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February has been busy but brilliant. In fact, February is my favourite month of the year. There are no significant Jewish festivals, I know, but there is a lot to celebrate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, amongst them of course quite a few Jews.
LGBT History Month is a month-long annual observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history. It originated in the United States and was first celebrated in 1994. In the UK, it first took place in February 2005, and has been celebrated annually each February ever since. The event came in the wake of the abolition of Section 28 in 2003 (Clause 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 said that a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality").It aims to challenge homophobia, biphobia and transphobia and promote equality and diversity.
This year’s LGBT HM theme was Religion, Belief and Philosophy, and of course this was particularly great news for us LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer/questioning) Jews.
Before I talk more about the exciting calendar of events we saw this month, let me explain a bit more about the LGBTQ+ alphabet soup. It can be a little confusing. The term "gay" has often been used to refer to anyone who was attracted to people of the same sex or had a non-normative gender presentation. However this is not really correct and not very inclusive. Identity has become pretty much an individual thing, and therefore the acronym to describe people’s sexualities has become an ever-growing spectrum of identities and communities. The rainbow flag is often used to symbolise this diversity. As a matter of fact, there are probably more identities in the ‘queer’ community now than there are colours in the rainbow.
Personally, I don’t really like labels and identity boxes, but when I do have to describe myself I would say that I’m a ‘queer, non-binary, transmasculine Jew from a mixed heritage’. I often get asked about what ‘non-binary’ means, and how I can be non-binary AND transgender.
First of all, non-binary is a timely catch-all category for gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine - identities which are outside the gender binary and cisnormativity (cisgender or cis relates to a person whose self-identity conforms with the gender that was assigned at birth; not transgender).
My identity is fluid and complex on every level. As much as my physical gender expression is ‘masculine’, I also embrace my ’feminine’ character traits just as much; I always knew I was non-binary, as I never quite fitted neatly into those little gender boxes of female and male.
At first sight, Judaism appears to be a very binary religion, but I have learnt from some great scholars that there’s so much more ‘queerness’ in Judaism than we hear in everyday mainstream teachings. For example, there are at least four non-binary genders that were discussed by scholars in ancient Jewish texts.
● androgynos, a person with both male and female sexual characteristics
● tumtum, a person with ambiguous or ‘hidden’ sexual characteristics
● aylonit, an infertile woman
● saris, a man who is naturally infertile or is made like this by human intervention
Of course, the ancient scribes weren’t budding trans activists. We can be pretty sure that their intention was more likely to deliberate fertility issues in Halacha (Jewish law) rather than raising awareness. In fact, these categories look entirely at physical variations of male and female and not at identity and gender expression. Still, for me as a non-binary trans person, it is comforting that there’s always been a sense of sexual diversity in Judaism.
Creating awareness around trans and non-binary identities in religious communities is also the mission of Liberal Judaism’s Lottery-funded project Twilight People: Stories of Faith and Gender Beyond the Binary. Its landmark touring exhibition was launched in London for LGBT History Month 2016 with fanfare. Capturing the voices and images of more than 40 trans and gender variant people from different faith backgrounds, the collection of photographs, recordings and artefacts exploring this ‘hidden history’ are on display at Islington Museum until 5 March. I am proud to say that I am the brains behind this initiative.
I feel we do need to create a lot more awareness around gender diversity across our communities – from the progressive to the orthodox. There are still too many people and especially young Jews who are struggling with their identity, and it is our responsibility to create an environment where everybody can live a full and authentic life – gay, straight, cis, trans or non-binary.
Happy LGBT History Month 2016!
Surat-Shaan Knan works for Liberal Judaism and is founder and manager of the Twilight People project. He is a member of the new Stonewall Trans Advisory Group and a Stonewall faith role model for LGBT History Month 2016.