Robby and religious trauma?
I sometimes see fanfic writers suggest that Robby has some religious trauma related to his sexuality.
From my standpoint, that is highly unlikely.
I say this as a fifty-ish year-old Ashkenazi Jew who grew up in the same progressive Jewish tradition that Robby did.
It is a matter of canon that Robby grew up a member of Rodef Shalom, a Pittsburgh synagogue in the Reform tradition. That means Robby (who’s probably in his early to mid fifties) went to a Reform shul in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Reform movement is the largest of the liberal denominations in modern Judaism. Originating in mid-19th century Germany, Reform Judaism sees Jewish traditions as evolving as our world around us evolves, and we Reform Jews do not strictly adhere to halakha (Jewish law) in the same way Orthodox Jews do.
Growing up in a Reform shul in the 1970s and 1980s, Robby would have learned a form of Judaism that was progressive and tolerant by the standards of that era. The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) declared same sex relationships to be legitimate in 1977, and the first openly queer rabbinical students enrolled at Hebrew Union College (the Reform rabbinical school) in 1990. Queer folk were not shunned or shamed in Reform Jewish communities of that era the way they often were in other religious traditions.
It is likely that Robby encountered openly gay Jewish people at synagogue when he was a young man, whether at Rodef Shalom in Pittsburgh or later when he moved to New Orleans (attending, perhaps, Touro Synagogue or Temple Sinai there).
In my view, if Robby has hangups about his sexuality, it’s not for religious reasons.
Just throwing that out here in case it helps people frame their thinking about Robby, his background, and his mindset.
