Israeli teachers from the LGBTQ community protesting education minister’s statements, photo courtesy YNET A Wider Bridge, the LGBTQ organization building support for Israel and LGBTQ Israelis, condemns the recent statements of Education Minister Rabbi Rafi Peretz, and calls on Prime Minister Netanyahu to immediately dismiss Rafi Peretz as his Education Minister following these remarks. Peretz […]
Oded Frid joins as the newest member of the board of the Aguda, replacing Imri Kalmann who departed in order to get into politics. Since his arrival, Frid has already participated in the Knesset’s discussion on conversion therapy. “If the current Ministry of Health did not change its mind since then, why does it oppose […]
Democratic lawmakers this week introduced a bill that would ban the practice of “conversion therapy,” treatments that historically have targeted the LGBT community and claim to be able to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2017 was introduced Tuesday by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), along with Sens. Patty […]
The menorah on Shloimy Notik’s windowsill is a reminder of how far he’s come as a proud, gay man. Coming out to my family was the beginning of a long, difficult journey. For almost a year, I attended the now-defunct organization JONAH, or Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality, which offered “gay conversion” therapies that […]
Roee Angel comes from an Orthodox Jewish family. In a Facebook post he describes the torture he went through coming out as gay, which included burial of two of his friends who committed suicide because of the nonacceptance of their families I shouldn’t have to bury two of my friends. At 13, I started to […]
Some of President-elect Donald Trump’s top advisers support gay conversion therapy, which raises fears of a potential change that could resurrect the communal battle over the practice. Just four years ago, more than 200 leading Orthodox rabbis signed a letter asserting that therapy can “heal” gay Jews. The letter came amid a heated Jewish communal […]
Gay Orthodox Jews face tremendous pressures to deny or hide their sexuality, making them easy prey for the missionaries of JONAH’s useless and dangerous attempts to ‘convert’ them to heterosexuality. Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), an organization devoted to helping boost “self-esteem and masculinity” to reduce homosexual inclinations, was recently forced to shut […]
Conversion therapy is dying in chunks. Four states and the District of Columbia have recently banned the practice for minors, and bills are pending in Massachusetts, New York, Washington state and New Hampshire to do the same. Here’s the complete story of how three brave young men took down JONAH in New Jersey, from conversion […]
Conversion ‘therapy’ often advise ‘patients’ to use an elastic band around their wrist. Every time they have a “homosexual inclination,” they should snaps it. A straight New Yorker guy decided to try it for a day and see how it feels “And Thou Shalt Love” disturbed me. It’s about Ohad (Uri Lachmi), an Israeli Yeshiva […]
A supposed treatment, called gay conversion therapy, that aims to change the same-sex attractions of gay people should not be offered to minors as it can cause serious psychological harm, according to a newly released federal agency report. Advocates of such conversion therapy hold that people can change their sexual orientation. The counseling is typically […]