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LGBT religious/spiritual community: not so elusive

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by wanderinggirl, Aug 24, 2014.

  1. wanderinggirl

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    Guys I did the coolest thing this weekend. So I'm a very lax Jew; I went to Shabbat services a few times in college, but in the last 5 years I haven't gone once.

    But this Friday my (gay male) friend invited me to something different... LGBT shabbat services in the city. I figured, that would be way more fun and speak more to my values than traditional services. I was so right! They mentioned God of course but in a "believe in things the way you want to, not in the way we tell you to believe" way, and I'm sure I wasn't the only atheist but I didn't feel excluded at all.

    There were so many rainbow and trans* pride flag yarmulkas, and there were people of all ages and gender expressions.

    I saw an 80 year old woman with a white mullet. The prayer book mentioned LGBT-specific stuff as well, and focused on knowing and loving yourself and spreading that love to others. And the sermon thing was about how Judaism teaches us to live in harmony with our environment and it's important to preserve the environment.

    Also this synagogue has had some controversy because the rabbi read names of 1000+ dead Palestinian children, to remind us not to get so entrenched in the conflict that we forget compassion for the "other side". She came under fire for it, because a few congregation members felt it was anti-Israel. She wrote this long letter about how this synagogue does not have an opinion on the conflict; it has as many opinions as people, and they were not gonna stifle someone's opinion but rather encourage debate. Furthermore she said that criticizing Israel's tactics does not mean she is criticizing Israel as a whole and that we have to question things in order to do better in the future. WHY CANT ALL RELIGION BE LIKE THIS??

    Later on my friend and I talked over drinks about being Jewish and queer, and how Judaism is supposed to make us question stuff in general.

    It was so fucking cool.

    Have any of you ever been to an LGBT religious service?