A federal appeals court in New York has now become the second in the country to rule the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. This is a key legal breakthrough, but it’s an even bigger deal if you step back and consider what the landscape might look like in a year or so. What’s happening is quite […]
Jenna Talackova’s petetion asks the World Health Organization to stop classifying transsexualism as a mental illness, is part of an international campaign, and there are several others. According to an article on Channel4.com, the one that started it all off is by Maxwell Zachs, of the series My Transsexual Summer. Here are a few words from […]
When Sara-Rivka Davisdson first started thinking about her lesbian Jewish wedding, she was overwhelmed, and clueless. But taking it one step at a time, she planned amazing, spiritual, and memorable wedding. In my mid-twenties, I came out as a lesbian. But the hardest part wasn’t even coming out: it was realizing my wedding would be different […]
Noah Baron finds it offensive to have to sign a statement affirming that he would not be in an interfaith relationship while he is studying at Reform and Reconstructionist rabbinical colleges. I was (and am) passionate about my faith, I enjoyed Jewish learning and theological discussions and thought that perhaps the rabbinate would be a […]
Clement Lee, an American attorney who directly represents individual clients and advocates for detention policy reform for LGBT and HIV positive immigrants writes about a recent case of his. In immigration detention, my transgender client Raimunda (not her real name) faced a bleak choice: she could remain housed with other detainees in the male “general population,” […]
In her blog, an African American Orthodox Jew commented on the recent article When to Hide Your Race & Religion (Kveller, Jul. 13) that deals with hiding your kids heritage, or any part of who they are, in order “to make it easy on them.” We thought her ideas are rellevant also for hiding sexual identity. […]
Ahead of Barbra Streisand’s new album and tour, Jay Michaelson writes about her significant role in queer cultural Judaism As a Jewish gay man, I know that Barbra Streisand should be a double icon. A strong woman with a knack for musicals, she’s in the gay pantheon right next to Audrey Hepburn and, l’havdil, Madonna. […]
The Myths of Pinkwashing. Arthur Slepian, Executive Director of A Wider Bridge, writes about why he founded the organization, and the “pinkwashing” controversy. AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH: THE MYTHS OF PINKWASHING I am a gay man, an American, and a Jew. I am passionate about Israel, devoted to its well-being, and I want to see a […]
I’m a 22-year-old Portuguese gay activist and PhD student. I’m not Jewish, Israeli or even religious, but I am a Zionist and strong supporter of Israel, and I want to explain why. My story begins at the age of nine, when I went to the school library to get the Diary of Anne Frank. I […]