Judaism's Acceptance Problem

This past summer I had the unique experience of working for the Sierra Club, helping arrange their summer programs. As part of my internship I attended one of the week long summer camps that I organized, coming as a participant. I was surprised to find out that over half of the other attendees were part of the LGBTQ community, openly identifying with their orientation. Having always been part of the sheltered Jewish community, the experience was quite eye-opening. I learned quite a lot about the LGBTQ community and what exactly it means to be part of it.

When I returned from my intern experience I set about researching why exactly the Orthodox Jewish community has such a negative response to LGBTQ members. I had expected a good track record considering the centuries of abuse we have suffered by the hands of our oppressors. I had expected that we would have done a exemplary job on accepting LGBTQ members considering that they were thrown into the crematoriums with us. I had expected to find that the renowned Jewish kindness would have extended to accept and support these people.  I was quite shocked at what I found. Orthodox Jews, it turns out, seem notorious for bad treatment of LGBTQ members. Students that have come out in schools have been kicked out and community members have been ostracized for revealing their true selves. It was with disgust that I read about the lawsuit against JONAH and what the organization had done. The archaic behavior of the religion does not seem to fit with the values that it apparently upholds.

Orthodox Jews have an acceptance problem. We, of all people, should not be discriminating against people. We need to move past our prejudices and accept these people for who they are, just as others accept us for who we are.