Michael Chertok, president of congregation Sha’ar Zahav, is among congregation members who have offered to open their homes to LGBT refugees. Pulling out his cellphone, Sergo Adamian quickly hit play on a YouTube video that captured the sea of men attacking a van with LGBT rights activists inside, including him, as it moved through a […]
Since becoming Congregation Bet Haverim’s spiritual leader in 1999, gay Rabbi Joshua Lesser has made a mark on the Reconstructionist synagogue and beyond. Membership at Bet Haverim has risen 300 percent, and the congregation has become a model for inclusivity while ending decades of wandering through private houses and rented spaces by moving into its […]
Rebecca Stapel-Wax, executive director of SOJOURN: Southern Jewish Resource Network for Gender & Sexual Diversity reflects on year 5776 5776 has been a very difficult year. Immediately after the Supreme Court’s decision to make marriage equality the law, there was a backlash with 200 legislative bills spread across the country proposing to discriminate against lesbian, […]
The Southern Jewish Resource Network for Gender & Sexual Diversity has announced a new mission and strategic plan to expand its reach: “Advancing LGBTQ affirmation and empowerment across the South” Executive director of SOJOURN Rebecca Stapel-Wax (left) and Education Director Robbie Medwed (right) with Georgia Equality Executive Director Jeff Graham The plan includes a new mission […]
In response to numerous anti-LGBT laws being introduced, and in many cases passed, at the state-level, the leadership of the Union for Reform Judaism, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the North American Federation of Temple Youth issued the following statement “As leaders in the Reform Jewish […]
Congregation Bet Haverim celebrated three decades as Atlanta’s first gay and lesbian synagogue with a multimedia presentation about its origins. The occasion is a bittersweet reminder for Michael McNeir-Clark, the only survivor of the shul’s four original founders. “Increasingly during the 1980s, there was a growing sense of urgency: Don’t whine; fix it. Don’t put […]
Executive Director of Gender Rights Maryland and A Wider Bridge Board Member Dana Beyer says that smashing the gender binary is dangerous political provocation in today’s climate – but the attacks of anti-LGBT legislation, which is often primarily directed at trans persons, must be dealt with directly. I have been engaged in a years-long effort […]
Atlanta’s Temple Sinai member Andy Bauman, who represents Sandy Springs’ 6th District on the City Council, is proud of the decade-old city’s record of nondiscrimination, and he doesn’t want to see that position change in light of House Bill 757, the religious liberty legislation the Georgia General Assembly last week sent to Gov. Nathan Deal. H.B. […]
A religious freedom bill described by opponents as being discriminatory against same-sex couples passed the Georgia state legislature on Wednesday night. The Georgia General Assembly sent religious liberty legislation to Gov. Nathan Deal on Wednesday night, March 16, outraging the LGBT community and its supporters and renewing warnings from the business community of the economic […]
Though America has made incredible strides toward a more inclusive society since same-sex couples nationwide gained the freedom to marry last June, anti-LGBT discrimination is alive and well. Rabbi Berg has been witness to it year after year, in three Temples, across three states—Texas, New Jersey, and now Georgia. For eight years, Rabbi Peter Berg […]