- Title: MIDDLE EAST: Religious gays struggle between Judaism and sexual identity
- Date: 29th July 2010
- Summary: TKOA SETTLEMENT, WEST BANK (JULY 28, 2010) (REUTERS) RABBI MENACHEM FRUMAN, RABBI OF TKOA SETTLEMENT SITTING NEXT TO WIFE FRUMAN EYES (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) RABBI MENACHEM FRUMAN, RABBI OF TKOA SETTLEMENT SAYING: "There is a need to call the aberration (homosexuality) by its name, it is an aberration, it's a wasted opportunity, they wasted the human, natural normal healt
- Embargoed: 13th August 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Domestic Politics,Religion
- Reuters ID: LVACC5LKP1A103HDGLI2AMKPDMHX
- Story Text: In a city that is sacred to the three major monotheism's, peaceful living is not easy. It is even harder when your sexual preference is considered immoral by most within your own religion.
Jerusalem's Ultra Orthodox community prepared on Thursday (July 29) to hold mass anti-gay demonstrations in protest against the annual gay pride parade, which has sparked violence in recent years. Some of the people who planned to attend the controversial march were religious Jews, struggling daily to combine between their sexual identity and their religion.
Talya Lev, a religious lesbian, never thought it would be possible.
"Essentially I was living in the closet, I really did not believe that it was possible to live a life style that was both religious and gay. I didn't think it was possible, I never had any example from home that homosexuality was acceptable, in someway I was my own biggest homophobe, but I also could not escape from the reality of who I am," she said.
After discovering "Bat Kol", a support group for religious lesbians who faced the same dilemma, Talya realised she didn't have to choose. She even decided to become a figure head of the group, encouraging other women to stop hiding.
"They (Bat Kol group) showed me for the first time in my life that I did not have to choose, that it was possible to live the life I wanted to have, because I want to have a family, I want to have a partner, I want to have children, and all of a sudden I saw women who were religious and living that reality, I could not believe it. It moved me so much I wanted top cry, I could'nt.....let's just say it was really beautiful to see that that was possible," she said.
Many devout Jews, Muslims and Christians view homosexuality as an abomination. Most Jewish residents of Jerusalem are religious.
Rabbi Menachem Fruman, a prominent leader of Jewish settlers, told Reuters Television that he considered homosexuality as an "aberration".
"There is a need to call the aberration (homosexuality) by its name, it is an aberration, it's a wasted opportunity, they wasted the human, natural normal healthy option, as man was created. That is why it is forbidden by the religious world," he said as he sat next to his wife in the West Bank settlement of Tkoa.
Daniel Yones, a 27 year-old religious homosexual who actively participates in a support group for religious gay men in Jerusalem's "open house", said he used to feel ashamed for his sexual preferences.
"Somehow I always perceived it (being a homosexual), as a kind of double life, that's why it didn't really bother me and I did not deal with it. But when I started my first serious relationship with my first partner, I was with him for a year and a half, then actually I suddenly felt a sense of sin and bestial during the sexual act. It took me a long while to get over this," he said.
Yones soon found he could only share his secrets with one significant other, God.
"I felt that the only one with whom I could talk, to say what I feel and think without fear of rejection, was God. That is when my renewed connection with God and religion started," Yones said.
Talya and Daniel both have seen positive progress within the religious communities, however old prejudices are slowly being replaced by tolerance. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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