Equal Marriage now law in England and Wales

It's not perfect but it is done. Today Her Majesty the Queen signed the Equal Marriage bill and it became a law in England and Wales.

I'm proud to have been a minuscule part of the Out4Marriage campaign, and stunned that it is over because it has succeeded.

if any same-gender Jewish couples are looking for a rabbi for their wedding, I'd love to officiate. Just saying!

Read about it here:
Pink News
Parliament's page for the bill
blog piece in the Independent
BBC News
Andy Borowitz compares Her Maj with the Governor of NJ

links to the major papers not yet up - will add later ... they are taking their time!

So far, The Times has a front-page photo and link to the winner of the Apprentice TV show, though, as well as telling us that the Queen is impatient for the royal baby to arrive. The Guardian has a couple of pieces about lethal school dinners in India. Not front-page news? Hmmmmm

UK Same-Sex Marriage Vote

Tomorrow Parliament will vote on a bill to allow same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom. Obviously the ravaj is totally for such a law. Remember this? If you agree, there is still time to contact your Member of Parliament and let them know that you would like them to represent you in this matter!

Meanwhile, I cannot decide the balance between feelings of cynical amusement and utter disgust upon hearing that the top Tories who went to Downing Street yesterday to try and talk the Prime Minister out of supporting the bill were focussing on the damage they thought it would do to the party's 2015 election prospects rather than any moral convictions they might have had. Viz the Sun headline "Tories:  Gay Marriage is Election Disaster".

An Orange on the Seder Plate

Taking part in this year's campaign by Nashot HaKotel aka Women of the Wall. It must be at least 25 years since the first feminists added an orange to the symbols on the Seder plate. WoW asked us to photograph ourselves with an orange upon which was written one's name and current location. So here I am (wearing the QPR Dennis the Menace shirt just after returning from the Arsenal game).

So why an orange? The story is circulating that Susannah Heschel (daughter of the great rabbi Abraham Joshua H) once asked an orthodox rabbi when he thought women would be allowed to stand on the bima and lead the community in worship. His supposed reply was that it had as much chance of happening as there was of bread being placed on a Seder plate. Turns out that this is not what actually happened. According to Heschel herself, the issue was solidarity with Jewish lesbians, and since one should not put bread on the Seder plate, she decided that an orange should be used instead. The full details may be found here.

Today, in solidarity with LGBTQ people, women, and anyone marginalised and suffering from prejudice, we maintain this custom.

More Coverage from the UK Jewish Press

This week's links from Jewish newspapers in the UK and Pink News:

Joe Wolfson, an Orthodox rabbinical student currently studying in Jerusalem, writes about "the gay dilemma that confronts Orthodoxy". in the JC

Jessica Elgot responds to Doreen Wachmann's article in the JT here.

The JC reports on the KeshetUK 'It Gets Better' vids, concentrating on those made by former JFS students here

Ms. Elgot also highlights Benjamin Cohen's video here

Comment by Benjamin Cohen in the JC re "Why am I broadcasting this positive message?"

In New York, R. Yehuda Levin says "cure gays with chemicals" Stephen Gray of Pink News writes a response (and it may contain a quote from the ravaj).

Meanwhile, just found this older article in the JC from last October by the Masorti rabbi Jeremy Gordon discussing "why gay sex is not immoral"

Take care, and as Dave Allen used to say at the end of his show, may your god go with you!

It Gets Better!

My friends and I at KeshetUK spent most of yesterday filming and editing some vids to add to the collection under the banner of 'It Gets Better'. We were talking specifically to LGBT Jews, but I do hope the message speaks to many more. Here is my contribution:

Have a look at the others too ... and more will be uploaded as we receive them. It really does get better!

One Week Later - JFS Update

There were rumours yesterday that the Jewish Free School was going to make a statement with regard to the story in the Jewish Chronicle last week discussing the way homosexuality is referred to in Jewish Studies lessons at the school. Nothing has yet been released.

Meanwhile, here are the latest links to the JC's follow-up stories:

In this leader, the newspaper suggests that the school is bandying semantics. A couple of hours later, the JC online posted a story that refers to the letters written to the school by Alma Smith and Dalia Fleming. You may find it here. Keshet UK is mentioned!

And so we wait to see what happens next.

The Jewish Free School

Since early last week, there has been a lot of attention paid to a particular Jewish Studies lesson taught at the Jewish Free School (JFS) with regard to a reference allegedly made to an American organisation called JONAH aka Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (possibly now changed to 'Healing' rather than 'Homosexuality').

The furore began with a front page article in the Jewish Chronicle, that suggested the school might be teaching that homosexuality can be 'cured'.
Read it here

Keshet UK - the LGBT Jewish Forum put out a press release
Read it here

Pink News, an online lgbt website followed the JC, including a response from the headmaster of the school.
Read it here

The London Evening Standard picked up on these stories and printed their version.
Read it here

Meanwhile, the Progressive Jewish movement spokespeople began to express their positions:

Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner spoke on behalf of the Movement for Reform Judaism.
Read it here

Rabbi Aaron Goldstein spoke on behalf of the Rabbinic Conference of Liberal Judaism.
Read it here

Other initial responses included:
Adam Wagner on Cartoon Kippah (here)
Dalia Fleming, a former JFS student, responded here. She also writes about her experience here.
The LJY-Netzer weekly Chinuch article
A letter from former head girl Alma Smith

Not having been in the lesson myself, I cannot comment on the details of what happened. However, if just one student came out of that lesson feeling confused and unsafe, then I must do all I can to support him/her in working with the school to change that atmosphere.

JFS does not deny making a reference to JONAH. If only they had been prepared to say ooooops we should have researched this organisation properly before including it in the curriculum, then there probably would not have been a story at all. In any case, rather than focussing on one particular occurrence,the question now is how to go forward, to make sure that the entire culture of the school may be developed to create a safe space for our LGBT students.

UPDATE Here is a link to a current Orthodox Jewish perspective from North America on homosexuality.

An Historic Moment

THE UNITED STATES SENATE HAS REPEALED THE "DON'T ASK DON'T TELL" POLICY IN THE AMERICAN MILITARY.

New York Times report
BBC News online report

Twelve years too late for me to become a military chaplain, but maybe now someone else will have a chance. Now for the marriage laws - onward and upward!

Is Bert Gay?

Is Bert from Sesame Street gay? The Telegraph thinks so. It claims that Bert tweeted a slang word for gay:

"In a message posted on Twitter about the premiere of the recent A-Team film remake, the mono-browed Muppet said on his official page: "Ever notice how similar my hair is to Mr. T's? The only difference is mine is a little more 'mo,' a little less 'hawk."
The remark meant nothing to most readers, but sparked intrigue in certain gay circles, where "mo" is shorthand for "homosexual."

Personally, I think that whatever two puppets do in the privacy of their own homes is none of our business. O, and Bert is the one on the right.

Gays in Football

They say that it's not safe to be out as a homosexual footballer in Britain. This picture is from the City of Manchester Stadium earlier today at the end of the game between City and United. It was in front of 47,019 people. Not to mention the television audience across the world. I guess it doesn't count if you just scored the winning goal.

UPDATE: ESPN posted the pic and originally named the file 'nevillegay' before changing it to 'nevillekiss' and eventually removing it. Story here.

You Can't Shut a Bad Man Up

Just received notice that Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in NYC is going to be picketed by Fred Phelps and his gang this Sunday. The CBST website says the following:

"June 18th, 2009

CBST has received warning that members of the Westboro Baptist Church are coming to protest against our congregation this Sunday at our Bethune Street location. They have targeted other New York synagogues this weekend.

Led by Fred Phelps, the Westboro Baptist Church is a hatemongering organization known most widely for picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, for their protests at the funerals of servicemen killed in Iraq, and most recently, for protesting at the funeral of Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, the security officer killed at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington.

We are responding in two ways:
CBST will be holding a non-violent prayer vigil and service during the time of their protest. We cannot allow this group to go unchallenged as they engage in hateful speech at our synagogue. The most powerful response to such hatred is our demonstration of what makes us strong and powerful in the face of bigotry. We will not engage in any confrontational action or shouting matches. They would love it if we were to lose our composure. We will present who we are in a strong and meaningful way.

If you have a tallit, please bring it. If you would like to make colorful signs, please consider using:

"We are all created in God's image"
"God loves all of us"
"God made me gay"
and similar messages

8:45 AM on Sunday, June 21st at our Bethune location

__________________________________________________________

Inspired by a gift from Mitchell Gold, CBST will be participating, as many other LGBT organizations have, in a fundraising effort to counteract the attacks on us by this group.

Mitchell Gold has pledged $10 per minute that the Westboro Baptist Church representatives are picketing us. Their presence will benefit us! We can tell them each minute how much they are raising for us!!

Once the total amount has been raised, we will be sending an acknowledgement letter to the church to let them know that their appearance helped to raise money to support LGBT causes. Many other organizations around the country have done this and raised funds to defeat those who would attack us. (check out phelps-a-thon.com to be inspired by other stories like ours).

As of the writing of this email, we have already raised $40 per minute!

we are delighted that Fred Phelps will help raise money to strengthen the work we do to create a progressive religious voice"

You go peeps!

Happy Pride Month!

The President has officially announced June to be Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual and Transgender Month. This photo is of a memorial in the Nollendorfplatz in Berlin, commemorating the homosexual victims of National Socialism. We have come a long way, and yet there is still so far to go.

Hurrah for Maine

From the BBC just in:

"Gay marriage is to be permitted in the US state of Maine after a bill was passed by both houses of the state's legislature and signed by the governor. Maine will be the fifth US state to allow gay marriage, after Connecticut, Masschusettes, Iowa and Vermont."

Go Governor Baldacci!

(the rest of the report is here)

I Love Stephen Fry

It is entirely possible, I believe, that Stephen Fry is the cleverest person in my generation. I enjoy almost everything that he presents to his public, whether travelling around the USA in a London taxi (strangely, though, one with left-hand drive), or interviewing bipolar celebrities. There were a couple of podcasts that went on a bit too long, but otherwise I just love him.

I have not been moved to tears, however, until reading his article last week "Stephen Fry's letter to himself: Dearest absurd child". When he was 16, he wrote a letter to his adult self, and in this piece he replies to that letter. You may read the whole of it here. I believe it is an edited edition of a previous article, but I found it in the Guardian on Thursday. Anyway, read this at least:

" I finally know now, as I easily knew then, that the most important thing is love. It doesn't matter in the slightest whether that love is for someone of your own sex or not. Gay issues are important and I shall come to them in a moment, but they shrivel like a salted snail when compared to the towering question of love. Gay people sometimes believe (to this very day, would you credit it, young Stephen?) that the preponderance of obstacles and terrors they encounter in their lives and relationships is intimately connected with the fact of their being gay. As it happens at least 90% of their problems are to do with love and love alone: the lack of it, the denial of it, the inequality of it, the missed reciprocity in it, the horrors and heartaches of it. Love cold, love hot, love fresh, love stale, love scorned, love missed, love denied, love betrayed ... the great joke of sexuality is that these problems bedevil straight people just as much as gay. The 10% of extra suffering and complexity that uniquely confronts the gay person is certainly not incidental or trifling, but it must be understood that love comes first. This is tough for straight people to work out."

In this article he is not just clever, he is real. I am pretty close to adoring him :-)

Kelly McGillis Comes Out. Duh.

I know I have read this in the Daily Mail, so take it with a pinch of salt, but here is the article that makes the statement about Kelly McGillis. I think my friend J told me this "news" about 20 years ago. On the other hand, it is nice to see that this is not a scandal, but rather a commentary, covering the actress's personal struggle with her sexual identity:

"Miss McGillis, who is currently single, came out during an interview with lesbian website Shewired.com. She has claimed to have battled with her sexuality for more than 40 years and that for long periods of her life she was convinced she was being ' punished by God' for being gay. However, she told the website that she had finally decided to 'move on with her life' and admit she was a lesbian."

Good luck to her and her ilk.

Poznan, Where the Elephants are Gay

Reuters has reported the news of a gay elephant in a polish zoo:

"WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish politician has criticized his local zoo for acquiring a "gay" elephant named Ninio who prefers male companions and will probably not procreate, local media reported on Friday. We didn't pay 37 million zlotys ($11 million) for the largest elephant house in Europe to have a gay elephant live there," Michal Grzes, a conservative councilor in the city of Poznan in western Poland, was quoted as saying. "We were supposed to have a herd, but as Ninio prefers male friends over females how will he produce offspring?" said Grzes, who is from the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party.

The head of the Poznan zoo said 10-year-old Ninio may be too young to decide whether he prefers males or females as elephants only reach sexual maturity at 14."

My grandfather was born in Chodziez, not far from Poznan. Is it my fault?

Out of the Sacred Closet - Beauty, Belief and Identity

The title of this post refers to a new exhibition that has just opened in Jerusalem at the Hadassah Art Gallery. It contains 14 pieces by homosexual artists from religious (Jewish) backgrounds. I post out of pride that my Liebling is one of the artists. Here is what the Jerusalem Post had to say:

(with regard to whether or not there is a clash between one's sexual preference and one's religious upbringing) " Avi Rose certainly has no problem combining the two. In 2006, New York-born, Toronto-bred Rose, a doctor of psychology by academic training and now a Jerusalem-based purveyor of Jewish education, and his British partner became the first homosexual couple to be recognized as such by the Interior Ministry.

"My father is a rabbi and I have three brothers who are rabbis, and they have all been very supportive of me," says Rose, who has two paintings in the exhibition. His works offer a new angle on classic Zionist posters of yesteryear. In one of his paintings, for example, the original image of a benign Zionist man nurturing an adoring youngster's nascent pioneering spirit has been replaced by two male adults with a youth in a similar adulatory pose. "That conveys the idea of a male couple having a family," explains Rose."

Article in full here.

Lorca was Censored

Did you know that Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca was gay? I did not. But then I am a philistine who knows only one word of spanish (mantequilla), and who hasn't read much foreign poetry. I was therefore interested to read in the Indy of a new book coming out - 'Lorca y el mundo gay' (Lorca and the Gay World).

Lorca was assassinated by death squads at the start of the Spanish Civil War. In the book review, the author of the biography, Ian Gibson:

" describes how the poet's works were censored to conceal his sexuality. It was not until the late 1980s that Lorca's sexual identity became grudgingly acknowledged, in the face of denials and evasions. Gibson blames the decades of silence on a deep-seated Spanish homophobia. "Spain couldn't accept that the greatest Spanish poet of all time was homosexual. Homophobia existed on both sides in the civil war and afterwards; it was a national problem. Now Spain permits same-sex marriage that taboo must be broken.""

LIttle steps ...

The whole piece should be found here.

A Major Character Comes Out on The Simpsons?

Could it be? Is it true? Sadly, for me in any case, the above image of Marge in a more-than-friendly clinch with another woman turned out to be from a dream of Homer's. It was a nice thought for a nanosecond ...

Friends of Pegah celebrate

Pegah Emambakhsh, an Iranian lesbian who fled in 2005 after her partner was arrested and sentenced to death in Tehran, has just heard from the British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith that her case will be reconsidered. This is, of course, a good thing. More dubious, however, is this quote from the UK Border Agency, as cited by the Daily Telegraph:

"We consider each case on its individual merits and, whenever someone needs our protection, we grant it. We constantly monitor the human rights situation in countries like Iran and press for an end to abuses, but we do not believe that everyone claiming to be a homosexual from Iran is in need of international protection."

Nu, how close to arrest and execution does one have to be before one is in need of protection?