Looking for a good source for news about Marriage: Gay Marriage, Marriage Equality, Same Gender Marriage, Marriage Rights, Equal Rights, Civil Rights.  If you want to know about Marriage Equality you should really check out this blog.  If it’s out there, it’s at this blog run by marriage Equality NY.  Happy reading

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This letter is going out “Shortly” from Arnold Eisen, Chancellor-elect of the JTS, but we’ve got it first

It’s a lengthy letter, like most everything in the Conservative Movement, but a thoughtful one.

Having a history with the Conservative Movement, this is a monumental occasion that brings up all kinds of emotions. Here’s the letter:

To the JTS Community:

I write to announce that, effective immediately, The Jewish Theological Seminary will accept qualified gay and lesbian students to our rabbinical and cantorial schools.

(more…)

I regularly receive email newsletters from Jewcy.com.  I assume that most people who read this site know what Jewcy is.  But in case there are one or two who don’t Jewcy is “an entertainment and media company devoted to helping Jews (and anyone else) find, use, share, and expand meaning and community.”  At least according to their site. I found them because they sold funny t-shirts. They do indeed sell merchandise, but they also have a newsletter that publishes various human interest articles and opinion pieces.  Lately I’ve noticed that in what appears to be an attempt to be inclusive in opinions, they have featured some rather startling opinion pieces.  One was entitled “Are Christians More Tolerant than Jews?” and another was “Is God a Republican.” Now I’m all for hearing both sides of the story, but these two articles were such drivel that they didn’t dignify the concept of equal time for opposing opinions, they abused it.In the piece about Christian tolerance, (here is the link http://www.jewcy.com/first_person/03-09/christianity_scorn) the author simply posits her own experiences as what can at best be called a liberal-raised, assimilated, mildly self-hating Jew.  She takes the premise of the chosen people and turns it into an elitist concept instead of the true definition that we are chosen to lead by example, not that we are intrinsically better.  She also intuits that since her Judaism consists primarily of liking matzo ball soup on occasion, there really is no difference between Jews and Christians.  She married outside her faith and has witnessed her husband’s observant Catholic family.  She therefore concludes that Christians really act on their core beliefs while Jews just eat bagels and lox and read the Times. Wow, her logic is just unassailable, isn’t it?In the Republican God article (link is here http://www.jewcy.com/feature/2007-03-21/god_is_a_conservative) the logic is so reductive it is almost infantile.  I won’t even address the points, they are so puerile. The question here is why did these articles even get included?  What statement is Jewcy trying to make about who it wants it’s readership to be?  If they want both liberal and conservative viewpoints, fine.  But get people who can make cogent arguments that are not just the equivalent of ingesting a conservative talking points emetic.

Clearly from the comments, the readership on the whole is not buying what these writers are selling.  I hope that Jewcy either discontinues its lame attempts to create a dialogue between the left and the right, or endeavors to get some right-leaning contributors who are neither conservative mouthpieces nor sheltered pseudo-intellectuals.  Challenge my beliefs, just don’t insult my intelligence.

Jay Michaelson sent over this video from Gay Israeli Pop Star Ivri Lider. 
Jay says:

“Even with the accent, Ivry Lider makes me cry.  Maybe because of the accent.

And of course, the gay Jewish Ivry Lider singing the gay love song by the probably-gay Jewish George Gershwin (Jacob Gershovitz) is another of those “why exactly are we not told about our heritage” moments…”

YouTube - עברי לידר Ivri Lider - The Man I Love:

Haven’t seen the movie but hoping to soon.  Our sources tell us that it’s been picked up by an American distribution company and should be released here soon.

Have you seen the movie?  Know anything about it?

And now we can get some help getting a roof over our heads.  Israel recently began recognizing same-gender marriages from out of the state and recognizes common law couples, so now they’re putting their money where their laws are and treating common law couples (including same-gender couples) as equals… yay!

Common-law couples, including gays, to get housing assistance - Haaretz - Israel News:

“The Housing and Construction Ministry recently decided to provide housing and mortgage assistance to common-law couples - including those of the same sex - thereby removing one of the major obstacles to equality for alternative families.

The decision, which was made two months ago, changes the ministry’s policy of granting such benefits only to married couples and common-law couples with at least one joint child.”

So we got to it a bit late (think you’re more on top of things? Become a blogger on GayGevalt!)

Well, she’s reportedly very talented (see Jewschool) to boot.

Jewish and Israel News from New York - The Jewish Week:

The Reconstructionist movement tapped a lesbian rabbi to head its Rabbinical Association. Rabbi Toba Spitzer of West Newton, Mass., is to be formally elected at the movement’s March 11-14 convention. Spitzer is a 1997 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and has been serving Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, a Reconstructionist congregation in West Newton, for the past 10 years, the movement said in a release Tuesday. Spitzer’s election continues the Reconstructionist movement’s trailblazing tradition on gay and lesbian issues. In 1984, Reconstructionism became the first American Jewish movement to ordain gay rabbis, a move since followed by the Reform movement in 1990 and possibly by the Conservative movement in the coming months.

It is not a new thing that Homosexuality was taken off the list of diagnosable disorders in the DSM manuals (the diagnostic guidlines for psychiatric diagnoses). In the current version DSM-4 I believe that Transgendered ppl can still be diagnosed as having a disorder. The American Psych. Association is revising the DSM, with DSM 5 scheduled to come out in 2011, though the debates for change have already begun, and well, it is not so easy to find out where they are going with Diagnoses related to Sexual Orientation and Gender Issues.

My first instict is to say that sexual orientation and/or gender issues should not be seen as a psychological dysfunction. But of course, this is not so simple. Insurance companies will mostly only pay back therapists for Diagnosed disorders. This especially for longer term treatment. I am wondering if it is worth “playing sick” in order to ensure proper coverage for needed psychological help in dealing with LGBTQ issues.

I am wondering if other people have thoughts/knowledge about this issue? You can learn some more, at http://www.dsm5.org/.

Garrison Keillor: A Bigot’s Home Companion — Towleroad for modern gay men,:

Garrison Keillor longs for the good old days in this essay on what children need in Salon. You know, the days when the world wasn’t bothered by all these non-monogamous, flamboyant homosexuals that want to raise children.

Another one bites the dust… Garrison Keillor always creeped be out a little and now I know why… he’s a bigot and a hypocrite! It was my inner sneakascope (I’m rereading Order of the Phoenix). Families look different from each other (thank God). When are all these crazies going to get it and move on? In the meantime, click over to salon.com and let them know you’re unhappy with this pestilential piece. Feel free to send a note to Garrison Keillor, too.

Be sure to click over to Dan Savage’s blog for a good laugh. Thanks again to Towleroad.

Our friend and scholar Jay Michaelson has come out with a fantastic book that we just had to recommend.  OK, I have to.  God in Your Body is an informative, meaningful, and fun read.  It really is.  Surprisingly conversational (in a good way), Jay brings you into a growing discussion about one’s relationship to the divine, self, and spirituality.  The volume combines scholarship and anecdotes to illuminate the path.  For newcomers and seasoned practitioners alike this is a very comfortable and engaging book.  Bravo!

This is more a “test” blog for me to see if I can successfully post. Here goes nothing.

Last night I went to my first Same-Sex couple engagement party. It was very helpful for me to see a huge crowd of people celebrating the union of two souls which happen to occupy two male bodies. Bless it be. Perhaps if more conservative people saw this type of celebration they would warm up to the idea of Love in the form of Marriage for all. I learned that AIPAC funds trips of Politicians to go to Israel. Perhaps LGBT Advocacy groups can sponsor busses to take Politicians to Same-Sex family celebrations.

Action Point: Invite your local politicians to your LGBTQQI engagement party and wedding. Oh…and invite me too!