I posted this to soc.culture.jewish on July 23, 1991 after starting a 
discussion on homosexuality.
---
Hi,

Now that y'all have thought about an issue that maybe normally you
wouldn't pay much attention to, I'd like to raise yet another issue:
homophobia.  Homophobia does not mean what it would first appear: fear
of homosexuals.  Homophobia is the hatred of homosexuals.  The proper
analogy is: as anti-Semitism is to Jews, homophobia is to lesbians and
gay men.

The analogy is not spurious.  Cultures have long needed scapegoats.
And when they have, they normally turn to what they perceive as weak
minority groups, Jews and homosexuals amoung them.  The most recent
occurrence would be the Holocaust, where Jews were incarcerated with
gay men by Nazi Germany.  Gay jews had the dubious honor of being
doubly labeled, forming a star of david from one yellow and one pink
triangle [source: The Men With The Pink Triangles by Heinz Heger and
published by Alyson Publications, Boston Mass].  Yet, this fact
remains untaught by almost all contempory texts on the Holocaust.

Both groups have been persecuted as far back as the Spanish
Inquistion, and further.  Even today, the Marranos of New Mexico
remained closeted Jews, afraid to openly identify with the religion
out of fear.  These Jews share the same problem that so many gay and
lesbian men have -- afraid to admit their identity.  In the first
case, it is a religious identity. In the latter, it is a fear to
reveal their sexual identity, a fear of being considered "vulgar" or
an "abomination" (words used recently on this list).

Let me relate a story from an essay entitled _Jorney toward Wholeness:
Reflections of a Lesbian Rabbi_:
"Two years ago I gave an impassioned sermon about AIDS in my
congregation on the High Holy Days.  In the context of emotional
self-evaluation that Jews engage in at this time of year, I spoke
about empathy and compassion, acceptance and marginalization -- I
suggested that our congregation become involved, even in a small way,
in the struggle against AIDS.  I suggested that we collect food for
people with AIDS who are no longer able to shop for themselves and who
may become financially impoverished by the astronomical costs of
medical care.  My suggestion was received well by my congregants and
we engaged in a fairly successful food collection.

A few months after the High Holy Days, in reporting the gratitude that
the AIDS project had expressed to our congregation, I suggested that
we might wish to let the project know that if there were Jewish people
with AIDS who wished to worship in our community, the doors of our
synagogue would be open to them.  I was immediately confronted with a
storm of reactions from my congregants, who were usually receptive to
my suggestions.  I was told not to extend such an invitation to people
with AIDS, that my congregation did not wish to be known as 'the gay
synagogue,' and that they did not wish to be 'ostracized' or
'marginalized' within the larger Jewish community."

I will tell you now that the author wrote the essay anonymously, for
fear of her professional career.  Minority groups which should seek to
help each other, don't.  Being gay and being Jewish means not fitting
in to two minorities: to not be understood within the Gay Community
and to not be accepted within the Jewish Community. (other gay 
minorities face the same set of double rejection.  for example, black
homosexuals.) 

Oscar Wilde, in a letter to Leonard Smithers, wrote, "I never came
across anyone in whom the moral sense was dominant who was not
heartless, cruel, vindictive, log-stupid and entirely lacking in the
smallest sense of humanity."  How true he was for most bible-thumpers,
Jews included, who site Leviticus 18:22. People can argue all they
want in the nurture/nature arena, but those who choose nurture cannot
yet answer the simple question 'Who taught you to be a heterosexual?'

Irrespective of this debate, people that identify themselves as
homosexual make up at least 10% of the population.  That is over three
times as many people in America than are Jewish!  Yet, when confronted
by the Ku Klux Klan, few homosexuals would defend their right to
infringe on the rights of the Jews.  Yet, Jews side with the KKK when
it comes to attacking the rights of the homosexual.  Simply look at
Broward or Dade County Florida, where equal rights in employment and
housing have been denied gays and lesbians by these unlikely
bedfellows.

For those that claim the Jews have been at the forefront of protecting
the rights of others, put your money where your mouth is.  I hope I
have given you food for thought.

___/\___  __
\      / /  \
 \pink/  \__          -+--+-               Scott Safier    (scotts@ri.cmu.edu)
/_\  /_\    \  _  __   |  |                Center for Integrated Manufacturing
   \/    \__/ (__/\_)_/|_/|_/                                 Decision Systems
                                           Carnegie Mellon