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Love—and Learn About—Your Jewish LGBT Neighbor

A Tablet reading list for Pride

by
Sophie Aroesty
June 23, 2017
Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images
A couple kisses during the gay pride parade in Lisbon, Portugal, June 17, 2017.Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images
Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images
A couple kisses during the gay pride parade in Lisbon, Portugal, June 17, 2017.Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images

June is a great opportunity to celebrate Pride, but the gay rights movement cannot be contained to just one month. There are a number of other events throughout the year, like Bisexual Awareness Week in September, National Coming Out Day in October, and the student-led Day of Silence in April, intended to address the bullying of LGBT students. Similarly, Tablet covers the experiences of LGBT Jews, and issues affecting the community, year-round. Today, for example, in Isaac Levy’s “Transgender and Jewish” personal essay, he writes about how relationship with Judaism changed while transitioning physically from female to male.

Here’s a collection of Tablet pieces published by Jewish members of the LGBT community, and also features about Jewish LGBT organizations:

— Learn about Daniel Friedman, the founder of Bindle and Keep, a company that tailors clothing to accentuate the gendered characteristics that align with their clients’ identites.

— Dasha Sominski, a Yeshiva University student, lost touch with Orthodox Judaism but found her identity as a gay woman. She became a beacon in her community, increasing awareness and acceptance of LGBT issues.

— Jayson Littman also wrote about reconciling his Orthodox identity with his gay identity, which he did in part by getting a tattoo of a Jewish proverb on his “T-spot”—the place on his bicep where he placed his tefillin box.

— Another look into how the Orthodox community approaches its LGBT members can be found here, in this profile on Eshel, an organization that brings together lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual Orthodox Jews and their family members to create a community and support system.

— On the other side of the religious spectrum, David Edleson, a Reform rabbi, had to overcome the pain of losing friends to the AIDS crisis before he was able to feel like his “full Jewish self.”

— Jewish kids across the country will be spending their next few months at camps. How does a camp deal with having a returning boy camper who’s spent his last three summers as a girl, or a camper who has two moms? Marjorie Ingall explores this issue here.

— Here, Ingall lays out some straightforward steps in this article on how to be an ally. Learn how to be supportive this Pride Month and every month thereafter.

Sophie Aroesty is an editorial intern at Tablet.