Who says religion is opposed to the freedom to marry?
July 12, 2010
By Sam Schoenburg, Freedom to Marry Summer Intern
Last week in Berkeley, California, over 100 Jewish LGBT and allied groups attended a Jewish professionals retreat at the 2010 LGBT Jewish Movement-Building Convening. The gathering brought together synagogue leaders, Jewish and secular activists, and representatives of other faith-based LGBT organizations for three days of sharing and planning to bolster the growing LGBT Jewish movement, including a firm stance in support of the freedom to marry.
I suppose it’s appropriate that I find this assembly awe-inspiring. Religion, after all, is supposed to lend a feeling of comfort, a place of belonging and security. But, the truly remarkable part of this gathering was the almost seamless melding of religion and the struggle for equality and fairness for LGBT people.
Growing up Jewish in the Midwest, I was not always sure that gay and Jewish identities could coexist so harmoniously. After all, there were few examples of openly LGBT people at my synagogue, and the topic of being gay, let alone being gay and Jewish, hardly arose throughout my childhood.
Since coming to an understanding of my own gay identity after leaving for college, I have done my best to merge this fundamental piece of myself with Judaism, a part of my life just as rich and fulfilling as any other. I have been happy to discover that the project has not been too difficult, and that I have indeed found as much of a home within Judaism as an openly gay person as I did growing up.
The Union of Reform Judaism, of which I am a member, has embraced its lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender practitioners with greater inclusiveness in recent decades. A 1996 resolution of the Central Conference of American Rabbis acknowledged “the right of gay and lesbian couples to share fully and equally in the rights of civil marriage.” A further step was taken in 2000 when the CCAR affirmed that loving, Jewish same-sex couples could be joined in union according to Jewish tradition, and with an officiating rabbi.
The conference in California is a further step toward broader-based LGBT inclusion in more parts of Jewish life. Progress toward that goal is a comfort for me.
But perhaps the greatest lesson from the convening is the message that religious people and institutions can be some of the strongest allies in the path to affirming the love shared by the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people among us. Though many religious organizations have been identified as the greatest stumbling blocks to LGBT inclusion, there is a growing chorus of voices declaring the virtue of encouraging love and commitment, no matter its form. The Episcopal Church has opened its doors to same-sex unions and gay and lesbian bishops, while the Presbyterian Church continues to debate the issue.
The keynote remarks in California recalled the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa in support of LGBT equality. He recently wrote in a Washington Post op-ed:
Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God's family.
People are having quiet conversations about embracing LGBT people with their fellow believers in churches, mosques, synagogues, and other places of worship across the country. And, the more people speak up within their own faith communities to seek inclusion and understanding, the quicker the journey to acceptance and equality will become.