by Rabbi Ron Stern
In 1985 I was sitting in Jerusalem as a first year rabbinical student with my classmates as the president of the college told us that there were no gay or lesbian rabbinical students in our program. I looked to my right and left at four of my classmates who were gay or lesbian and wondered what it must feel like to be invisible.
It’s hard to believe that only a few decades ago, to be gay or lesbian was to live a double life—one persona in public another in private. And only a few short decades before that, police were raiding gay clubs and arresting people for simply being themselves. Being LGBTQ+ essentially required live one’s life invisibly—either to protect a career, a reputation, even one’s physical safety.
Now, we celebrate gay and lesbian weddings in our synagogue, my rabbinical school welcomes and cherishes the full inclusion of all along the LGBTQ+ spectrum. In Los Angeles and other large American cities we’d be excused for thinking that the battle to come out of the shadows has been won. But, of course, we know that there are still areas in this country where coming out is fraught not only with challenges but also with dangers. And we should never think that in our more enlightened regions it’s easy for a young person to come out. Even among us, there are still sub-cultures and religious groups that require their children to suppress their true sexual identities and gender manifestations.
It is for this reason that we need Pride Month. We fly our rainbow flags and lift up the members of our community who are LGBTQ+ so that we can broadcast loudly to them and to our own children who have yet to assert their sexual and gender identities, that we welcome and embrace them with love. Here and wherever they find themselves, there is no longer a need to be invisible
