Sadly, many people still feel that way about them. Some quietly and some overtly. Gay and trans people have suffered societal rejection and disgust that often entailed extreme violence by people that believed they were ‘doing God’s work!’ The stigma that used to be attached to being gay or trans was so severe, that it was kept in the closet by them for fear that if they were discovered they would their jobs and became social pariahs! That was bolstered by sodomy laws that were still on the books in some states not all that long ago.
Obviously that is wrong. And yet the issue becomes problematic when compassion turns into advocacy. That liberals try to build up LGBTQ people comes form a good place. To that end they have been doing everything they can to change the image of an LGBTQ individual from one of being a pariah into one of complete normalcy.
In that effort liberal bastions like Hollywood have gone the other way by placing gay lead characters in just about all of their productions and making them the role models for ethics and morality that the rest of us should emulate. The same attitude is expressed in the media that rejoices at every gay event as though it was a celebration of life itself.
So it isn’t that liberals are evil. They are not. They think they are promoting the ideals of social justice – equality for all of mankind. Therefore the lifestyle of LGBTQ people should be celebrated as much as possible as a means of countering the prejudice that sill exists.
If one does not subscribe to the religious values of the bible, this makes perfect sense. But for someone like me who does, that is a bridge too far. The idea that persecuting someone that is gay or trans is wrong – evil even. But that does not mean abandoning ones religious principles. Having compassion for a someone who has struggles with his sexual identity is the right approach. But promoting a lifestyle that is at odds with ones religious beliefs is not.
The two are not mutually exclusive. One can have compassion for LGBTQ people; understand their struggles and respect them as human beings. What is important is not who they are attracted to or if they believe they were born the wrong sex. What is important (to quote MLK) is the content of their character. People like that should be treated with dignity and respect.
But in no way should behavior considered wrong by religious standards be promoted as right. This is where I part company with liberals.
If you are an Orthodox Jew, this should be a simple matter for you. Halacha is very clear. Whether a man of a woman - one may not engage in homosexual sex. While the severity of the sin differs for each, it is nevertheless forbidden Halachicly for both. There are a variety of struggles humankind can go through. No one should be vilified for having them. At the same time twisting Halacha in an attempt to justify behavior that gives in to those struggles is wrong. And yet that is exactly what the Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshivat Maharat, Rabbi Jeffrey Fox has done.
I am absolutely certain that his heart is in the right place. But his head is not - as noted by Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer in a Cross Currents article. Rabbi Fox has written a Teshuva that places the gay lifestyle of two woman married to each other on a pedestal. As noted by Rabbi Gordimer, Rabbi Fox ends his Teshuva with the following:
When two women seek to build a Jewish home together, with love and commitment, this can no longer be called (even) pritzuta (Licentiousness). Rather, given the vacuum left to be filled, this should be understood as tzniuta (modesty) and perhaps even kedushata (holiness).
Rabbi Fox attempts to praise a lifestyle that is clearly forbidden by Halacha. And I cannot protest this enough. Dr. Eliezer Berkovits once bitterly complained to me that he had been unfairly labeled an Apikores - accused of saying that we must adapt Halacha to fit the times. He vehemently denied he ever said that. What he did say many times is that the Torah must be applied to the Times. That is the exact opposite of what he was accused of saying.
What Rabbi Fox has done however is the former. He desired a specific outcome and adapted the Torah to fit it. Something that even Dr. Berkovits condemned.
This seems to be the modus operandi of the far left Orthodoxy that ordained him and to which he belongs
To repeat. I’m sure that he is a very compassionate man and meant well. But so did the founding fathers of the Conservative movement who thought they were saving Yiddishkeit with their anti Halachic Teshuva allowing people to drive to Shul on Shabbos. And of course by now, we all know how well that went.
