This week's GLBT class

Class was absolutely awesome. We started off by learning a whole bunch of terms in their sociological context: how do you define gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, transgender, male/female versus man/woman, etc. We talked about what being "inclusive" means, how to do liturgy for a gay wedding, and learned all kinds of practical things about being inclusive in our congregations (ie. talking about Pride Day in a newsletter column, changing Sunday school forms to say parent/parent instead of mother/father).

We did text studies on David and Jonathan, and had a whole half-day on interpretations of Leviticus 18:22 (Thou shalt not lie with a man as with a woman). We even talked about rabbinic categories. Did you know that the rabbis in the Roman times recognized FOUR categories of gender, not two? They had male, female, tumtum, and androgynous. The first two are obvious, but a tumtum is someone who is neither a man nor a woman, and an androgynous is both. The Talmud acknowledges gender deviance! Of course, they do it in the context of how to best limit those people back into the main two categories, but hey.

And since the class was taught by a rabbi in Atlanta as well as by the professor I mentioned earlier, we spoke a lot about congregational life and the things we might encounter. Like, what do you do when a man married to a woman with two children comes to you and says that he thinks he's gay and is love in with another man, but doesn't want to leave his wife and destroy his family?

The final was on various case studies. The one I chose was: "A couple's five year old son, Daniel, has acted like a girl since the age of two. He has severe behavioral problems when forced to act and dress like a boy. At the age of five his parents decide to support his wishes and begin to call him Daniela. His behavioral problems stop. After meeting with the child's psychologist, you decide to support their decision. You begin to get concerned calls from Temple members. Outline your response." It was a fun essay to write, I discovered some great resources!

Other final options I considered were what to do with the first lesbian couple in your congregation, what to do when two male nursing home residents are found in bed together, to write a sermon when Yom Kippur and Pride Day fall on the same day, what to do when a young Jewish boy wants to receive his Eagle Scout award at temple and the gay and lesbian people in the congregation object (due to the Boy Scouts' politics), how to address when a 4th grader calls another student a [insert gay slur], and to write a ritual when someone comes out. The last half of the last day was everyone's presentations.

All in all, it was a wonderfully fun, enlightening class, that tackled a serious subject in a new way. AND I survived having the baby in daycare all week! Thank you to everyone for your support. :)