Re: LESBIAN & GAY SHABBAT DINNER - 5 JUNE -- RODEPH SHOLOM (NYC)


meir b. wrote:
Lisa wrote:
meir b. wrote:

quoting:
I once asked my cousin, who is gay, the same question. She told me
that gays and lesbians get so much crap at ordinary events like this
when they attend with a partner, that they need to have some things of
their own where everyone can attend and know that they won't be looked
down on by some folks, treated like dirt by a few, or be verbally
attacked for who they are. They don't want to "emphasize their
sexuality"; rather, they just want to relax and enjoy the evening in
the company of their loved ones without being constantly on the
defensive."

The question was the need for a separate communal meal, as opposed
to one with the entire community. It did *not* refer to the problems
of being in a mixed group regularly, such as at work. Read that way, my
remarks are not, I think, an indication that I am "seriously mistaken."

I don't understand why you'd make such a distinction. No socializing
goes on at a communal meal? Jews don't play Jewish geography and ask
one another about everything under the sun at a communal meal?

Meir, it's hard for me to imagine that you're unaware of how many
straight people will react in such a case. Here's a quote from an
article written by the editor of a gay newspaper. He describes the
situation well:

====================
"At large gatherings of extended family, I don't always bring my
partner because it's easier to just avoid the stress ... When we check
into a hotel together, sometimes one of us will hold back in the lobby
to avoid those awkward confrontations with the front desk staff ...

-- Kevin Naff, in his May 26, 2006 editorial, "Don't Bash Mary
Cheney"
====================

How many heterosexuals have to do the same?

If they *are* living as couples, though, it is only natural
for there to be an assumption that halachically prohibited acts are
likely taking place.

Natural, maybe. Permissible, no. If they're willing to be makpid on
kashrut, why do you automatically suspect that they are less so in
their private lives?

I wasn't talking about permissibility, nor about what I think, but
to explain why it is assumed by most people to be the case. As to the
question you ask, that was the thrust of what I was trying (and, at
least in your case, failing) to commnicate.

I assume, Meir, that you are aware of the halakhot that pertain to
making assumptions of wrong-doing. I'm quite aware that it's common.
That doesn't make it permissible.

The comparison is not to "heterosexual . . . men
. . . raping women." The proper analogy would be to two heterosexuals
of opposite gender living together. There is no proof that they are
engaging in extramarital sex, but I daresay that the same G or L living
together, who resent the assumption that they are engaging in
prohibited acts, would make that very assumption about the couple in
question.

The issue of pre-marital sex being so commonplace in the US is
something else entirely. That has nothing to do with this.

On the contrary, it has everything to do with it. If you knew
that two heterosexuals of opposite sex were living together, would you
not assume that even if they were makpid on kashrus, they were "less so
in their private lives"?

If I see a young man and woman out on a date in the US, would I not
assume that even if they were makpid on kashrut, they might not be as
makpid on negia? Or even on pre-marital sex? After all, that is
exceedingly common in the US today, and it's even made inroads among
ostensibly Orthodox Jews.

The answer is, no. I do not assume that, because it is assur to assume
that.

I suspect that the percentage of male
homosexuals living as partners who refrain from prohibited acts is
about the same as the percentage of abstaining heterosexuals of
opposite gender living together.

Great. And you can write a paper on how statistics relate to the
halakhot of shmirat halashon. I'd be happy to read that.

It certainly is if we're talking about people who are committed to the
Torah. Granted, not everyone at this event will be. It's a Reform
temple, after all. But since there are things that two women (for
instance) can do together that are not assur, why would you assume that
they'd davka choose to do something that is assur?

Did I so assume? I was responding to the comment that we
shouldn't suspect the homosexuals any more than we do husband and
niddah wife. All I said was that *halacha* assumes a difference
between husband and wife when prohibited, and any other situation, in
the laws of yichud. Obviously, then, there is more reason to suspect a
yielding to temptation in other case than in the case of niddah.

Not at all. If we're dealing with frum Jews, then in the case of men,
the violation is much greater than extra-marital sex, and you'd expect
a correspondingly greater care to be taken by the men in question. In
the case of women, well, there are so many things that aren't assur,
which is not the case for a straight couple during niddah, that it's
simply not comparable.

Lisa

.

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