Moedechai Beck - Jews U-turn on Homosexuality!!
Monday 9 August 2010
If you think the Christian world
has a problem with gay people, you should try orthodox Judaism. For centuries homosexuality has been taboo;
it's not what nice Jewish boys or girls do. The biblical proscription against
"men lying with men as though with a woman" (Leviticus 20:13) is considered the very bedrock of
Jewish morality. For traditional Judaism marriage is the highest state of social
bonding – a true union of body and soul. Despite some odd exceptions in biblical
and rabbinical literature, (Jeremiah is told by God to stay single, Ben Azzai,
one of the greatest of the Mishnaic teachers, remains a bachelor by choice),
even celibacy was frowned upon. Part of this opposition was no doubt based on a
response to the cultural environment – pagan in the biblical era, Christian in
the rabbinic one. But despite major shifts in sociological contexts, the ban
against homosexuality was rigidly enforced throughout the centuries. Whilst in
other areas the rabbis often showed great flexibility and understanding, this
particular area remained off-limits.
In recent years, however, homosexuality, among even the most Orthodox sectors
of Judaism, has become a growing feature of contemporary Jewish life. In both
America and Israel – the world's two largest Jewish communities – it has not
been uncommon for rabbis and others to "come out", often suffering the
consequences that such a confession entails. Moreover, reports of homosexual
relations between rabbi-teachers and their students have been a regular feature
of news items in both communities. In Israel and the US these behaviours have
been the subject of a number of feature and documentary films.
Still, it was something of a surprise when, on 22
July, a large group of Orthodox Israeli and American rabbis, teachers,
psychologists and community leaders published a "statement of principles on the place of Jews with a homosexual
orientation in our community". The statement, which has some 170
signatories, many of them prominent in their respective communities, took some
six months to prepare, undergoing countless revisions. The fact that so many
rabbis eventually agreed to issue a joint statement is something a miracle in
and of itself. There are no popes in the Modern Orthodox world. Rabbis are
respected for their individual learning and their ability to solve current
problems in the light of the tradition. For so many authorities to agree to such
a radical shift in attitude reflects the seriousness of the issue.
The statement declares:
"All human beings are created in the image of God and deserve to be treated
with dignity and respect ... Embarrassing, harassing or demeaning someone with
a homosexual orientation or same-sex attraction is a violation of Torah
prohibitions that embody the deepest values of Judaism."
Superficially at least this a complete about turn from centuries of deeply
embedded prejudices. Neither do the worthy signatories distinguish between
"genetic or environmentally generated homosexual behaviours". Their main message
is "our obligation to treat human beings with same-sex attractions and
orientations with dignity and respect". This includes: "affirming the religious
right of those with a homosexual orientation to reject therapeutic approaches
they reasonably see as useless or dangerous."
Rabbi Benjamin Lau – one of Israel's most popular Modern Orthodox rabbis –
observes: "Although the document came out only now, it is the product of 10
years' preparation. Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot in the US and Rabbi Ron Yosef in
Israel worked in parallel to bring the statement to fruition. Although it does
not herald a change in the religious law – halakha – it is meant to be
an opening for a public debate on this very complex, multi-faceted issue. We are
calling on all Jewish communities to relate to their gay members in a way of
dialogue, not violence."
This latter reference could refer to an incident in
Israel last year where a gay bar in Tel
Aviv was attacked – killing two and injuring many more. More
recently, an apparently romantic affair between two Haredi men ended in murder
and suicide. It is thus of interest that last week's publication also found
itself its way into the Haredi press.
Rabbi Ron Yosef, who is not only a community rabbi, but
also a religious judge, would like his fellow gay people to be accepted within
the framework of Orthodox law. This has not happened yet but, as Rabbi Lau
observes this bold declaration, which allows for individual communities to
decide on their own policy towards gay people, "has started the discussion."
After 3,000 years, it may be time.
Obama declared June LGBT month
The complete statement reads:
As Americans, it is
our birthright that all people are created equal and deserve the same
rights, privileges, and opportunities. Since our earliest days of
independence, our Nation has striven to fulfill that promise. An
important chapter in our great, unfinished story is the movement for
fairness and equality on behalf of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender (LGBT) community. This month, as we recognize the
immeasurable contributions of LGBT Americans, we renew our commitment to
the struggle for equal rights for LGBT Americans and to ending
prejudice and injustice wherever it exists.
LGBT Americans have
enriched and strengthened the fabric of our national life. From
business leaders and professors to athletes and first responders, LGBT
individuals have achieved success and prominence in every discipline.
They are our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters, and our
friends and neighbors. Across my Administration, openly LGBT employees
are serving at every level. Thanks to those who came before us, the
brave men and women who marched, stood up to injustice, and brought
change through acts of compassion or defiance we have made enormous
progress and continue to strive for a more perfect union.
My
Administration has advanced our journey by signing into law the Matthew
Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which
strengthens Federal protections against crimes based on gender identity
or sexual orientation. We renewed the Ryan White CARE Act, which
provides life saving medical services and support to Americans living
with HIV/AIDS, and finally eliminated the HIV entry ban. I also signed a
Presidential Memorandum directing hospitals receiving Medicare and
Medicaid funds to give LGBT patients the compassion and security they
deserve in their time of need, including the ability to choose someone
other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical
decisions.
In other areas, the Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) announced a series of proposals to ensure core housing
programs are open to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or
gender identity. HUD also announced the first ever national study of
discrimination against members of the LGBT community in the rental and
sale of housing. Additionally, the Department of Health and Human
Services has created a National Resource Center for LGBT Elders.
Much
work remains to fulfill our Nation's promise of equal justice under law
for LGBT Americans. That is why we must give committed gay couples the
same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple, and
repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. We must protect the rights of LGBT
families by securing their adoption rights, ending employment
discrimination against LGBT Americans, and ensuring Federal employees
receive equal benefits. We must create safer schools so all our children
may learn in a supportive environment. I am also committed to ending
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" so patriotic LGBT Americans can serve openly in
our military, and I am working with the Congress and our military
leadership to accomplish that goal.
As we honor the LGBT
Americans who have given so much to our Nation, let us remember that if
one of us is unable to realize full equality, we all fall short of our
founding principles. Our Nation draws its strength from our diversity,
with each of us contributing to the greater whole. By affirming these
rights and values, each American benefits from the further advancement
of liberty and justice for all.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA,
President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do
hereby proclaim June 2010 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
Pride Month. I call upon all Americans to observe this month by fighting
prejudice and discrimination in their own lives and everywhere it
exists.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and
of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and
thirty-fourth.
BARACK OBAMA
Queer Spiritual Montage - An event in the Proud Festival
On Sunday the 24th of January, Galaxies put on this event for the Proud 2010 festival in St. Andrew's on The Terrace church.
The idea was to have an event that covered spirituality (of the non
dogmatic or liturgical sort) with a labyrinth walk, an art exhibition
with the theme "yES jESUS hAD a dICK!" by Fergus Collinson (and others
were invited), a hands-on artwork in the making which people who
visited could contribute to. The event was unstructured,
calm and friendly. Oand two's meditated and walked, a group
snipped and arranged our collaged artworks of "stained glass", some of
us checked up on each other with hugs and enthusiasm for our now Proud
fortnight!
 
Two views of the labyrinth, first facing the sanctuary and the other
facing the entrance. (Click on the images for a bigger view.)
 
Yes, Jesus had a dick! No one wants to talk about it but
you The artworks on display.
Click the photo to view the catalogue
know it's been hanging about all the same!
 
The St. Gerards "Rasterbation" mural with what looks like a
penis Two "Stained Glass Windows" on brown paper,
waiting to be
(which was not Fergus' intention) and this sparked a whole
new filled in
from pictures cut out or magazines. There were two "themes":
way of thinking about what it may mean. See catalogue for
details. 'Everyone has a contribution to make' and
'Celebrate our capacity to love, create & discover'
 
Galaxies informational
display
And the very welcoming Afternoon Tea table!
Gay and Lesbian or Homosexual - What's in a word?
 Together with the New York Times, CBS has released the results
of their latest poll in which they attempt to gauge support for
repealing the military gay ban 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' Interestingly,
they found that more people support letting gays and lesbians serve in
the military than support homosexuals. What? It seems that, at least in
the minds of some respondents, words, and the emotions evoked by those
words, really can make a difference. Here's a brief summary of the CBS
poll (click here for the full article):
In the poll, 59 percent say they now
support allowing "homosexuals" to serve in the U.S. military, including
34 percent who say they strongly favor that. Ten percent say they
somewhat oppose it and 19 percent say they strongly oppose it.
But the numbers differ when the question
is changed to whether Americans support "gay men and lesbians" serving
in the military. When the question is asked that way, 70 percent of
Americans say they support gay men and lesbians serving in the
military, including 19 percent who say they somewhat favor it. Seven
percent somewhat oppose it, and 12 percent strongly oppose it...
(This poll was conducted among a
random sample of 1,084 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone
February 5-10, 2010. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial
samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to
sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus
three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.)
The poll also found a similar trend when asking whether "gays and
lesbians" should serve openly in the military as opposed to asking
whether "homosexuals" should serve openly in the military, with a
difference of 58 percent to 44 percent showing support respectively.
The article notes that, regardless of the term, support for gay and
lesbian people in the military has risen since 1993 when the ban on
openly gay service members was introduced, although support has waned
when compared to data they gathered the past year.
The distinction between "gay and lesbian" and "homosexual" has also been highlighted in an ABC/Washington Post poll,
in which there were several questions regarding gay rights, including a
couple that also attempted to measure support for repealing the
military anti-gay policy 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'
The results of the poll suggest a higher rate of support than the New York Times poll, with nearly three quarters of the people questioned saying that they favor the inclusion of "homosexual" service personnel.
However,
the ABC poll also details that in past surveys they have sometimes used
the terms "gay and lesbian" rather than "homosexual" to ask those same
questions. Is this just semantics or could this lead to an important
difference? ABC and the Washington Post thought it was worth
making a note of, so this may at least indicate that the terms are no
longer thought of as completely synonymous.
Here's a bit of detail on the interesting demographics demonstrated in the ABC poll from the Washington Post's summary:
The poll also reveals several sharp
demographic divides. Men (65 percent) and seniors (69 percent) are far
less likely than are women (84 percent) and young adults (81 percent
under age 30) to say that gays should be allowed to serve if they have
disclosed their sexual orientation. Knowing a gay person makes a big
difference: Among those who say they have a gay friend or family
member, 81 percent support allowing gay people to serve openly,
compared with 66 percent who say they do not know someone who is gay.
The poll was conducted by telephone
Feb. 4-8 among a random national sample of 1,004 adults, including
users of both conventional and cellular phones. The margin of sampling
error is plus or minus three percentage points.
I notice that in the summary, the Washington Post
have mostly used the words "gay" and "gays." Other than the age and
political leanings of the writer, which may play a role in word choice,
is there a meaningful difference between the terms "homosexual" and
"gay and lesbian" for the wider population? Well, from my perspective
as a gay rights advocate, I think there is a subtle bit of psychology going on here, but to see it properly I think you might have to take it to contrasting extremes.
In the course of blogging about LGBT related news stories and political
developments, I read through hundreds of articles from dozens of
websites. Some of the sites I regularly go to are pro-gay and tend to
only use the terms "gay and lesbian" or the familiar "LGBT," and
variations thereof.
Other sites that I visit are, however,
decidedly less supportive, and although there is the often heard term
"the gay agenda" banded about, more prevalent are terms like "the
radical homosexual movement," "the homosexual political movement," "the
pro-homosexual lobby," "the homosexual extremists" and, my personal
favorite, " the radical homosexualists" [sic].
To my mind,
the word "homosexual" has a very clinical cadence to it, and the
emotions it seems to invoke appear to stem from the not too distant
past when homosexuality was still thought of as an affliction and a
mental disorder. There's also an inherently androcentric core to the
word "homosexual." Of course, it can be used to refer to both gay and
lesbian people, but I'd wager that the word "homosexual" is mostly used
in reference to gay men, especially when utilized by social and
religious conservatives. Moreover, it probably carries notions of sex
and, by extension, anal sex or sodomy, which is usually one of the
central pillars of disgust threaded throughout most prejudiced material.
Interestingly, Wayne Besen over at Truth Wins Out comments on the first CBS/New York Times
poll with a slightly different take. He draws our attention to the
recent touting of the term "Same-Sex Attraction" or "SSA" by groups
such as the American Family Association and The National Association
for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). In his commentary on the issue, Besen writes:
We should not help our enemies by
adopting their language, which is specifically designed and employed to
portray us as freaks with a problem that needs to be fixed. SSA — much
like STD — sounds like you have a disease that can be cured by running
to the local doctor for a shot the pharmacy for a prescription or the
shrink for a session.
Many people would say that we shouldn't get caught up with labels, and
to an extent I do agree with that. But look at how SSA has been
packaged to sound like a mental disorder. The message behind that is
clear: Homosexuals are diseased, mentally unstable and in need of
treatment. Similarly, the word "homosexual" still seems to carry that
same tone of affliction with it.
The
real proof of this subtle distinction, I think, is to be found in the
"ex-gay" movement. Wayne Besen himself has been fighting the lies of
the "conversion therapy" advocates for years. They believe that you can
cure homosexuality. That issue aside, notice that they don't call
themselves the "ex-homosexual movement." It doesn't sound quite as warm
and fuzzy, does it?
Earlier in the week, I wrote about how Parents and Friends of Gays and Ex-Gays (PFOX) are pushing their ex-gay material into schools. This is an excerpt from their website, which is typical of their fliers and published material too (emphasis mine):
PFOX is not a therapeutic or counseling organization. PFOX supports families, advocates for the ex-gay community, and educates the public on sexual orientation. Each year thousands of men, women and teens with unwanted same-sex attractions make the personal decision to leave homosexuality. However, there are those who refuse to respect that decision. Consequently, formerly gay persons are reviled simply because they dare to exist! Without PFOX, ex-gays would have no voice in a hostile environment...
This text is so ripe with the distinction between "gay" and
"homosexual" it's almost as though there's a science to how it was
written. Notice that the bad old gays have SSA and it is inferred that
they have chosen to give in to their "homosexuality," while those that
PFOX are trying to court are in fact referred to as "gay" so that they
can, in turn, become "ex-gay?"
This
is fascinating to me because the subtle distinction of terms seems to
be pervasive and firmly ingrained, and, while I'm not quite convinced
that the CBS poll indicates this phenomenon outright, it does at least
open the door to this wider discussion.
So what do you think?
Should we pay closer attention to the words we're using, and perhaps
even more importantly, the words that others are using about us? Do you
think words really have the power to effect the way we feel about a
certain group of people? Or do you think that labels aren't as
important as the CBS poll suggests, as it is, after all, just one poll?
Have your say below.
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