 |
| Wearing a 'pride' Kipa (JTA) |
The last thing we should be doing is rejecting them or in any way making them feel bad about themselves. It’s not their fault that they are having these struggles.
At the same time, they are struggles. Not a way of life that ought to be accepted as a perfectly fine way to live. Acting on those struggles in ways that are strictly forbidden by the Torah should not be seen as perfectly fine, either.
There is a wide gap between these two extremes, a gap that is apparently not recognized by the trans/gay activist community. For them, it is an ‘either or’ proposition. Either you accept them as perfectly normal and encourage people who feel that way to live that way, or you are a hater.
That is clearly not the case, much as they insist that it is. It is with that dichotomy in mind, that activists call for pride parades and similar events. They do not see people like that as individuals to have sympathy for. They see them as normal. Totally ignoring the biblical values which American culture has been based upon since the first Pilgrims set foot in this country.
That culture has given way to a society where biblical values are ignored or even trashed if they conflict with the new liberal orthodoxy that has redefined what is and isn’t moral. An orthodoxy that sees nothing Divine about biblical values. Values that were revered by our founding fathers and still revered by the majority of the American people. A majority once referred to as the ‘moral majority’ (a term made popular by the late evangelical preacher Jerry Falwell).
The correct approach, therefore, is to recognize these struggles for what they are: struggles. To have compassion for those who experience them, and accept them in the same way we should accept anyone with any other struggles. What we may not do, however, is Kasher this as though their struggles weren’t struggles at all, or claim that they should be proud of who they are as gay or trans.
Unfortunately, many fine observant Jews shun people like this and see them as disgusting human beings. While their perspective may be influenced by how the Torah treats people who act upon these struggles - using the word Toeivah (abomination) regarding the most common form of male homosexual behavior, rejecting an individual so inclined is not only wrong, but it is itself immoral.
It is a severe violation of V’ahavta L’re’acha Kamocha - loving your fellow Jew as yourself. Insulting such people with disparaging remarks constitutes a violation of Malbin Pnei Chaveiro B’rabim - publicly humiliating another Jew, which the Gemara characterizes as a form of murder!
But as I indicated, this isn’t an ‘either or’ issue. In a nation that was founded on many principles of the Bible - which does not look favorably upon gay sex or changing one’s gender - there has been a gradual rejection of those values over the last 30 years, led by a liberal government, a sympathetic media, and an amoral entertainment industry.
The majority of the American people do not accept this departure from traditional values. This is in large part why voters rejected the party that promoted those anti-biblical values, even though they framed it as simply guaranteeing civil rights for all Americans.
When Trump said he wanted America to be great again, many Americans heard in that phrase a rejection of the liberal policies that made the abnormal - normal. For example, when Trump said he was going to outlaw gender-affirming therapy for minors, the majority of voters applauded and voted for that policy. The American electorate surely voted for that decision no less than they voted for economic improvement and stricter immigration policies. He implemented it almost immediately after taking office.
What about Orthodox trans Jews and their families who now feel threatened by Trump’s new executive order? Like Russell Neiss, whose son is trans.They should not feel threatened. No one is coming to round them up, as he fears.
It seems to me that this Orthodox Jew has been misled about transgenderism to the point of accepting the ‘either or’ dichotomy of the activist community. The fact that he is married to a Rabba (a woman ordained as a rabbi by the extreme left of Orthodoxy) strongly indicates this. The extreme left wing of Orthodoxy has a warped interpretation of these Torah laws, allowing them to conform to the latest cultural trends of the political left, with which they are mostly aligned.
As it applies to the Jewish people, it a gross distortion of Jewish ethics to try to conform Torah law to the cultural norms of the times.
And if a nation wants to retain its moral bearing, it would be wise not to abandon the values upon which it was founded. To the extent that liberals in government have gradually been doing that, the majority of the American people have rejected it. Even if they never uttered that infamous phrase so beloved of hardcore Trump supporters, they are nevertheless happy to make America great again by restoring the biblical values they still believe in.
