jewish-lgbtq reblogged
jewish-lgbtq reblogged
This is revolutionary y’all. I remember being 13 and refused to go do any ceremony because my parents tried to force me to go through a bar mitzvah. By virtue of the masculine name alone I just couldn’t do it. After that, I felt very alienated from the Jewish community. Having this option is so important for us to repair these binary aspects of our culture (link)
I also had a gender neutral b'nei mitzvah, a two person one actually(me and my twin) last summer. Cool to hear about another person who did it as well.
It’s becoming more and more common for kids to be given the option of calling their ceremony something gender neutral, eg b'nei mitzvah, b mitzvah, or bet mitzvah.
I do also want to name, though, that with some exceptions, in non-Orthodox circles, the names “bar” and “bat” mitzvah do not denote anything about the ceremony – rather it’s grammatically gendering the same word – “son of the commandments” vs “daughter of the commandments.”
Of course it’s extremely valid for OP or anyone else to have been uncomfortable with it, but also wanted to let folks know that, and also that if you had a wrongly named one in your past, you don’t need to keep calling it by the wrong name. Eg if when you were 13 it was called your bar mitzvah but that’s no longer accurate (or never was), it’s completely valid to call it your bat mitzvah, your bet mitzvah, or whatever is most appropriate now.
You can also get called up to the Torah with gender neutral language now! When someone joins our synagogue our rabbi asks how they’d like to be referred to in hebrew, ben, bat or m'beit!
Yes! I've also heard "na laamod" instead of "yaamod" or "taamod."
jewish-lgbtq reblogged
This is revolutionary y’all. I remember being 13 and refused to go do any ceremony because my parents tried to force me to go through a bar mitzvah. By virtue of the masculine name alone I just couldn’t do it. After that, I felt very alienated from the Jewish community. Having this option is so important for us to repair these binary aspects of our culture (link)
I also had a gender neutral b'nei mitzvah, a two person one actually(me and my twin) last summer. Cool to hear about another person who did it as well.
It's becoming more and more common for kids to be given the option of calling their ceremony something gender neutral, eg b'nei mitzvah, b mitzvah, or bet mitzvah.
I do also want to name, though, that with some exceptions, in non-Orthodox circles, the names "bar" and "bat" mitzvah do not denote anything about the ceremony -- rather it's grammatically gendering the same word -- "son of the commandments" vs "daughter of the commandments."
Of course it's extremely valid for OP or anyone else to have been uncomfortable with it, but also wanted to let folks know that, and also that if you had a wrongly named one in your past, you don't need to keep calling it by the wrong name. Eg if when you were 13 it was called your bar mitzvah but that's no longer accurate (or never was), it's completely valid to call it your bat mitzvah, your bet mitzvah, or whatever is most appropriate now.
jewish-lgbtq reblogged
Trans-inclusive language in religious texts is SO IMPORTANT. There is nothing in some young people’s lives that can either validate or dehumanize them so quickly as how they see themselves represented in the words of their religion.
May all who need to see these words find them.
jewish-lgbtq reblogged
Queer Jews Project Day 27 - Sagi Golan and Omer Ohana
Sagi Golan and Omer Ohana were supposed to get married on October 20. They had met six years ago, and Sagi proposed on a volcano.
But when Hamas terrorists attacked on October 7, Sagi rushed into action. His unit managed to rescue people, but he was killed in the fighting at Kibbutz Be’eri. Sagi and Omer were supposed to walk down the aisle to the song “Zachiti Le’ehov (I Was Fortunate To Love)” by Ivri Lider. Instead, Ivri Lider sang it at Sagi’s funeral.
Omer had to fight to get recognized as a military widower but thanks to him, the Bereaved Families Law was changed to recognize common-law partners as equals.
Last month, Omer marched and spoke at the Jerusalem Pride Parade for Sagi. May his memory be a blessing.
jewish-lgbtq reblogged
Queer Jews Project Day 26 - Fritz Klein
Fritz Klein was born in Vienna in 1932. His family fled to New York City when he was small. Fritz opened his own psychiatry practice – and was surprised at the lack of literature on bisexuals like himself. So he started doing the research. He founded the American Institute of Bisexuality and published multiple books about bisexuality.
Fritz’s most well-known contribution was the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid – a way to measure the complexity of sexual orientation. It expanded on the Kinsey Scale by including fantasies, past and present behavior, emotional and social preferences, and lifestyle.
jewish-lgbtq reblogged
Jewish Progress Pride flag, from Keshet!
this is jewish culture.
also a lady from my synagogue had the “my son is gay and jewish” one at our city’s pride march last year.
Might I also submit;
may I also submit this "very official" Keshet merch that came from a meeting a year ago
(it says gaslight gatekeep girlboss. And I want it on a sticker so bad)
jewish-lgbtq reblogged
Jewish Progress Pride flag, from Keshet!
wish it had the intersex flag
I just made an intersex version rn. Wish it was official, but there it is
ID: A rainbow pride flag with a bisected Star of David on the left third of the flag. The star is composed of 7 stripes, that outline the shape. The stripes in order are black, brown, light blue, pink, white, purple, and yellow, as seen on the intersex-inclusive progress pride flag. /end ID.
This version is more symmetrical
Love this too! Also wondering what if would look like with the purple as a circle in the yellow
Jewish Progress Pride flag, from Keshet!
jewish-lgbtq reblogged
Queer Jews Project Day 25 - Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer
Edie and Thea first met in 1963 on the dance floor of a Greenwich Village restaurant. Edie was a computer programer at IBM, and Thea was a clinical psychologist. They started dating in 1965, and got engaged in 1967. Thea proposed with a circle diamond brooch because a ring would have led to questions and possible outing. Over the next several decades, they lived happy but hidden lives.
But Thea’s health started to decline.
So Edie and Thea got married in 2007 – in Canada – because same-sex marriage wasn’t legal in the United States. Thea died in 2008. Edie found herself with a literal broken heart – and a massive, unjust tax bill.
The Defense of Marriage Act prevented Edie from claiming the spousal inheritance tax exemption that heterosexual couples received. So Edie sued the United States Government. The case eventually made it to the U.S. Supreme Court – and Edie won. DOMA was struck down in 2013, and that set the stage for same-sex marriage to be legalized across the United States two years later.
jewish-lgbtq reblogged
Queer Jews Project Day 24 - Lesley Gore
“It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.” So goes Lesley Gore’s first hit – which made her a music star while she was still in high school. And she didn’t stop her education for her music career either. She went to Sarah Lawrence College at the height of her career, playing shows on weekends and school breaks. In later decades, she pivoted to songwriting, writing “Out Here On My Own” for the movie “Fame” and scoring an Oscar nomination. While life wasn’t all “Sunshine Lollipops and Rainbows” – Lesley said the record industry was homophobic – she lived as open a life as she could. “I just kind of lived my life naturally and did what I wanted to do. I didn’t avoid anything, I didn’t put it in anybody’s face,” she said.
jewish-lgbtq reblogged
But Ruth replied, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus and more may the LORD do to me if anything but death parts me from you.”
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My first art centered around Judaism since I started my conversion process ahhh fuck I hope I got the Hebrew right, I'm still not too familiar with the alphabet so it moves around on me lmfao
but as a convert ofc Ruth is important and her story is fascinating to me; if anyone has recommendations on JEWISH resources about her would love to read
also ig christians can reblog this but lmfao idk what you could get out of it
Personally I like the interpretations of them being romantic but I tried to leave the art up for interpretation in general however you see them
jewish-lgbtq reblogged
Queer Jews Project Day 23 - Stephen Sondheim
If you have the chance to see a Sondheim show, take it. The music is legendary, the songs are iconic, and the stories will leave you sorry-grateful. Sondheim reinvented American musical theater – and mentored the next generation of composers, including Jonathan Larson and Lin-Manuel Miranda. He wrote Company, a musical all about marriage decades before he could legally get married.
I was lucky enough to see Merrily We Roll Along. This show unjustly flopped on its first run but the revival just won 4 Tonys and it’s sooooo amazing. I could kvell more all about Sondheim’s career, but we would be here all day.
jewish-lgbtq reblogged
Queer Jews Project Day 22 - Maddie Blaustein
A prolific voice actress, a comic book writer and editor, the creative director at Weekly World News, Maddie Blaustein was a woman of many talents. Just look at the range of her voice acting roles – the most iconic being Meowth from Pokemon.
Maddie wrote a comic miniseries, Deathwish, about a transgender cop. She also was a content creator for Second Life under the name Kendra Bancroft, founding one of the game’s first self-governed cities. Sadly, she died in 2008 from a stomach infection. She was 48 years old.
jewish-lgbtq reblogged
Queer Jews Project Day 21 - Sacha Lamb
Sacha Lamb is the author of When The Angels Left The Old Country. If you haven’t read it, read it now. It’s such a queer jew book! With a lot of queer jews! It’s also their debut novel. They have another book, The Forbidden Book, coming out in the fall. And it promises to be just as jewish and queer.
jewish-lgbtq reblogged
Queer Jews Project Day 19 - Rachel Levine
The highest-ranking openly transgender public official in the United States Government, Dr. Rachel Levine has served as the Assistant Secretary of Health since 2021. That means she’s second in command at the Department of Health. Before her current job, she was The Pennsylvania Secretary of Health and lead her state through the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout her career, she has focused on LGBTQ medicine, children’s health, and the opioid crisis.
jewish-lgbtq reblogged
Queer Jews Project Day 18 - Harvey Fierstein
A writer and actor with a distinct gravelly voice, Harvey has had many roles on stage and screen throughout the past several decades – like Mrs. Doubtfire and Hairspray – and I have to give a shoutout to being the voice of Yao in Mulan in my childhood. He was an out gay celebrity at a time when that was not a thing in American pop culture. And I do love this interview moment with Barbara Walters: