Honest psychologists and scientists know that this is bunk. Reparative therapy has been dismissed by every single mainstream health and welfare organization in the country, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Counseling Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the National Association of Social Workers.
But ordinary people don’t know that. So, in customary mass-media fashion, Dr. Oz, Dr. Drew and The New York Times depict this as a “controversy” and present two opposing “sides.” It may be good television, but it’s bad science. Dr. Oz doesn’t debate the relative merits of modern psychiatry versus the practice of drilling holes in peoples’ skulls to release demons, even though he could probably find “experts” on both sides to discuss it. And Dr. Drew doesn’t have a flat-earther debate astronomy with a NASA scientist. “Equal time” may work for matters of political opinion, but not scientific fact.
(In response to criticism from gay-rights activists, Dr. Oz subsequently defended his decision to host NARTH but said that “after listening to both sides of the issue and after reviewing the available medical data, I agree with the established medical consensus.” Well, that’s nice.)
The media’s blurring of the issue only throws the rabbis’ statement into starker relief. Remember, these are not progressive rabbis—many are on the far right on Israel and women's issues, and many vote Republican. I have no doubt many of them would prefer that reparative therapy actually worked. Also, the statement runs against their deep-seated instinct to keep intra-Jewish conflicts out of the public eye. But even they could not stand silent any longer.
For years now, Orthodox rabbis have danced between two poles: between insider and outsider, between knowing about this issue and (pretending) not knowing about it. At first they supported JONAH, then they were ambivalent, and then in 2011 they privately asked JONAH to take down their endorsement. Surely it’s theologically convenient to know but not know—to claim, as climate-change deniers love to do, that the evidence is not yet “persuasive.” But unlike Dr. Oz and Dr. Drew, many of these rabbis have known for years that reparative therapy doesn’t work, because they’ve met its survivors. They know that for every “success” (usually, a tortured gay man struggling to stay faithful to, and aroused by, his wife) there are hundreds of failures—some of which are downright tragic.
And so, in the wake of the lawsuit, which includes allegations not only of fraud but of borderline sexual abuse as well, they’ve had to take a clear, public stand. “As rabbis trained in Jewish law and values,” the RCA’s statement reads, “we base our religious positions regarding medical matters on the best research and advice of experts and scholars in those areas, along with concern for the religious, emotional, and physical welfare of those impacted by our decisions. Our responsibility is to apply halakhic (Jewish legal) values to those opinions.” Exactly.
Surveys have consistently shown that the most powerful predictor of whether someone supports gay rights is personally knowing gay people. It seems that the same is true for reparative therapy: whether you’re religious, conservative, or both, the more you know gay people, the more you know what happens when they try to change their sexualities, the more you know that reparative is not, as Dr. Oz framed it, a “controversy”—but a sham.
Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify that it is
characterizing the views of "many" of the rabbis in the Rabbinical Council
of America, not all of them.
Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.
Jay Michaelson is associate editor of Religion Dispatches and the author, most recently, of God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality (Beacon, 2011).
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
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Christopher Snyder
Christopher Snyder
Dec 1, 2012
Dr. OZ 's credibility is questionable.
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boxeadora68
boxeadora68
Dec 1, 2012
These news media outlets which, in the name of journalistic balance, give a platform to ex-gay therapy "experts" would never think of inviting a health "expert" on their shows who advocated bleeding as a cure for whooping cough.
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robwriter
robwriter
Dec 1, 2012
Dr. Oz is a "celebrity" who stopped being a doctor some time ago.
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Conor Kabinett
Conor Kabinett
Dec 1, 2012
Just admit you are suffering from c*ckoholism, then go with it.
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LikeReply
qc
qc
Dec 1, 2012
@Conor Kabinett
works for you
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1MediaSaturatedLikeReply
JeanPierreKatz
JeanPierreKatz
Dec 1, 2012
This story is very interesting to me. Unfortunately I think that this issue is not covered adequately .I tried to urge the Jewish Press to cover the story of the lawsuit, but they have not. JONAH is one of their advertisers.
The story of the RCA stand also was not featured in the Jewish Press.
This article also omits a lot of information that would inform a reader about Orhodox Jewish positions on different gay issues.
First of all all RCA rabbis and all Orthodox rabbis do not downplay gay sex as just one of many commandments. They all consider sex between two men as completely forbidden even for non-Jews.
But they also emphasize that orientation in not a sin, and that gay Jews are still Jews and should be treated in the same way as other Jews that don't keep commandments.
RCA rabbis tend to be Modern Orthodox, so for example, many will agree with one Orthodox view that the world was not created in 6 calendar days, but that days in the Torah can mean eons. This healthy respect for science is probably part of the reason the RCA has never supported or rejected reparative therapy. It also has previously supported the right of a patient to reject any therapy he finds objectionable.
This new position which rejects reparative therapy is another step in this direction.
Many RCA rabbis also have signed a declaration that basically tries to promote inclusion of gays in Orthodox congregations with some stipulations.
But as often is the case in Orthodox Judaism there are differences of opinion.
The non modern element has put out another Declaration that completely supports reparative therapy.
It is based on a theology that G-d could not have created a gay sexual orientation. It also believes that same sex attractions can be eliminated in favor of opposite sex attractions.
This group is not in any way impressed with any scientific views that contradict their theology.
What is also telling in the Declaration is that it does not in any way welcome gay Jews who are not trying to change their sexual orientation to come to or even to stay in Orthodox congregations.
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KOGnyc
KOGnyc
Dec 1, 2012
I would hope that the references to Dr. Oz are not relevant to anything other than the need to cite television and pop culture - he is somebody I have always respected and hope knows the difference between irrationality and actuality.
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Tommyboy
Tommyboy
Dec 1, 2012
Actually, he's one of the prime reasons for Zuckerman to shake up CNN. This is exactly the entire network's problem. With the exception of Anderson Cooper and Soledad O'Brien, they play the game of 'false equivalency' wherein they present "two sides to every story." They believe that makes them "objective." BUT there aren't 'two sides' to FACTS -- something Oz and others (notably Blitzer and Jon King) gloss over. In the name of political correctness, Oz and those like him give support to crackpots and their ridiculous 'theories.' It would be as if their science correspondent gave creedence to creationism.
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LelioRisen
LelioRisen
Dec 1, 2012
The moral equivalency practiced by the news media never ceases to disappoint.
Let us not forget that the Swift-boating of John Kerry was always made out to be a he said/she said type of story, even though the group was discredited. One would think that factual experts would receive more coverage than 21st century snake charmers, but that is obviously not the case. Even birthers, for the longest time were treated as an equally valid viewpoint.
So, the shameful behavior by news outlets in this case is not surprising in the least.
@leliorisen
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1jazzleoLikeReply
jomama
jomama
Nov 30, 2012
We know that there is little correlation between 'genes' and 'gay' - this from the largest and most respected work on the subject (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology_and_sexual_orientation).
We 'become' gay in our lives, for one reason or another - we don't yet know why. If you can be socialized or programmed to be one thing - you can be programmed the other way as well.
Ethics aside, it's a fact. One day, there will be a therapy + drugs that will effectively do the job.
Then I think the question of ethics of the process takes on a new domain.
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qc
qc
Dec 1, 2012
@jomama
that's funny, actually
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jk105
jk105
Dec 1, 2012
@jomama
Wikipedia reports there is no conclusive evidence to prove there is a correlation. That doesn't mean sexual orientation isn't innate. It just means science hasn't proven it yet.
If we "become" homosexual or "become" heterosexual, you certainly must remember the day you "became" heterosexual jomama. It is an important day "becoming" heterosexual, no? Can you describe that day for us please. What were you wearing?
Meanwhile torturing gay people with this abusive therapy is a sin. it doesn't even work!
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txjew
txjew
Dec 1, 2012
@jomama We can say the same thing about gender. Maybe one day we can, via therapy and drugs, end the male gender. But why would we?
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2MediaSaturatedqcLikeReply
jk105
jk105
Dec 1, 2012
@txjew @jomama
We can say the same thing about heterosexuality. Maybe one day we can, via therapy and drugs, end heterosexuality. But why would we?
FlagShare
LikeReply
jazzleo
jazzleo
Dec 1, 2012
@txjew @jomama If jomama is male there is a perfect reason
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jazzleo
jazzleo
Dec 1, 2012
@jomama OMG-this is what makes people laugh at you
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LikeReply
qc
qc
Nov 30, 2012
naked rabbis cure gayness
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4KOGnycTommyboyMediaSaturatedjazzleoLikeReply
jomama
jomama
Nov 30, 2012
@qc that's funny actually.
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13 comments
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Larry Hall
Rom 1:26 God let them follow their own evil desires. Women no longer wanted to have sex in a natural way, and they did things with each other that were not natural.
Rom 1:27 Men behaved in the same way. They stopped wanting to have sex with women and had strong desires for sex with other men. They did shameful things with each other, and what has happened to them is punishment for their foolish deeds.
Rom 1:28 Since these people refused even to think about God, he let their useless minds rule over them. That's why they do all sorts of indecent things.
Rom 1:29 They are evil, wicked, and greedy, as well as mean in every possible way. They want what others have, and they murder, argue, cheat, and are hard to get along with. They gossip,
Rom 1:30 say cruel things about others, and hate God. They are proud, conceited, and boastful, always thinking up new ways to do evil. These people don't respect their parents.
Rom 1:31 They are stupid, unreliable, and don't have any love or pity for others.
Rom 1:32 They know God has said that anyone who acts this way deserves to die. But they keep on doing evil things, and they even encourage others to do them.
Reply · 1 ·
· September 7 at 7:16pm
Tony Cates
Those are the opinions of the Apostle Paul, who also told you that no one who is single sould marry, unless you couldn't control yourself, because it's better to marry than burn with passion! See 1st Corinthians 7: 8-9. Why did Paul think the only reason to marry someone was because of lust & not love? Next time your wife asks you why you married her I hope she doesn't slap your face and leave when you explain that Paul said you should marry her if you wanted to get in her pants!Paul was a man, his letters are his letters, and his opinions are his opinions - Paul is not God, and his letters are not the Word of God!
Reply ·
· September 7 at 10:18pm
.
Alexander Ruiz · Top Commenter · The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom
Tony Cates that's God's truth and no matter how much you try to excuse it away. The truth will condemn you if you to acknowledge it for what is. God commanded men and women to be FRUITFUL and multiply. Homosexuals can't carry out God's orders, as sin robs them of honoring God. We're all here because of God's orders and will of man and women.
Reply ·
· September 8 at 12:32am
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.
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W Dale Cebula · Works at I. Schumann
strictly speaking the whole of Marriage laws visa the state is for cases of divorce and death. the point of marriage in a religious instance is entirely separate from the civil understanding and we would all be better off understanding and living by that standard. the stupid thing about parts of this article is the focus on LGBT issues. I don't care much about this issue, but I feel that the notion of religious "left" or "right" is a manner of cherry picking what elements of Christianity on wishes to follow whereas the point of Christianity (and other religions for that matter) is to set aside one's pride and work to fulfill the work that God (or whomever) has in mind for one to do.
Reply ·
· September 8 at 4:01am
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Alexander Ruiz · Top Commenter · The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom
The religious left? God's word has no such term. Either one is saved, sanctified and living righteously by the power of God or they're in sin trying to justify it. The religious left what God's word calls "the great falling away" The religious left is of the anti Christ spirit.
Reply ·
· September 8 at 12:35am
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Hiram Ben Cooper
Oxymoron, fiction or fact, marriage is an institution created by God.
Man's self-righteousness does not overrule God's righteousness, God's commandments.
Christ will judge each of us in the end, not man. We cannot create God from the ground up.
Reply ·
· September 7 at 3:39pm
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Paul Dragu · Gwinnett Technical College
The wolf is officially dressed up and among the sheep. Welcome to the bold display of false teachers.
Reply ·
· September 8 at 5:44am
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Mike Brown · Top Commenter · West Virginia University
Dan Savage is not a Christian. He's a Christian hater. Do your research on him. This story is a joke and just another piece of propaganda we're supposed to accept as fact but instead its fiction.
Reply · 2 ·
· March 31 at 2:20am
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Edward Walsh · Top Commenter · Weber High School, Chicago, IL
CHRISTIAN LEFT IS AN OXYMORON!
Reply · 2 ·
· March 30 at 8:36pm
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Joyce Rhodes Steele · Top Commenter
Obama didn't take up gay marriage because of his faith. The UN was putting pressure on him to get it legalized.
Reply · 1 ·
· February 17 at 12:39pm
Paul Collurafici · Chief Engineer at Tattoo Factory
How about if everybody just minded their own business? Don't want gays to marry... don't marry one. Think gays are going to hell? Tell them when you are sure.
Reply · 1 ·
· February 17 at 1:55pm
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Joyce Rhodes Steele · Top Commenter
I think making laws kind of makes it every ones business. I don't think gays going to hell is the issue on gay marriage with Christians.
Reply · 1 ·
· February 17 at 4:29pm
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Craig Gosling · Top Commenter · Indianapolis, Indiana
The political silence of religious liberals has been disheartening. Apparently God does not consider this movement worthwhile to support, or does he?
Reply · 1 ·
· January 3 at 3:45am
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Liberals in our Midst: How the Religious Left Is Changing America’s Future
While the religious right claims the spotlight, faith-based progressives are working to bring about tolerance and acceptance.
December 10, 2012
Andri Antoniades
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Progressive religion is at the forefront of social changes like marriage equality and LGBT acceptance. Some people may be surprised to learn that faith-based progressives are at the forefront of social changes such as marriage equality and LGBT acceptance.(Photo: Rob Melnychuk/Getty Images)
After a hotly contested election year with—once again—a particular focus on the “religious right,” many Americans are left with a generalized view of organized spirituality as being dogmatic and intolerant of differences. Though such generalities might be based on some specifics, they exclude an entire movement of clergy and religiously-affiliated laypeople who actively campaign for progressive issues such as marriage equality, gender equality and racial tolerance.
In fact, this “religious left” is effectively changing the way the public views some of the most significant social justice issues facing America today.
Self-identifying Christian and Jewish activists played a large role in legalizing same-sex marriage in four states this year. Jay Michaelson is an openly gay religious scholar, longtime LGBT activist, and author of God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality. Michaelson was part of that movement for marriage equality, working at a grass-roots level to help faith-based communities reconcile their spiritual beliefs with the rights of the LGBT community. As a result, states like Maryland made history by voting to legalize same-sex marriage.
MORE: Father Bob Pierson: Person of Interest
Michaelson tells TakePart that those wins came from faith-based principles that allowed activists to meet people with compassion and understanding. “We won because we were able to have conversations one on one with people of faith who are not bigoted or close-minded, but are sincerely struggling with these issues. Really, it’s a statistical fact that most people are somewhere in the middle. A lot of people of faith were supportive in general, but had deep reservations. We were able to engage with millions of people across the country during this election season, and that’s the role we [religiously affiliated groups] should be playing.”
Though LGBT rights and deep religious belief might superficially appear to be in conflict, it’s precisely because of their faith that the so-called religious left can embrace and champion the rights of people who are often maligned or looked upon as being “on the fringe.”
Pastor Joseph W. Tolton, the leader of Harlem’s groundbreaking Temple Christ Conscious Church, sees his faith as an instrument of inclusion. The pastor credits President Obama with introducing that concept to the country as a whole.
““Whatever spirituality means, it has something to do with being honest and truthful to yourself and others and being available to love- and you can’t do all those things if you’re lying about who you are to yourself and everybody else.””
Tolton tells TakePart, “When President Obama made his declaration to support marriage equality, for me the most important thing that he said was that his faith informed his decision. The cultural market is presenting a wonderful opportunity for faith to take a new role in driving the principles and the values of inclusion and driving a social justice agenda at the intersection of women’s rights, racial justice and LGBT inclusion, which actually play off of each other and work in support of each other. These issues are no longer siloed. I think that’s something the left brings to faith-based organizing.”
Michaelson says that his earliest beliefs about his Jewish faith made him feel a sense of shame and fear about identifying as gay. Later, he came to understand that his beliefs and his sexuality were actually perfectly aligned. “Whatever spirituality means, it has something to do with being honest and truthful to yourself and others and being available to love—and you can’t do all those things if you’re lying about who you are to yourself and everybody else.”
The Christian Left: Do They Exist?
But make no mistake: Championing the rights of the LGBT community extends activism beyond that community. Faith-based organizers at the forefront of the faith-based progressive movement know that tackling marriage equality will have far-reaching economic and racial implications.
According to Pastor Tolton: “Reimagining the value of marriage means linking it to economic equality and linking it to the connection to people’s ability to save and therefore invest and create a more viable economic future for themselves and their children. That conversations about marriage equality in the black context forces us to have conversations about how marriage has broken down from a heterosexual perspective in the African-American community, particularly in the black church and people of lower income levels, which can only be of benefit to the community at large.”
The pastor believes that addressing the idea of marriage as a whole in the black community will spill over to addressing its lack of available marriage-ready black men, which will in turn raise much-needed conversations about related issues like the war on drugs, black men’s “ridiculous rates of incarceration,” economic inequalities and the need for job training in the African-American community.
In other words, all issues of inequality are connected. When one group benefits, that win can have a ripple effect on other groups still battling for equal rights.
Most importantly, says Tolton, the stance on equality is supported by religious principles: “Being radically inclusive is the heartbeat of the Christ because it’s elevating the dignity of every human creature that God has created. And if we as progressive Christians can really sing that song and preach that and live that, I think we can really reframe what it means to be a follower of Jesus.”
8 LGBT Movie Characters That Furthered Gay Rights
Whatever one’s relgious leanings, Michaelson says these issues exist outside the scope of our differences; more than the labels of LGBT or black or female, when it comes down to it, equality is a human right. He says, “When I crack open the Bible, and I read about Isaiah telling me to feed the hungry and help the poor and clothe the naked, that has obvious resonance today. There’s no question to me but that religious faith represents a value that we reinforce one another.”
Do you believe that religion can be a force for equality? Let us know what you think of social justice and religion in the Comments.
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Book Reviews, Reviews — December 2012
God vs. Gay? and Through the Door of Life
Daniel Lichman
God vs GayJay Ladin - Through the Door coverThe tranquil New England lake, surrounded by forest, glistened invitingly. We assembled on the edge of the wooden dock to this natural mikvah. Each participant chose a group with which they were to share this experience—male-bodied, female-bodied, gender queer — according to their self-definition. After a few words of introduction, we shared an intention for the Shabbat and ritually cleansed ourselves. The approach of the Nehirim retreats was clear: Jewish ritual can be reclaimed and Judaism embraced as a way not only to affirm queer sexuality and gender identity but to encourage the individual to embrace their identity and overcome internalised societal homophobia and transphobia.
In God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality Jay Michaelson, the founder of Nehirim, the Jewish LGBT spirituality organisation, uses this perspective to explore both how religious values affirm lesbian and gay lives and how sexual diversity affirms religion. He uses a distinctly Judeo-Christian values-based theological vocabulary to argue a considered, articulate political case for gay rights in the USA.
Michaelson is well placed to do this. He is well known for his writing on religious, legal and LGBT issues through Zeek magazine in the 2000s and now through regular newspaper columns. While the content of this work is different, there is a stylistic similarity to his previous book, Everything is God, in that both interweave the personal and the theoretical in a logically-argued polemical treatise. Turning his oeuvre to the often unpleasant and peculiarly American religious debate about marriage equality is clearly of limited effectiveness if reserved for a Jewish critique. Luckily Michaelson’s postgraduate studies were on the Christian bible.
Michaelson intends this book to make a difference to the political reality. His assumption is that religious anti-gay rhetoric can be undermined by exposing its deep flaws and lack of scriptural grounding. Citing Martin Luther King’s harnessing of the force of religious rhetoric in the campaign for civil rights, Michaelson argues that religion has a similar potential in the campaign for sexual equality.
Before addressing the difficult texts he clearly states the principles that compel Jews and Christians to embrace gay rights. The usual suspects, including “Love your neighbour [sic] as yourself” and “justice, justice shall you pursue” are miraculously rescued from cliche through targeted real examples and clear argumentation. The most effective anecdotes are those that call attention to the pain of closeted anti-gay and so-called ex-gay leaders.
Exploring the commandment “Not to bear false witness”, Michaelson movingly discusses his own years in the closet. “I lied… Somehow, I believed that all this lying was in the service of God. From where I sit now, the proposition is preposterous.” Through reading this commandment and an assortment of other associated Tanach and New Testament texts, he draws from this experience that “religious people should support equality for LGBT people because more openness leads to more honesty, more holiness and more authentic spirituality.” The ground is thus prepared for Michaelson to challenge the homophobic readings of other parts of scripture.
Any discussion on the Bible and homosexuality must begin with the verse that dare not speak its name, Leviticus 18:22. Michaelson utilises not only the religious values he has established but the fundamental truism that our modern categories of sexual identity — the words “homosexual”, “gay” and “lesbian” — are just that: modern. To read them into ancient texts is therefore anachronistic. The following passage gives a flavour of his approach:
I think this literal reading of Leviticus 18:22 makes more sense than any other one. I think it “wins.” However, even if it only “ties” with the anti-gay readings, that is enough. The point here is that it is plausible, and that such a reading is necessary based on our fundamental values… But I don’t even have to do that. All I have to do… is read the verse closely, literally and attentively. Leviticus is a prohibition on male anal sex in the context of idolatry. Nothing more.
Michaelson repeats this methodology with other much quoted supposedly anti-gay texts. The Corinthians extract is “obviously…not about homosexuality, and certainly not same-sex relationships” whilst in the Timothy text “the issue is less the physical act itself than the context: sex outside of marriage.” Michaelson then turns his attention to possible examples of same-sex love in the Bible, particularly focusing on David and Jonathan. By ending on this note his logic is complete: positive religious values call on us to include gay and lesbian people; the readings of the text are misguided; examples of same-sex love can even be found in the Bible and Christian and Jewish traditions.
In the third and final section a different voice emerges, usefully broadening the potential scope of gay rights discourse. Instead of basing his argument on the liberal, individualist and rights-based philosophical basis that LGBT activism usually starts from, Michaelson turns on the family values that are usually the discursive domain of the right. He argues that equality for gays and lesbians will result in more shared ground, a greater value placed upon family and a more stable society.
The effectiveness of this book as a polemic and a toolbox for activists comes at the cost of limiting the discussion of key issues for religious gay and lesbian people. By co-opting a family values discourse from conservatives Michaelson appears to suggest (despite his assurances to the contrary) that the ideal religious expressions of gay and lesbian sexuality are monogamous, conventional relationships. A serious discussion of how religious ethics can dovetail and speak to the lived experience of lesbian and gay people in religiously unprecedented sexual and relationship arrangements is an outstanding project and Michaelson’s understanding of the gay and lesbian community and religious values suggests that he would be well placed to address that. It is a shame that he cannot enter that discussion in this piece.
Joy Ladin’s Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between the Genders contrasts with Michaelson’s book in its approach to the question that both self consciously address: how can the written word shift perspective and create empathy? For Ladin, a published poet, it is through her mastery of descriptive and evocative personal testimony.
Professor of English literature at Yeshiva University, the flagship institution of modern orthodoxy in the US, Ladin accidentally experienced a short bout of international fame in 2008 when her story was sensationally plastered over page three of the New York Post under the headline “YE-SHE-VA”.
Judaism, and more particularly Ladin’s deep relationship with God — “when I look in the mirror, I see the mystery of God’s creation” — is an anchoring theme of this moving work. Ladin describes her years of gender dysphoria before she embarked on her transition. Jay Ladin felt uncomfortable in his male body from a young age. He married, had three children and still periods of gender dysphoria would utterly destabilise him. His marriage broke down as his wife felt that his desire to become a woman was selfish and destructive. Aside from the detail of gender transition, this is a powerful, universal human story. As Ladin says, “Transsexuals’ lives may seem strange, even bizarre, but the questions we face… are the questions life poses to us all: How can we become ourselves?”
Many people are not easily able to speak frankly with a trans person about their experience. Testimony such as Ladin’s is valuable and may help to encourage the cis (non-trans)-gendered reader to confront and challenge their own confusion, questions and prejudice.
In her review for the Forward Naomi Alderman perceptively and forcefully critiques Ladin for returning to “banal cliches about what it is like to be either a man or a woman.” Alderman notes with some sadness that “she’s no feminist”. The theoretical and political implications of gender transition are simply not Ladin’s concern here. Indeed, taking the form of poetic episodic reflections it is clear that the act of writing and publishing this work was deeply therapeutic.
Personal testimony and rigorous argumentation are vital tools for activists committed to changing our society. Readers will be challenged and have their perspectives broadened by Ladin’s testimony; Michaelson’s logical, clear argumentation and detailed notes and bibliography provide an essential toolbox for activist debates with social conservatives. Ultimately, both works use the experience of gender and sexual minorities to call our attention to the importance of living authentic lives. If Jewish tradition is speaking so resonantly to the formerly marginalised, then it can be transformed at the centre affirming each and every one of us.
Daniel Lichman is a Jewish educator. He is currently in his first year of the rabbinic course at Leo Baeck College. He was involved in creating Keshet UK, a LGBT advocacy group for the Jewish community.
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Gay Synagogues’ Uncertain Future
As mainstream acceptance grows—along with membership—gay congregations face unexpected questions
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Beth Chayim Chadashim’s new green synagogue building, 2011. (Kenna Love)
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New York’s Congregation Beit Simchat Torah made news recently when it announced the purchase of a three-level space in a landmark tower on the west side of Manhattan. When construction is complete, the building in the Garment District will house CBST’s first permanent home in its 40-year history.
“We’ve been in a rental space that’s hard to find and reflects what the community was in the ’70s,” said Sharon Kleinbaum, senior rabbi at CBST—the country’s largest LGBT-founded synagogue, with over 1,100 adult members, up from about 650 just five years ago. “Now it will be part of the fabric of the city, out on the street, not hidden away. Without an address, it’s hard to be a firm presence, and that’s what we want to become. We want to say that we are a vibrant part of the life of New York City and the world.”
Across the country in Los Angeles, Beth Chayim Chadashim, the country’s oldest LGBT synagogue, recently reached a similar milestone, having moved into its own new building last year and celebrating its 40th anniversary this past June.
LGBT congregations have finally come into their own, providing a home for the Jewish community’s LGBT members and their friends and families in cities both large and small. But the increasing acceptance around gay issues in mainstream synagogues, from Reconstructionist to Reform to Conservative, and even on the fringes of Modern Orthodoxy, means that these synagogues are no longer the only option for LGBT Jews. So, the lines that once seemed so clear have begun to blur: LGBT synagogues in places like Cleveland and Atlanta are merging or outgrowing their original designation and drawing a more diverse membership, even as mainstream congregations sign up new gay members and become more diverse.
According to Jay Michaelson, founder of Nehirim, an organization dedicated to LGBT spirituality, “There are some people for whom living their Jewish identity is linked to their queer identity, but for others, 2013 isn’t 1983. Most synagogues, outside of the Orthodox world, are welcoming, or at least won’t slam the door in their faces. The LGBT synagogues that used to be the default option for gay people no longer are.”
The future for LGBT synagogues, therefore, is unclear. Have they achieved the goals that led to their establishment in the first place—and if so, have they already outlived their purpose, now that mainstream synagogues have become more welcoming? Where will these synagogues be in another 40 years?
***
1974 Advocate clipping of BCC leaders with survivor Torah
By the early 1970s, the gay-rights movement was gaining steam. Although not the first incident of its kind, the 1969 Stonewall police raid, and the riots that followed, galvanized the gay community, both in New York and nationally. Political and advocacy organizations formed, and Gay Pride parades started marching through American cities.
But politics was not the only arena seeing a surge in LGBT-oriented institution-building. The spiritually minded, long marginalized or rejected by mainstream religious institutions, began to demand places of their own where they could come together for community and prayer. Metropolitan Community Church, the nation’s first “gay church,” and other gay-friendly Christian institutions began hosting social and religious events that drew crowds of seekers. Despite the obvious theological barriers, some Jews participated at MCC, feeling they had no other choices open to them. They had found nowhere in the established Jewish world that would allow both their gay and Jewish identities to be fully and publicly expressed.
Eventually, small clusters of predominantly gay men and a few lesbians set up synagogues of their own in cities across the country, slowly growing from shoestring operations to full-service synagogues. BCC in Los Angeles opened its doors in 1972. CBST in New York followed in 1973. By the end of the 1970s, LGBT synagogues had opened in cities all around the country. In each, marginalized LGBT groups, desiring authentic communal and spiritual spaces, formed congregations that catered to their needs.
While the earliest congregations appeared in the span of just a few years, there was no concerted effort to create a movement. Word trickled out into the national gay community that groups of people were getting together, but each nascent congregation formed independent of the others. In the very early years, they weren’t affiliated with any of the major Jewish denominations, either. No one expected any of the mainstream movements to want to add LGBT synagogues to their rosters. As a result, many within BCC were surprised when, in 1974, the Reform movement supported its bid for formal affiliation.
Advertisement in the Village Voice February 8, 1973, for CBST's first service the following evening, February 9, 1973CBST marching in support of Soviet Jewry, 1976
“The prevailing sense within the community at the time was an expectation of a negative response to the application,” according to Stephen Sass, BCC’s unofficial historian and president of the Jewish Historical Society of Southern California, “but when they went to meet with Rabbi Arnold Kaiman of the then-Union of American Hebrew Congregations, now the Union for Reform Judaism, his only question was, ‘How can we help you?’ ”
As the number of LGBT congregations around the country grew, many became affiliated with the Reform or Reconstructionist movements. Still, for decades, LGBT Jews faced a choice: They could be openly gay within LGBT synagogues, or remain closeted in mainstream congregations. The exclusion from those mainstream synagogues was real—temples and synagogues, even on the politically, socially, and religiously liberal end of the spectrum, did not welcome openly LGBT members.
While closeted individuals could attend services, and even join as members, LGBT couples and families had it harder. Partnerships were not acknowledged. Rabbis would not perform life-cycle events, such as bris or simchat bat ceremonies that named two men as fathers or two women as mothers. Even on a social level, participation could be difficult, even if just a handful of congregants were loudly uncomfortable with the presence of gay men or lesbians within the synagogue.
As Idit Klein, executive director of Keshet, a national Jewish LGBT advocacy organization, explained, “When I started doing this work as a paid professional, the refrain was ‘the Jewish community rejected me, or I know they would reject me.’ There was real hostility and rejection experienced.”
Continue reading: Mainstream acceptance
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Michal Lemberger is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in Slate, Salon, and Narratively. Follow her on Twitter at @wordmama.
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Rabbi AlanHenkin says:
March 11, 2013
5:59 AM
One small clarification to an otherwise terrific article: the Union of American Hebrew Congregations’ rabbi, to whom Sass refers, was Erwin Herman, who courageously championed the chartering of BCC in the face of ferocious opposition. His son Jeff came out of the closet and eventually died from complications of AIDS in 1992. In memory of Jeff, Erv and his wife Aggie created the Jeff Herman Virtual Resource Center for Sexual Orientation at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion. http://huc.edu/ijso/jhvrc/jhvrc.php
simon.lissak@gmail.com says:
March 11, 2013
10:09 AM
Funny… An LGBT shul is fine…. But a Messianic Shul is heresy!? How does that work?
oaklandj says:
March 11, 2013
10:20 AM
One is Jewish, and the other is Christian. That’s why.
Bryan Bridges says:
March 11, 2013
10:28 AM
Not heresy, but a church.
Tiela Chalmers says:
March 11, 2013
10:42 AM
An interesting question this article hints at – is there a uniquely LGBT perspective on Judaism, in addition to simply being welcoming of LGBT individuals and families? I believe there is – an understanding of the need to engage with the text, an empathy for the other, a commitment to the need to be “out” in all the ways one might be, a deep commitment to social justice, a genuine intention to let our children be exactly who they are – but that it is not necessary to be LGBT to embrace that perspective.
simon.lissak@gmail.com says:
March 11, 2013
11:00 AM
church=gathering=assembly=synagogue=same
simon.lissak@gmail.com says:
March 11, 2013
11:03 AM
Christ-ian = Moshiach-ian = Jewish and Maimonides
states that one who does not believe in Moshiach, or does not await
his coming, denies the validity of the Torah and of our teacher
Moses.
oaklandj says:
March 11, 2013
11:07 AM
I’m not going to get into an argument about Jewish theology with a Christian on a Jewish site. Sorry.
Sh3LLz2 says:
March 11, 2013
12:17 PM
The Jews have been disobeying God since they left Egypt. No surprise here even though the Torah says all of these people should be (or wouldve been) stoned. Thats why they have been abandoned as Gods people.
oaklandj says:
March 11, 2013
12:45 PM
Three issues: God, gays, and Israel, attract Christians to Tablet (and other online Jewish sites) like white on rice…
elie says:
March 11, 2013
12:57 PM
why dont you THINK before asking? well,my son,lgbt are sinning jews,so they may pray. messianic as you said ,is heresy,there is no synagogue for christian prayer.
elie says:
March 11, 2013
1:01 PM
you can gather in a parc or on the beach,for you it’s all the same.
perot says:
March 11, 2013
1:08 PM
God bless all Jews! Gay, straight or otherwise.
That being said, I’m sad that in this day and age any Jew should chose to separate from the greater community..or cause another to need to separate.
We are one..am yisroel.
Lauren Deutsch says:
March 11, 2013
1:42 PM
The article misses several important elements to the acceptance and support of LGBT Jews to prove that Abraham’s Tent is open on all side. The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles recognizes that young adult LGBT Jews deserved a pathway into the community and has supported the mission of JQ International (jqinternational.org) to this end. Founded in 2005, JQ partners with area Jewish organizations, including congregations, to present holiday celebrations and other programs (educational, social action, etc.) of interest to this otherwise “ad hoc” segment of the population. This spring, JQ and the JFed are co-spoonsoring a BIrthright – Taglit trip to Israel for Jewish LGBT and their Allies.
wolfpeace@aol.com says:
March 11, 2013
1:55 PM
I am a male to female transsexual and Jewishly, a “Traditional Egalitarian Conservative.” I accept that being Orthodox, Reconstructionist, or Reform os right for other Jews, but for me, personally, I cannot accept another choice. Unfortunately, the only LGBT synagogues are either Reform or Reconstructionist. I must be where I am mot comfortable. I belong to and have belong to synagogues that are closer to what I believe: “Traditional Egalitarian Conservative.”
wolfpeace@aol.com says:
March 11, 2013
1:55 PM
A Jewish criminal is still counted in the minyon.
Gregg says:
March 11, 2013
2:00 PM
I’m not sure where Jay Michaelson got that figure of 12% of LGBT Jews being synagogue members. In an article published a few years ago in the Journal of Jewish Communal Service (Vol. 84, No. 1, Winter/Spring 2009), a figure of 16% was cited (vs. 39% for non-LGBT Jews). The same article noted that at least 7% of American Jews identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual (the study didn’t have data on transgender Jews).
02Dave12345 says:
March 11, 2013
5:23 PM
Sounds like some good changes overall.
If a straight person can imagine living in a world where going to work is a mostly LGBT environment, going to the shopping mall it’s the same, almost any restaurant, mostly LGBT people sitting around you, waiting on you. Maybe you can imagine why a mostly LGBT synagogue would be attractive to queer Jews. As much as people are trying these days, we’re still made to feel different much of the time.
elie says:
March 11, 2013
5:48 PM
who cares?
elie says:
March 11, 2013
5:54 PM
you’ve got the point!—is a minyan of criminals a minyan?
oaklandj says:
March 11, 2013
6:21 PM
Are there no trans-accepting Conservative shuls near you? I’m not Conservative myself, but I was under the impression that there are many Conservative congregations that accept trans members.
rebmark says:
March 11, 2013
7:52 PM
I am glad to have had my small part in helping this change come about. Thank you to my various friends who pointed the article (and photo) out to me.
Gitai Ben-Ammi says:
March 11, 2013
8:41 PM
Temple de Hirsch-Sinai in Seattle has always been accepting of my husband and I. There were no issues with our conversion. During Rosh ha-Shanah last year, Rabbi Meyer used his sermon to advocate strongly for voting yes on gay marriage, and the first day it was legal, he performed our wedding. We’re both involved in leadership positions. I know Tikvah Hadashah exists in Seattle, but I’ve just never felt the need to join a specifically LGBT congregation.
Daniel Cheshire says:
March 11, 2013
11:58 PM
Hey, have you heard? All religions are doomed. Atheism is the fastest growing religious belief in the world. The latest statistics, (repeated by the Catholic Church recently), show that in 20 years by 2033, there will likely only be 50% as many religious followers as today. And in 40 years, (2053), there are likely to only be as few as 10% as the number of today. The Vatican made an announcement last month that by 2050, there could be no more Catholic Church. We can only hope. All gods are false and all religions are cults. Science, logic, common sense and international cooperation will be the only savior for mankind. The day we move forward without religious mythology as truth is the moment we will truly be a civilized society.
oaklandj says:
March 12, 2013
2:20 AM
Maybe you can post that on a Catholic site. You don’t understand Judaism if you’re posting it here.
GameTime says:
March 12, 2013
1:34 PM
One thing about gay people is they don’t WANT to be like you or me or anybody else. They have to be different and special and unique. They think their gayness entitles them to it.
GameTime says:
March 12, 2013
1:35 PM
Hey if there were a 1000 shuls near them they would still create their own place. It’s just an excuse to not blend in.
oaklandj says:
March 12, 2013
2:35 PM
With all due respect, you’re missing the point: *why* would an LGBT Jew choose a LGBT-specific synagogue rather than “blend in”?
elie says:
March 12, 2013
2:38 PM
your rabbi is a real bastard!
elie says:
March 12, 2013
2:43 PM
i’m glad to find a man living mentally in 19th century!
anyway,we jews,its not by our number that we exist,but by our personal qualities and our fidelity!
Jack Hillelsohn says:
March 12, 2013
2:50 PM
With all due respect, you are missing the point. A queer person (to use the umbrella term for all who are not strictly hetero-oriented) wants a synagogue to feel that is a home. Many schuls can and have become be welcoming, they can be inclusive, but a Queer synagogue is a HOME for people like me, who want to pray in using gender neutral siddur and environment that is truly non=judgemental and open to all. That is whjy I would choose a Queer schul because I don’t want to and shouldn’t have to “blend-in”.
wolfpeace@aol.com says:
March 12, 2013
4:07 PM
I belonged to two and belong now to one trans accepting Conservative synagogues. The two are past tense because I have moved.
wolfpeace@aol.com says:
March 12, 2013
4:09 PM
Unfortunately, you are both missing the point. There are advantages to both.
wolfpeace@aol.com says:
March 12, 2013
4:11 PM
Yes. What can ten Jewish ganoofs (thieves) do that nine tzadickim can’t? Publicly praise Hashem.
oaklandj says:
March 12, 2013
4:18 PM
Jack: I’m assuming you’re responding to GameTime, not me. You and I seem to be in agreement.
oaklandj says:
March 12, 2013
4:20 PM
So the only thing missing in the one you belong to now is…?
oaklandj says:
March 12, 2013
9:26 PM
All gays think the exact same way? Stop stereotyping.
David Reinwald says:
March 13, 2013
2:21 AM
I believe it is a wonderful sign of the ever-evolving communities and world we live in that more and more LGBT Jews are choosing to and feel comfortable being members of mainstream congregations in every city and suburb throughout the US. At the same time, I entirely recognize the desire and need for LGBT Jews to find their community within community, and finding the LGBT Jewish community at a LGBT synagogue which may recognize special needs and interests of that community more readily is entirely understandable and applauded. In mainstream congregations, I often have experienced LGBT members forming their own chavurot, be they small or large– once again building community within community and no different than any other of the many chavurot that exist, bringing together people of certain demographics, etc.
wolfpeace@aol.com says:
March 13, 2013
3:59 PM
Duchan (priestly blessings) on holy days
Kohen HaGadol says:
March 13, 2013
6:13 PM
Very well put!
Stephen Sass says:
March 13, 2013
8:47 PM
For the record, two events in Beth Chayim Chadashim’s early history as the world’s first LGBT synagogue were unfortunately inadvertently conflated in the article: the initial meeting in 1972 between BCC’s Jerry Small, one of the congregation’s founders, with the UAHC’s Rabbi Arnold Kaiman, who was soon succeeded by Rabbi Erwin L. Herman; and BCC’s 1973 groundbreaking application for membership as a UAHC-affiliated congregation, which was indeed championed, as Rabbi Henkin notes, by Rabbi Herman, zichrono livracha, who was a lifelong advocate, with his wife Agnes, for BCC and for the inclusion in Jewish life of LGBT individuals and families.
As I wrote in the history of BCC published on the occasion of its 30th anniversary: “The ad hoc committee heard a report of Jerry Small’s meeting with Rabbi Arnold Kaiman of the UAHC. Small called Kaiman after learning that the Reform movement of Judaism was the only denomination that might provide assistance to the group. Small reported that he went to the meeting with Rabbi Kaiman expecting to put up a fight. Instead, Rabbi Kaiman’s only response was, ‘How can we help you?’…Soon, Rabbi Erwin L. Herman, then director of UAHC’s Pacific Southwest Council and national director of regional activities was enthusiastically assisting the fledgling congregation, helping develop the lay-led services and adult education classes, obtaining speakers, and lending a Torah and other ritual objects. ‘Rabbi Herman became our champion…he was our advisor, our friend and mentor. I can’t begin to thank him for all of his work on our behalf,’ wrote Lorena Wellington, secretary of the congregation’s board of directors.”
BCC’s 1974 admission to the UAHC, initially welcomed by Rabbi Kaiman and shepherded by Rabbi Herman “through the complex maze of surprise, resistance, ignorance, prejudice, love and goodwill” as noted in a contemporaneous account, marked the first time a synagogue with an outreach to gay men and lesbians was accepted by one of the Jewish congregational movements. It was also the first gay and lesbian congregation of any faith group accepted by a mainstream religious denomination.
Josephine Harkay says:
March 14, 2013
11:46 PM
I am not Jewish, but isn’t a gay synagogue a contradiction in terms? Don’t they accept the Old Testament with its story of Sodom and Gomorrah? How about sodomy being called an abomination in the O.T.? I am puzzled.
Hugo Cavendish says:
March 15, 2013
11:46 AM
It may be: on the other hand, it might not be. Who knows?
Shlomo Toren says:
March 17, 2013
3:28 AM
Adultery is a far worse sin then homosexuality in the Torah. Look and see how many condemnations there are against adultery.
As for homosexuality, when done as a form of idolatry , then of course it is banned.
IMO I am for live and let live as far as LBGT congregations go. Being Orthodox makes it a bit hard for to embrace them, but it is not my right to judge them and as Jews they are my people too.
Shiju says:
March 17, 2013
6:21 AM
I wonder if the God of Bible did wrong by destroying Sodom. If he was right, Sodom will be repeated.
Bill Pearlman says:
March 17, 2013
9:10 AM
Seems similar to what happened to the negro baseball teams after Jackie Robinson.
Crossroads says:
March 17, 2013
1:56 PM
You cannot pretend to worship the G_d of the Old Testament, or the New, while practicing homosexuality……..
……..1 Corinthians 6:8-11……
8 No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren! 9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals,[a] nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
David Taffet says:
April 27, 2013
10:14 AM
Tablet decided GLBT synagogues will soon be gone and then says CBST just bought its own space for the first time. Guess no one told Rabbi Kleinbaum that she’ll be out of a job soon.
Here in Dallas, Congregation Beth El Binah is celebrating its 20 anniversary of its affiliation with URJ. We’re doing it with more money in the bank than ever, higher attendance than ever, more programs and classes than ever and a new 2-year contract with our rabbi. We’re partnering with Resource Center Dallas to build the new Gay and Lesbian Community Center to replace the one we’ve called home for 22 years. We partner with Black Tie Dinner each year to raise money for us, a couple of churches, and 15 other AIDS and gay groups in Dallas. Just last night we talked with someone from Cathedral of Hope, the largest GLBT church in the world, to do some joint Hebrew and Jewish education classes. Our rabbi this week led an interfaith anti-Bush library service.
But you’re right. We’re irrelevant and will probably be gone soon.
Mark Slitt says:
April 27, 2013
11:07 AM
Not all LGBT people feel comfortable in a mainstream synagogue. For that matter, neither do many straight people. That’s why safe, welcoming, accepting, mainly-LGBT congregations like Beth El Binah in Dallas (which I led for four years as president in the 90s) will always be relevant. It was the work of my life and I refuse to let articles such as this marginalize it. Kudos to the accepting mainstream congregations – it sure took you long enough to accept us – but please, we still have a role to play.
David Taffet says:
April 28, 2013
11:58 AM
There are so many other reasons we’re still around that aren’t LGBT. We’re the downtown synagogue. The other Reform synagogues are all in North Dallas or the suburbs. We’re the small synagogue. One of the North Dallas synagogues is among the largest in the country and the other one is just huge. We do programming of interest to our members – gay and straight. We welcome people with disabilities. Those members haven’t felt welcome at the mega-synagogues. So many other reasons for us to continue as well. .
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