There is an event scheduled for Jerusalem this coming August called WorldPride 2006." For those not familiar with it, it is the second international gay pride festival. An article on this event can be found in last Thursday’s Jerusalem Post Magazine.
I can think of no event more anathematic to the spirit of Yerushalayim Ir HaKodesh than an event like this one. The Torah calls such behavior an abomination….one worthy of a death penalty. For Jerusalem to host such an event turns everything holy on its head. And this is why they choose Jerusalem… and why the last one was held in the Vatican. The activists organizing this event are seeking to change morality as we know it. It cannot and must not be allowed.
It isn’t that I think homosexuals are evil people. Far from it. Many are fine upstanding people no different then the rest of us. There is even much evidence that their behavior is genetically induced. But even if it is environmentally induced, that does not necessarily make one with such tendencies evil. In fact I have much compassion for people with these kinds of problems. They live in a world that still considers them social outcasts, despite the best efforts of Hollywood and the Left to the contrary. They have urges which are difficult for them to control. But then again so do many heterosexuals. But for heterosexuals there is no real negative social stigma attached. And we have Hollywood to thank for that as well since they constantly aggrandize sexual promiscuity.
This is why many even good people support a gay pride event. They think that they are doing homosexuals a favor by normalizing them. And that is the purpose of the organizers of such events. They are agenda driven. They want the world to see homosexual behavior as normamative as heterosexual behavior. And it is why they push for “gay marriage” If they can get the world to accept gay marriage as holy matrimony… it will make the behavior holy too.
But they are wrong. Their behavior is not holy. And no matter where they have an event like this, it is still an abomination. Having it in Jerusalem does not make it any less so. It cannot therefore be allowed the appearance of the imprimatur that a Jerusalem venue would give it.
This is not to condemn those who for whatever reason have homosexual tendencies. They should be accepted into Orthodoxy without question. Just as anyone who has other forbidden tendencies is accepted. Judaism is not about tendencies. It is about behavior. We are rewarded and punished for behavior, not tendencies. To hold back love and compassion from a fellow human being just because his or her tendencies are repugnant to us is K’Neged the Torah.
If someone is predisposed to forbidden behavior and works mightily to overcome it, then nothing but respect is to be given to them. It is what they do with their lives that counts, not what turns them on. And even if someone succumbs to his or her Taavah, that doesn’t mean we automatically throw them out of the community either. We should treat them just like we do others who have succumbed to other forbidden temptations. It is not up to us to judge our fellow human beings. People who recognize they have sinned by committing homosexual acts and do Teshuva are no different then people who have sinned in other areas and do Teshuva.
I have been assured by mental health professionals that there are far more homosexual people in the Frum community than most people realize. Many are even married with children and lead quite normal lives. They have these tendencies but don’t act on them. In some cases they need the aid of a psychologist to help them. But they are all good people, living a holy life.
If it were up to me I would encourage all homosexuals to do the same. But for those who can’t they should be treated as equals… as long as they don’t flaunt their behavior publicly.
So why am I against a Gay Pride event in Jerusalem? Because that is not about succumbing to temptation. It is about normalizing abominations. Doing it in Jerusalem gives it an aura of religious acceptance. Nothing could be further from the truth. And it isn’t just Orthodox Jews who are against it. It is all three of the major faiths.
For Muslim clerics to unite with Rabbanim (along with priests) on this issue when they would just as soon see Jews dead… shows just how universal this abomination is considered.
And it isn’t like gay pride events are a subdued group of mistreated people protesting legitimate grievances. They usually bring out all the flamboyance and flaming seen all over the world when gay activists congregate. It is truly are a disgusting sight… parading around half naked and publicly flaunting their behavior.
This is what they want from us. It isn’t just about accepting gay behavior in the privacy of a bedroom. It is about shoving it down our throats and normalizing it. There can be no compassion for them any more than there can be compassion for the Mafia. And they have to be stopped.
But there is one caveat. Violence must be avoided. We had a little of that last year when zealots tried to take the law into their own hands and some people got stabbed. This is just as wrong. No one has the right to harm a fellow human being unless he is about to physically harm another. To kill a homosexual… even a flaming one… is to murder. And last time I checked, Shfichas Damim was still Assur.
But short of violence anything and everything should be done to prevent this from happening in our holy city. If there is anything that can unite all of Orthodoxy...left to right... it is this.
