#intersex jews

[loki-god-of-mischief-13]

Pride Mezuzahs

If I forgot your flag, tell me. Happy pride to the Jews in my phone.

[gay-impressionist]

AN ODE TO QUEER JOY

Part 1 : Joy in each other (Community)

@artbyeloquent / lil nas x and elton john wearing a rendition of each other's iconic costumes. photographer unknown / @ghostcauliflower / alison bechdel / @android-boy / heartstopper : scene where nick, a bisexual boy, sees his two lesbian friends kiss. gif by @nicks-nelson / @canaryomenharbinger / shatzi weisberger with three unknown people / anonymous / new york city 2021 pride parade. photographer unknown

[whatlieswithintheorchard]

Blessing for Trans Intimacy

As you touch your lips say the following blessing:

ברוכֶה אתה יי אלהימותינו רוח אשר יצרה את האדם בחכמה ובראה בה נקבים חלולים

Transliteration:

B’ruche ateh ‘’, elohimoteinu, ruach ha’olam

Asher yatzreh et ha-adam b'chochmah

Uvareh ve n’kavim chalulim

Translation:

Praise the Source of Life, who creates our bodies with Wisdom, creating openings and closings.

Blessed is the One

For letting me see the holiness in others

The sacredness of scars on a chest

The holiness of one who has learned to love themselves

Who renew their creation

The mitzvah of my lips on their body

Gloriously exploring each other

For seeing each other is like seeing the face of G’d

[hellochildrenoftheatom]

Queer Jews Project

Hi fellow LGBTQIA+ yids. I know we’re hurting and scared and dreading pride month.

So I’m going to queue up a queer Jew for every day this month. Posts will go up at 12 p.m. EST.

Disclaimer: There are so many queer jews. These are just the ones I feel like listing. This is just a fun project, not a serious academic discussion of these people and their legacies. And definitely not the place for I/P discourse. The tags are for exposure but I'll limit them to the identities of the jews in the posts themselves.

[gay-otlc]

Sick of this bullshit

[franknfurterstriangulardinosaur]

my gender is beautiful. it is poetic. it flows through my blood with every beat of my heart. i experience everything through my transsexuality. my gender is apathetic towards normality and purpose. my gender has given itself its own purpose. my gender is exclusively mine, even though i share many labels with many other people who experience different unique gender experiences. my gender is a performance, a safe haven, a ground to feel love on. while i, myself, am aromantic, my gender experiences romance, my gender is romantic but not as you would expect one. my gender cannot be viewed through binary where we separate society’s two ideals of gender. my gender is a twisted version of both the binaries that has been painfully forged together. my gender is deep within my heart. my gender has nothing to do with my body or how i present myself (although both are beautiful). my gender is forever changing but creates itself through everything that i am. my gender is connected to my faith, to my culture, to all i have learnt to be. my gender is connected to my sexuality, to my love of men. my gender is connected to my aromanticism, to my lack of romance, to my rebellion against amatonormativity. my gender is my connection to people. my gender is connected to my disability, the beauty of both of them create an intersectionality. my gender is radiant and cannot be viewed through eyes, only through words and feelings and nothing else.

[figuring-it-all-out]

Pride Menorahs: Transgender / Agender / Intersex / Nonbinary / Genderfluid / Genderqueer / Androgyne / Genderflux / Bigender

Feel free to use just please like/reblog/credit if you do

[jewish-sideblog]

Pinkwashing as a concept is astonishing to me because it operates under the assumption that everything Israel does is for global PR.

Jews have a 6,000 year history of being more chill about gay people than (most) other religions. Jews overwhelmingly favour Queer rights in the diaspora, where Israeli law doesn’t affect us. Kabbalah regards Adam Kadmon, a genderless or multi-gendered being, as the first human, and says that their gender identity made them significantly more divine. Ancient Israeli laws documented in the Talmud make room for multiple different forms of intersex conditions.

But yeah Israel having a pretty good record on Queer rights is just because the Jews care desperately about our global image in the media. Israel having the biggest pride parade in Asia is exclusively a marketing tool that somehow convinces people to hate Palestinians. And clearly the Israeli government just handed down these Queer rights from on high to please the West. It’s not like normal Queer Israeli citizens have organized well-documented, long and difficult struggles against their government for equality and representation.

“Pinkwashing” my ass. Queer people in Israel fought hard for those rights. If Israel ceases to exist, those rights will disappear. They have good reason to be scared of Hamas, the Houthis and Iran, regardless of if they’re Queer Jews or Queer Palestinians or Queer Bedu. And yet Queer Israelis were protesting Netanyahu’s government and policy decisions before October 7, and they continue to protest what’s happening in Gaza now. They should be the sort of people you look up to instead of the sort of people you dismiss offhand. They aren’t a PR stunt. They’re human fucking beings.

[karingottschalk]

PBS: The U.S. and the Holocaust, A new documentary by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein, Premieres September 18 at 8/7c – Commentary

PBS: The U.S. and the Holocaust, A new documentary by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein, Premieres September 18 at 8/7c – Commentary

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/us-and-the-holocaust/ “The U.S. and the Holocaust is a three-part, six hour series that examines America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century. Americans consider themselves a “nation of immigrants,” but as the catastrophe of the Holocaust unfolded in Europe, the United States proved unwilling to open its doors to more than a…

[demonic-shadowlucifer]

I love you gay jews. I love you lesbian jews. I love you trans jews. I love you intersex jews. I love you nonbinary jews. I love you bi jews. I love you pan jews. I love you asexual jews. I love you aromantic jews. I love you jews that are questioning their orientation/gender. I love you queer jews.

[palms-upturned]

if you don’t know much abt christian fundamentalism, you might not have heard about quiverfull before. quiverfull is a christian nationalist movement that gets its name from psalms 127: 3-5

(3) Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. (4) As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. (5) Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

the quiverfull philosophy is that pregnancies/children are a blessing from god, that contraceptives/abortion are rejections of god’s true plan, and that christian families should have as many children as possible and raise them to be good soldiers in god’s army. children are arrows in your quiver: the more you have, the stronger a soldier you are.

christian nationalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy all go hand in hand. they are not separable from each other. they all follow the same principles. and they are all being leveraged toward the same end: make as many white, able bodied, indoctrinated babies as possible. we cannot reduce this to an issue of men vs women and lose sight of how this is going to affect Jews and Muslims and people of other faiths, BIPOC, poor people, disabled people, queer (especially trans) people, intersex people, fat people. we can’t forget what the word “marginalize” means.

[orphee-aux-enfers]

So, I'm asking honestly and in good faith to better understand Orthodox attitudes toward queerness. Suppose you had a son, who is male according to halacha, and he wants to have an intimate relationship with another man (who is similarly male according to halacha). How would you feel about this? How would your wider community feel? Do you think other Orthodox Jews in your community would feel the same in that situation, or is there a spread?

Hi anon. Thanks for the kindness in asking politely, though that should be the bare minimum. Not sure why you're asking me of all people, though. I'm an intersex transsexuel who identifies literally as a "tranny fagdyke". I am married to another transexual who also IDs as a tranny. My wider community absolutely accepts us, but it is still community dependent. So. If my son was also queer, I expect he'd be similarly loved and supported and given free food and hospitality and invited to gatherings and such because we would not be in an unaccepting community. Personally, I've never been shunned at any stage of visible queerness or transness. Maybe I've been lucky. But 7 ish communities is an awful lot for me to feel it's a fluke.

I think the thing people need to understand is that while orthodox Jews at large may not have prior knowledge, or understand, or approve, many refuse to speak out or discriminate due to lashon hara. This means you have acceptance without understanding which is MORE THAN SUFFICIENT for me, especially because the secular world is incredibly hard for me to exist in even if I'm NOT visibly religious, which I very much am. I would much rather be supported by someone who doesn't understand me than outright treated with hatred by someone who uses the politically correct terms of transgender as a slur and calls me a k*** to my face for being a Jew (my experience in secular, queer liberal spaces).

So. Lashon hara. A thing that I think EVERYONE should learn!!!! Because every SINGLE orthodox Jew I know practices it, well, religiously. Including about our trans and queer members of the community. No one chastises as harshly as a bubbe hearing someone call someone names behind their back, to be honest.

Obviously I cannot speak for every community, or even my community's private opinions because I'm ONE PERSON. I've never lived in a New York or New Jersey community. I've mostly lived in Europe, where Orthodox Judaism is often more frequently just... Judaism. It's very unfair to paint all communities with the same brush, based on what seem to me to be minority experiences within an already tiny minority. I understand it's not everyone's experience, but honestly and truly, I know more queer orthodox Jews with good experiences than I know queer orthodox Jews with bad experiences.

[coochiequeens]

“I did assault her and I will do it again,” he said. “And if I need to be 10 years in prison I’m happy to be 10 years in prison.” Says a man fled anyway.

The trans activist who threw tomato juice on a women’s rights campaigner during a free speech event in Auckland has been charged with common assault and appears to be fleeing from New Zealand authorities as a result.

Eliana Rubashkyn, also known as Eliana Golberstein and Eliana Rubinstein, is a male who identifies as transgender and intersex and uses “they/them” pronouns. On March 25, Rubashkyn attacked women’s rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen during what was supposed to be a peaceful women’s rights demonstration. 

Keen, also known by her moniker Posie Parker, had arranged for a speaking tour of New Zealand centered around giving women the platform to express their thoughts on gender ideology. But she was forced to cut the tour short after being met with extreme aggression at her first stop in Auckland at Albert Park.

As Keen approached the bandstand in the park, where she was set to speak to a crowd of approximately 200 supporters, Rubashkyn dumped a liter of tomato juice onto her and her security detail. Videos of the incident have since circulated on social media, and Rubashkyn told a local news station that he was able to approach Keen because he lied about his identity and pretended to be a supporter of hers.

Following the event, Rubashkyn gave an interview where he claimed that he targeted Keen because “her words are blood because they are killing our people.” He continued: “That tomato juice represents the blood of the people she is trying to kill.”

Rubashkyn also addressed the crowd after Keen was escorted away from the park by police, and stated that he wanted Keen to be “full of blood … because she’s advocating for our genocide.”

Information on Rubashkyn’s charge was first reported by Newsable, which received a statement from Rubashkyn where he again claimed the assault and suggested he was comfortable facing justice.

“I did assault her and I will do it again,” he said. “And if I need to be 10 years in prison I’m happy to be 10 years in prison.”

But despite his words, Rubashkyn fled New Zealand shortly after being made aware that police were planning on issuing a warrant for his arrest on charges of assault.

His latest travel-related post suggests he has now left Australia and is en route to the United States.

A fundraiser has been launched to support Rubashkyn, citing support for a legal defense fund as well as “personal security needs.” It has since raised just over $1,300 as of the writing of this article. The fundraising campaign is currently under review by GiveALittle, and some on social media have noted it is likely against the platform’s terms of service to be fundraising for a known fugitive.

Rubashkyn is originally Jewish-Ukrainian from Colombia, but currently lives in New Zealand. He has worked with the UN and as a Program Officer at ILGA World (the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association). Much of his origin story and gender identity has come into question after a March 28 Twitter space wherein Rubashkyn appeared incoherent at times while addressing a live audience for almost 8 continuous hours.

During the space, Rubashkyn made a number of anti-lesbian, racist, sexist, and violent remarks, including that trans-identified males were the “first victims” of the Holocaust.

“Trans women were the first victims of Nazism. Trans women were killed before the Jews were sent to concentration camps,” he said, continuing: “In the 1930s, Nazis relied on TERFs to promote hate… TERFs became holders of concentration camps for females. TERFs were quite instrumental in the system that the Nazis built for making more babies… to keep Nazi Germany growing.”

Rubashkyn claims to be Jewish and says he can speak fluent Hebrew, but seemed to be unable to understand a Hebrew speaker who challenged him on his assertion.

In addition to the marathon space, Rubashkyn also uploaded a video to his Twitter account in which he was seen sobbing while claiming there was a “trans genocide” occurring, and that “Nazis” were trying to murder him.

“I am so full of joy because I am trans, but I am so scared because they want to kill me. The Nazis, they are– they just really want to get you.”

The March 25 event was part of an international Let Women Speak tour hosted by British women’s rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen. Keen has hosted rallies across the UK, USA, and Australia encouraging women to use her platform to speak about how gender ideology has impacted their lives.

While Keen’s events are often met with hostility, the New Zealand rally descended into violence so rapidly that it had to be cancelled before it could even begin. 

As she arrived at the Albert Park venue, Keen went live on her YouTube channel as she usually does to provide her supporters updates from the event. 

Immediately, the scene was chaotic as police did not appear to be present. Those watching from a distance through the YouTube stream were able to see Keen being led by her security though a braying crowd of trans activists. Once she managed to make it to the stage, Keen could immediately be heard expressing concerns about the lack of police presence. 

Keen and her supporters were quickly surrounded by an increasingly aggressive mob of trans protestors. The activists broke through established barriers, and didn’t take long before the decision was made to cancel the event and leave for the safety of all involved.

In addition to Keen having been assaulted by Rubashkyn, an elderly woman who had attended the demonstration in support of Keen was battered in the face by a male trans activist.

The woman, who is said to be in her 70s, was left with a darkly blackened eye after being both head-butted and punched in the face. Videos of the assault went viral on Twitter as multiple angles of the altercation between the elderly woman and the male trans activist began to leak in the aftermath of the rally.

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

Okay so since there’s soooo much fucking transphobia rampant, here’s a post for those of you who either are Christian and/or surrounded by Christian queerphobes. Here’s a list of rebuttals to when they start talking about how being trans is ungodly.

Most of these rebuttals are religious as that is the base they will be arguing from; however I did include  bit of a science to make their heads spin.

“Genesis also says that God made morning and evening. Are morning and evening strictly binary? Is there nothing inbetween? Can you define 'morning'? How about the binary of darkness and light?”

“So if we're born the gender we are, what are intersex people?” [when they inevitably say there's just "so few of them"] “There are more intersex people than there are redheads. 1.7% of the population are Intersex, while roughly 1.5% are redheads. Does that mean that redheads do not 'count' when discussing hair color?”

[to “God doesn't make mistakes”] “Yes, of course. They just do impossible things. After all, if God could put a baby into a virgin, or could bring life to the dead, why could they not put a boy's soul into a girl's body, or vice versa?”

Feel free to also say “God literally made such a mistake with all humanity that they flooded the planet.”

This line is from a Jewish source, Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel Mallory Ortberg: “As my friend Julian puts it, only half winkingly: 'God blessed me by making me transsexual for the same reason God made wheat but not bread and fruit but not wine, so that humanity might share in the act of creation.'”

Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.“

If they're using the Deuteronomy verse (22:5, about not crossdressing or w/e), know that line is mistranslated. Quoting https://hoperemainsonline.com/index.php/transgender/, “A more literal translation from Hebrew reads 'The weapon of a warrior shall not be on a woman, nor shall a warrior put on the robe of a woman, for all who do these things are a hateful thing to the LORD thy God.' The word “robe” is translated from the Hebrew word simlah, which was a garment worn by both sexes. Clearly, this cannot be referring to cross-dressing. What could it be referring to then? A much more likely answer to that question is that it is about ritual purity and the mixing of blood. Both warrior’s swords and women’s garments would get blood on them, one from battle and the other from menstruation. To have a man wear the robe of a woman, or vice versa, would mix blood, which was considered an abomination under the law.”

Similar mistranslations result in the homophobic verses they spew as well. just browse through hoperemains for some inspo

This last one is long, but it talks about how all humans, including women, were created in God's image; therefore, God is both male and female. If it's wrong for humans to be, why is God enby themself? 

From The Africana Bible, edited by Hugh R Page Jr:

“The term occasionally translated as 'human beings' in the NRSV and generally as "man" in most other English versions is  'adam or ha'adam. Now this is clearly not a personal name (that is, Adam) as the KJV ill-advisedly begins to indicate at about Gen. 2:19. A better translation of this term, however, would be “the earthling” since the term is derived from the term ‘adamah, meaning “land” or “earth.” Such a translation clarifies better than “man” or even “human being” that the original intent of the author is to emphasize that God made “earthlings” as a whole, not just males, in God’s image[...]”

[...]“Such a translation takes into consideration that the term ‘adam is meant to function as a collective term referring to both the male and the female. Thus, we should note that ‘adam here is not a name or an ascription of gender but a collective term for “earthlings” in general; this is emphasized by the author’s choice of the plural pronoun ‘otham, and the use of the plural verbs veyirddu and urdu, meaning in 1:26 and 1:28, 'let THEM have dominion,' further reiterates the inclusive nature of the term ‘adam. [...] In Genesis 1 and 2, both genders were created with equal expressions of God’s image, equal authority over the earth, and equal value as human beings.”

[magnetothemagnificent]

Instead of misrepresenting terms that were created to describe intersex variations and infertility (Six sexes, not genders), as queer Jews we should come up with new, inclusive terms that are inspired by the gender nonconformity and non-heteronormative people and ideas in Judaism, in the same way Native Americans came up with the modern word of "Two Spirit" as an umbrella term. Language is always evolving and we don't need to and shouldn't misgender and misrepresent intersex people to try and find words for ourselves.

I like the term "נברא בין השמשות" ("Nivrah Bein HaShmashot")-"Created between the suns", which refers to the concept in Midrash of the liminal time between the end of the Sixth Day of Creation and the Seventh Day of Creation. It is said that during this time certain important objects, creatures, and concepts were created. The entities created during this time mostly follow themes of not fitting into certain binaries and/or not being able to be fully explained or rationalized, hence they were created "Between the suns", because they did not fit neatly into one category or another.

I've talked about this idea before and how I relate it to my transness, and I think it would be a perfect umbrella term for Jews whose gender and/or sexuality is outside of societal cishetnormativity.

Another term I like is "עוברים" ("Ovrim") ("Those who cross over"). Jews are known as "עברים" because of how we stand out and may seem to be transgressive or rebellious when we cross over boundaries, and this shares a root with "עברים". The term melds Jewish identity with gender nonconformity and/or transitioning and sexuality that isn't heterosexual.

Or maybe we can come up with another term! But regardless, it's important that we don't misappropriate terms that were created to describe intersex people (who still face mountains of stigma and discrimination and shouldn't be silenced or spoken over by trans people). And anyway, I think it's far more meaningful and beautiful to come up with our own terms rather than misuse centuries old terms that never had us in mind.

The Queer Jewish community is a thriving, invaluable community, and we deserve to create and use our own words.

[hanna-lulu]

i’ve been comparing the usa now to germany circa the late 1930s and it is not a favorable comparison.

let’s see what we’ve got:

increasing antisemitism

increasing transphobia

increasing ableism

continued oppression of indigenous peoples

laws being introduced to ban gender-affirming care and remove children from their homes if they are allowed to live as they wish

books being banned for having honest and age-appropriate portrayals of race/racism and queerness/homophobia

pushing maid (medical assistance in dying) on people with disabilities and even people who are just poor (this is more in canada but i’m including it here anyway)

a right wing that is seen as ridiculous and absurd, yet is somehow still managing to hold onto power while liberals/leftists laugh it off as if they’ll run out of steam

it’s important to note that in the 1930s, when hitler came to power, the international community thought he was a joke. his overblown rhetoric was silly, his history was laughable, and nobody took him seriously. they thought it would all blow over. also, he wasn’t saying anything that a lot of people didn’t secretly agree with. antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and racism were widespread throughout europe and the usa, and a lot of people had less of a problem with what he was saying and more with how he was saying it. (think kanye west’s antisemitic comments, which joe rogan did attempt to stop him from making so blatantly, but didn’t actually disagree with.)

the first medical and educational facility for gender affirming care was in berlin. did you know that? the institut für sexualwissenschaft (known variably in english as institute of sex research, institute of/for sexology, or institute for the science of sexuality) was founded in 1919 and headed by magnus hirschfeld, who was both gay and jewish. he helped build a library in the institute that was dedicated to the topics of gender, eroticism, and same-sex love. the research undertaken there regarded sexual health of all people, gay, transgender, and intersex, as well as counseling and treatment for alcoholism, gynecological issues, venereal diseases, contraceptives, and more. sexual reassignment surgeries were performed successfully there. the goal was to help those who were suffering because they could not live as who they truly were and to educate the common people, because people fear what they see as different, what they cannot understand.

you won’t find the books in that library today. they were burned as part of the nazis’ campaign of terror and censorship. in 1933, 6 years before world war 2 officially broke out, the institut was broken into and looted by the deutsche studentenschaft (aka the german student union). young adults who had spent their formative years surrounded by hateful rhetoric were accompanied by a brass band as they destroyed this oasis of understanding and knowledge. hirschfeld himself had fled germany years before, as he had been targeted numerous times by nationalists/far right “activists”.

berlin once had a thriving queer community. germany was a home to many jews, my own great-grandparents included. my great-grandmother’s younger brother had a learning disability. their home turned on them out of fear and ignorance, the people told by their leaders that other human beings were not really human, but degenerate filth. my great-grandparents escaped with their lives. many– my great-grandma’s brother included– did not.

the concentration camps that imprisoned and killed so many jewish, queer, and/or disabled people (as well as romani and political prisoners, and japanese-americans IN THE USA) are not consigned to the past. our prison system disenfranchises those who are placed in it and uses them for unpaid labor. refugees are caged for daring to hope that our country– the so-called “land of the free”– would take them in when their homes turned on them. indigenous people are ridiculed and attacked for wanting to help our planet heal and for asking to conserve the land that was stolen from their ancestors. almost a hundred years since the holocaust, and we still haven’t learned.

don’t look away from this. it’s not going to blow over. those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and we are already experiencing a resurgence of fascist beliefs and rhetoric.

write to your representatives. VOTE. protest if and when you can. show them that we are HERE and we refuse to be written out of the history books, banned or burned away. we are human beings. we live and love and deserve to do so with dignity.

and if appealing to your humanity isn’t enough, remember this poetic version of a quote by german lutheran pastor martin niemöller, an early nazi collaborator and antisemite who later changed his views and opposed hitler’s oppressive regime:

“first they came for the socialists, and i did not speak out–

because i was not a socialist.

then they came for the trade unionists, and i did not speak out–

because i was not a trade unionist.

then they came for the jews, and i did not speak out–

because i was not a jew.

then they came for me– and there was no one left to speak for me.”

there is always another enemy in fascism. anyone who is different will eventually be a target. white supremacy is poison, and fitting the mold of a “perfect citizen” cannot keep you safe. queer infighting and pushing down people who you find “too weird” will not stop the people who hate all of us. to the far right, we are all wrong to our very cores. solidarity in the face of oppression is the only way to survive, live, and thrive.