non-perative male homosexual activy might nstute ls severe vlatns, although all penumbras of homosexual acts rema strictly prohibed (EH 20:1). This explanatn, however, suffers om the fact that the Torah perms sexual activy ntexts which procreatn is not possible, as the se of sterile people (Rabbeu Behaye Levic 18:6) Talmud unrstood the Bible’s characterizatn of homosexualy as a “to’eva” to reprent a nflatn of words meang, “You go astray ” (Nedarim 51a).