LGBT Stories

....Annise Parker, the chief executive of LGBTQ Victory Fund, which supports L.G.B.T. candidates and endorsed Mr. Polis, stumped with him during the last month of his campaign. “I have great respect and affection for him but he’s not the most exciting guy in the world,” she said. “He’s very low key; he’s a policy wonk. He just wants to work for the citizens of Colorado. And that clearly came through.”

A candidate’s sexual orientation, she said, was “not a reason for people to vote for you."

“Someday,” she added, “it won’t be a reason for people to vote against you.”

....

“The reality I think is that 10 years ago this was an issue that detractors could bring up to harm a candidate,” Mr. Reis said. And Mr. Polis has been subjected to slurs and threats; in his first campaign, he received so many pieces of hate mail that he began to tack them up. “It filled up a whole wall,” he said.

More of the attacks were anti-Semitic rather than homophobic, Mr. Polis said — he is also Colorado’s first Jewish governor — and the vitriol diminished over time. But it is not gone. Mr. Polis mentioned the anti-gay sentiment he faced during last year’s campaign: sign defacings in Eagle County, letters to the editor in Walsenburg, homophobic slurs written in shaving cream on his car.

But the cookbook was Susan Unger’s brainchild. “I was a young adult living in San Francisco in the 80’s, and the HIV epidemic was really coming at us full force and I wanted to do something….Had the AIDs crisis not been going on, I’m not sure I would have thought of the idea,” Unger said.

From start to finish, the project took about 12-18 months. The process involved queer members reaching out to the families they had been alienated from, for traditional family recipes to fill the cookbook. “The project provided a way for young people to reach out to their parents and grandparents,” Unger told me.

The Sha’ar Zahav congregation wanted to do more than just brunches. “The cookbook gave us a sense we were doing something,” said Ogus. Three dollars from every purchase of the cookbook went to the Food Bank of the San Francisco AIDs Foundation. A total of $13,000 went to the San Francisco Food Bank (about 51,607.28 in today’s dollars).

Skir recalls meeting a friend of his, a former yeshiva student from the Lubavitcher Hasidic community, whom he had persuaded to join them:

It’s almost Hanukkah time! Autostraddle has put together some lovely suggestions on how to celebrate and feel included this year. 

...However, the Dyke March Collective also ejected three people carrying Jewish Pride flags (a rainbow flag with a Star of David in the center).

According to one of those individuals—A Wider Bridge Midwest Manager Laurel Grauer—she and her friends were approached a number of times in the park because they were holding the flag.

"It was a flag from my congregation which celebrates my queer, Jewish identity which I have done for over a decade marching in the Dyke March with the same flag," she told Windy City Times.

She added that she lost count of the number of people who harassed her.

One Dyke March collective member, asked by Windy City Times for a response, said the women were told to leave because the flags "made people feel unsafe," that the march was "anti-Zionist" and "pro-Palestinian."

"They were telling me to leave because my flag was a trigger to people that they found offensive," Grauer said. "Prior to this [march] I had never been harassed or asked to leave and I had always carried the flag with me."

Another of those individuals asked to leave was an Iranian Jew Eleanor Shoshany-Anderson.

"I was here as a proud Jew in all of my identities," Shoshany-Anderson asserted. "The Dyke March is supposed to be intersectional. I don't know why my identity is excluded from that. I fell that, as a Jew, I am not welcome here."

A statement from posted June 25 on Dyke March Chicago social media accounts read in part:

"Sadly, our celebration of dyke, queer and trans solidarity was partly overshadowed by our decision to ask three individuals carrying Israeli flags superimposed on rainbow flags to leave the rally. This decision was made after they repeatedly expressed support for Zionism during conversations with Dyke March Collective members."

"People asked me if I was a Zionist and I said 'yes, I do care about the state of Israel but I also believe in a two-state solution and an independent Palestine,'" Grauer said. "It's hard to swallow the idea of inclusion when you are excluding people from that. People are saying 'You can be gay but not in this way.' We do not feel welcomed. We do not feel included."

In their statement, Dyke March Collective organizers singled out Grauer's organization A Wider Bridge for what they called "provocative actions at other LGBTQ events [and] for using Israel's supposed 'LGBTQ tolerance' to pinkwash the violent occupation of Palestine."

Social media posts in support of the Dyke March Collective also claimed that a rainbow flag with a Star of David is a form of pink washing (a belief that Israeli support of LGBTQ communities is designed to detract attention from civil and human rights abuses of Palestinian people).

Supporters added that American flags were similarly not welcome as they too are considered signs of oppression. However, flags from other nations were present.

In a June 25 press release concerning the incident, A Wider Bridge asserted that "The Dyke March has failed to live up to their goal of 'bridging together communities.' That the organizers would choose to dismiss long-time community members for choosing to express their Jewish identity or spirituality runs counter to the very values the Dyke March claims to uphold, and veers down a dangerous path toward anti-semitism."

The organization called on the Dyke March Collective "to issue a full public apology for dismissing LGBTQ Jews from the March, and affirm the Dyke March hold to their own values as a safe place for all LGBTQ people, including the Jewish Community."

One Dyke Marcher, Ruthie Steiner, who witnessed the removal of the Jewish participants, called the decision "horrific."

"This is not what this is community is supposed to be about," she told Windy City Times. "I'm German-born. Am I pink washing by being here and supporting my community? Is every nation which does not have a clean civil-rights record and also hosts a pride parade guilty of pink washing? With all the people that so hate the LGBTQ community, for it to tear itself apart in self-hatred makes no sense at all."

....

The full Dyke March statement reads as follows:

"Yesterday, June 24, Chicago Dyke March was held in the La Villita neighborhood to express support for undocumented, refugee, and immigrant communities under threat of deportation. Sadly, our celebration of dyke, queer, and trans solidarity was partially overshadowed by our decision to ask three individuals carrying Israeli flags superimposed on rainbow flags to leave the rally. This decision was made after they repeatedly expressed support for Zionism during conversations with Chicago Dyke March Collective members. We have since learned that at least one of these individuals is a regional director for A Wider Bridge, an organization with connections to the Israeli state and right-wing pro-Israel interest groups. A Wider Bridge has been protested for provocative actions at other LGBTQ events and has been condemned by numerous organizations (tarabnyc.org/cancelpinkwashing/&; for using Israel's supposed "LGBTQ tolerance" to pinkwash the violent occupation of Palestine.

"The Chicago Dyke March Collective is explicitly not anti-Semitic, we are anti-Zionist. The Chicago Dyke March Collective supports the liberation of Palestine and all oppressed people everywhere.

"From Palestine to Mexico, border walls have got to go!!

Marc Blitzstein 1941 Courtesy of the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music

"Music must have a social as well as an artistic base; it should broaden its scope and reach not only the select few but the masses." – Marc Blitzstein, 1935

Composer Marcus Samuel Blitzstein (1905-1964) was born to immigrant parents in Philadelphia. His father Sam founded Blitzstein Bank, which enabled early 20th-century immigrants to Philadelphia to save money and purchase steamship tickets to bring their families to the US. A piano prodigy, Marc made his professional debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at 21 years old and studied composition at the Curtis Institute of Music. He developed an interest in socially conscious theater and his compositions emphasized his political views. He did not hide his homosexuality, though he was discrete as required by social conventions of the time, even going so far as to write in a letter to his sister Jo in 1929, “It has become imperative at last that I cut out the "balance," the "control" (I am a pretty good actor, I project well, nearly everybody thought it was the real thing", and let out what has been secret and furtive in me for so long. Shame is the single largest enemy; the sense of being sick, of living a diseased life, is another. Now, I accept what I am; really, knowing all it involves.“

Blitzstein is known for the pro-union political opera The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles during its opening run in 1937 – and its infamous premiere – and the Airborne Symphony (commissioned by the US Air Force and conducted by Leonard Bernstein in New York in 1946). His adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera (originally produced in 1952 at Brandeis, under Bernstein) helped popularize the song “Mack the Knife” later recorded by Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin.

To learn more about composer Marc Blitzstein, please visit the official website here.

Marc Blitzstein Historical Marker Dedication

I must admit to a slight obsession with culinary historian Michael W. Twitty (“...’kosher soul-rolls’— spring rolls stuffed with collared greens and pastrami — and Senegalese chicken soup featuring matzah balls and peanut butter....”!!! I want to eat that!), who’s forthcoming book, The Cooking Gene: A Journey through African-American Culinary History in the Old South, documents his personal “Southern Discomfort Tour” to explore the complex food culture in the American South/African Diaspora. The Cooking Gene is available for pre-order and comes out in August. -Alisa, Assistant Curator

...One memory, of his African-American ancestors in the South, seems obvious. The other, of Jews enslaved thousands of years ago in Egypt, perhaps less so.

...

“How I became Jewish began through food,” Twitty told JTA during an interview in the lobby of a trendy New York hotel. His Christian mother, whom Twitty describes in his book as “the best challah braider I have ever known,” introduced him to the Shabbat staple early on. At the age of 7, Twitty, who grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., declared himself to be Jewish.

“[T]here are some things that science cannot explain, it’s a calling, it’s a connection, it’s above us,” Twitty said of his childhood interest in Judaism.

Food continued to inform his Jewish journey, which culminated in his conversion at 25. He chose a Sephardi Mizrahi synagogue because he found it the most welcoming as a person of color — and because of its culinary traditions.

“[T]he food was better — and [you can eat] rice on Pesach,” he said, referring to the Sephardi custom of eating rice and other legumes from which Ashkenazic Jews abstain during Passover.

Asked to describe himself, Twitty invents a new word: “Afro-ashke-phardi.”

“I feel African-American brings in the Southern, brings in the mixture of heritage that is African-American and African diaspora,” he said. “I feel like the Ashkenazi, I really do appeal to Hasidic culture, dabbled with it before in my life. And Sephardic and Mizrahi heritage will always be a part of me because it’s where I converted, in a Sephardic and Mizrahi synagogue.”

The kitchen also served as a place for Twitty to discover another identity: as a gay man.

“There was a lot of gay culture in our kitchen,” Twitty writes, citing the show tunes that family members would play while cooking. The kitchen was also the place where he first came out to his mother and aunt.

Twitty’s background is reflected in his unique takes on traditional Jewish food. A Shabbat dinner at his house might include such dishes as “kosher soul-rolls”— spring rolls stuffed with collared greens and pastrami — and Senegalese chicken soup featuring matzah balls and peanut butter....

Are you going to host or attend a #SAGEtable meal? Who are your multi-generational Queer heroes? Who would be at your dream SAGE table event?

On May 18, @sageusa invites you to host or attend SAGE Table, a chance for LGBTQs of all ages to sit down, strengthen community, and forge new traditions. Follow @sageusa or the link in our bio and please host or attend a SAGE Table in your community. . In support of SAGE Table, @lgbt_history worked with the incredible @levijfoster and @mh0ffman to create “The Families We Make,” a series bringing together queer activist heroes of all ages. This post is part of that series; swipe right to see Levi’s portrait. . Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer met in 1963, began dating in 1965, and got engaged in 1967. They spent decades fighting for LGBTQ liberation. . In 2007, after thirty years of living with progressive MS, Thea was given a year to live. As they couldn’t legally marry in New York, the couple wed in Toronto. . After Thea’s death in 2009, Edie had to pay substantial federal taxes on her wife’s estate, whereas a heterosexual widow would not have paid any taxes; the different treatment arose from Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which applied “spouse” only to opposite-sex couples. Edie sued and fought to the Supreme Court, which declared Section 3 unconstitutional, paving the way for 2015’s marriage equality ruling. . @sageusa has a special place in Edie’s heart. She is a former board member and a winner of @sageusa’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and she took great comfort in the SAGE community after Thea’s death. . As @levijfoster’s portrait shows, it didn’t take long for Edie and @raymondbraun to hit it off. Raymond, a media personality, activist, and entrepreneur who has been named, among other things, one of the world’s most influential LGBTQs by OUT magazine, has an unrelenting passion for fairness and equality, especially when it comes to LGBTQ youth; he is engaged, engaging, hyper-intelligent, and compassionate. . Because of @sageusa, these two incredible activists shared space, made plans, and gave each other strength. We all can make these connections on May 18 by participating in SAGE Table. . Pictures: (1) Edie & Thea, Halloween, 1981. c/o Edie Windsor; (2) Edie & Raymond, New York City, April 20, 2017. Photo by @levijfoster. #SAGETable

Queery: Rabbi Denise Eger

While studying to become a rabbi during the 1980s in New York City, Denise Eger started a group for gay and lesbian students, holding meetings far from campus. At the time, there were few prospects for out lesbian rabbis, a lesson Eger would learn personally — no one would hire her. But she found her calling at a synagogue created as a religious refuge for gays, Beth Chayim Chadashim in Los Angeles, the world’s first gay and lesbian synagogue to be recognized by Reform Judaism.

It was a road that led her to found Kol Ami, a welcoming and jubilant Jewish community that is open to all.

Since then, the Reform Jewish movement — Eger’s lifelong spiritual home — has undergone a radical transformation on LGBT issues and now fully embraces the community. So much so, in fact, that Eger, in 2015, became the first openly gay president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the rabbinical arm of Reform Judaism — the largest and oldest rabbinical organization in North America.

Eger has been honored for her HIV/AIDS work and is a highly regarded expert on Judaism and LGBT civil rights. She is a noted author contributing to anthologies such as “Torah Queeries,” “Lesbian Rabbis,” “Twice Blessed,” and “Conflicting Visions: Contemporary Debates in Reform Judaism.” She wrote the piece “Creating Opportunities for the ‘Other’: The Ordination of Women as a Turning Point for LGBT Jews”, which appears in the book “The Sacred Calling: Four Decades of Women in the Rabbinate,” published in 2016....

Read the interview here