why I didn't go to your event this shabbos
When the audience is straight people deciding if gay people are allowed. When the sympathetic folks say that as long as there's no sex, it's okay. When a bais neeman begins and ends in the bedroom. When even the ones who make a show of pushing the boundaries still won't give smicha to a gay man. When you want me to beg you not to bully me. When you decide it's your decision.
When books about why Orthodox Jews are leaving Judaism don't discuss us. When the famous gay rabbi wants an apology from the bima during acharei mos, because it's the only thing that's hurt him, when kol isha is used to silence girls, when a middle-aged rabbi made a show every day of how high school girls singing gave him uncontrollable erections, his hands covering his ears as he walked through the halls lest he hear some glimpse. When no one has ever apologized to me for this.
When they ask why I'm not around more. When they ask why I'm still here. When every interaction could go very wrong. When I never stop having to do 101. When even my relatives who support me won't have discussions with their kids. When one of them tried to shove me back into the closet. When someone posts homophobia all over facebook and demands to know why I'm not talking to her anymore, thirteen years after I told her I'm gay.
Why can't you do any of this? This entry was originally posted at https://lannamichaels.dreamwidth.org/1045759.html.
When books about why Orthodox Jews are leaving Judaism don't discuss us. When the famous gay rabbi wants an apology from the bima during acharei mos, because it's the only thing that's hurt him, when kol isha is used to silence girls, when a middle-aged rabbi made a show every day of how high school girls singing gave him uncontrollable erections, his hands covering his ears as he walked through the halls lest he hear some glimpse. When no one has ever apologized to me for this.
When they ask why I'm not around more. When they ask why I'm still here. When every interaction could go very wrong. When I never stop having to do 101. When even my relatives who support me won't have discussions with their kids. When one of them tried to shove me back into the closet. When someone posts homophobia all over facebook and demands to know why I'm not talking to her anymore, thirteen years after I told her I'm gay.
Why can't you do any of this? This entry was originally posted at https://lannamichaels.dreamwidth.org/1045759.html.