Marching with Pride

This past Sunday I had the unique experience of representing my congregation in the St. Louis Pride parade in the south grand neighborhood of the city. The Pride parade is a celebration of identity and culture by the homosexual community and my participation was with a large group of clergy and congregational representatives called Holy Ground, a loose coalition of congregations of many faiths that are open to homosexuals.

I was impressed (but not surprised) by the festive mood of the entire event. But I was especially impressed by the turnout of the religious community, in particular my fellow Jewish congregations. The media love to paint issues such as gay rights in black and white terms, saying that "religious people" oppose gay rights. The scene on Sunday showed that impression to be very far from the truth.

Most of the non-orthodox Jewish congregations in St. Louis were represented. It made me consider why Jews, at least progressive minded ones, are in general not just open minded when it comes to issues involving homosexuality, but that we are willing to march in such a clearly identifiable way.

Obviously the Exodus narrative that forms the base of our identity as Jews calls us to seek out justice and equality for all people, that was fully on display in the 1960's civil rights demonstrations and marches. But I think there is something deeper that draws non-orthodox Jews and the homosexual community together.

As Jews in America, we must make a conscious decision to identify ourselves publicly as Jews. It will never be a part of our ID cards, on our passports, or in any official document outside of the anonymous long form census questionable. In other words, it is easy for Jews to ignore or supreme who they are and to reject the legacy that is ours by birth. Of course many Jews do choose this path.

The same is true in many ways for the homosexual community. Just as Jews, in general, do not look any different than the majority population, the homosexual community does not look any different either. Therefore the declare oneself as a homosexual is an act of identification, of accepting what has been given to you at birth, and there is the option of denying who you are (although it is much more psychologically damaging for a homosexual to deny who he or she is than it is for a Jew to do the same).

Therefore each group, homosexuals and Jews, have the ability to either embrace or deny who they are. An event like pride gives homosexuals the ability to do that and to be surrounded by an accepting and caring community. As a heterosexual Jew, I felt the event gave me the opportunity to proclaim my support for the homosexual community not just in a general way, but in a way that allowed me to identify myself with my own community of Jews as well.