OutCasting; LGBT people in religion; stereotypes based on appearance

sen biden also the last year lobbying on behalf of marriage equality and the rabbis have encountered there are many many very orthodox jews who really believe strongly that if a civil marriage it would violate god's plan for the world and i can't thank them that although i did agreed with them i love them and believing that we get to that agreement that one of them has to me because of what you were doing shows the uk that it used to so casting the lower hudson river valley is only use one of radio show dealing with lgbt youth struggles triumphs lifestyles and favorite nineties cartoons were you don't have to be queer to be here the casting is a production of west chester public radio the media phage fm ninety point three in austin in europe and on the net at the atf h o r g hi travis on this edition about casting will discuss the relationship between lgbt individuals and religion later in the program mat he will talk about her hair and perceived

sexuality with groups like the westboro baptist church so prevalent in the media it is a common misconception that all religious groups are vehemently opposed to the lgbt movement but this isn't always the case in this episode david talks with rabbi sharon climb down of congregation but some heart tore out an lgbt synagogue located in newark city rabbi climb down as recipient of the woman of valor were given by the jewish funds for justice the ford a national jewish weekly newspaper and newsweek have both named rob like i'm down as one of the top fifty american rabbis near jewish week another publication named arizona the forty five leading young american jewish leaders in new york she's been an activist since her college years and hasn't stopped since rabbi sheriff imam thank you so much for joining us i'm very happy to hear what inspired you to become such a strong advocate for the lgbt community

well i think i'm always cared deeply about how religion get used in our society and often especially with lgbt his religion has been used as the fortunes of oppression and frankly violent and religion abuse often throughout the world and therefore for some of the worst bigotry and prejudice and from a very deeply religious person in my health i wanted to make sure that religion is also used as a force for liberation much of the forest for oppression and that wherever religious used by people who do violence in the name of god i believe we need to those of us who care about religion and make sure it has visible evaded god loved every single person who has created in this world and not just those who are using it as a way to enforce certain social norms like sexuality does he runs into religion based opposition oh i had

throughout my my life and my and my career is rabbi of ptsd but i don't worry about it it because i believe that those who leak in the name of religion are blackening god's name and my job is to counter that kind of hate filled energy and i know for damn it comes from believe that they know what god wanted and they believe deeply what god wants so for instance i was in albany last year lobbying on behalf of marriage equality as a rabbi and i'm at a deeply religious jew and encountered there many many times it's very orthodox jews who really believe strongly that if the past old marriage it would violate god's plan for the world and i can't find them that are all right it agreed with them that i love them and believed that we just added that agreement and one of them said to me

because the what you were doing shows the uk god it you do and i said to me oh you know what i'm going to pray for you and he said to me i will pray that you will die because what you do in falls to god in god now that you have a religion to me completely violates what i believe my jewish heritage teaches me and i feel deeply for him and for and i feel bad that he had been taught their motivation and even taken from his yeshiva by his rabbi to goad albany to demonstrate again right now let's understand what we were talking about was real right for gay people not religious right i respect the right of a religion that they that within my church or might even another my mind we will not have really do their money for gay people i think that's actually okay what i don't think it's okay for these religious beliefs have made that formal marriage life and this is going to be governed by their religious beliefs it would be

about the catholic church which is not recognized before he wouldn't dates that anybody who divorced can get a little merry clayton be good catholics don't believe in the common for a divorce person we would object to that we would play the catholic church don't have the right to impose their religious beliefs which they're practiced within their church on a little merry clayton and i believe the same thing for those orthodox jews who object therefore the road for a catholic them for other people who say that we shouldn't have civil marriage because of their religious beliefs that's not acceptable in a secular society is honestly surprised to hear about the level of hostility you that you've been met with i'm sorry to hear about that well i believe that you know that they're i feel bad for them i really do and now i've experienced at other times well we had a big demonstration here in your city from years ago for

world pride for an event in jerusalem that would unite those progressive avoided of all the different religious tradition muslim jewish and christian unity in which holy never taken so seriously you know great god's creation of all of us including both of us who are gay lesbian bisexual transgender and there was a demonstration here in manhattan ten thousand credit i'm from brooklyn were barged into manhattan to demand that israel not allow the demonstration to take place and they have a dispute that they just can't think terrible thing about one person at that demonstration said that i was worse than hitler destroying jewish body twitch with the terrible but by mining that jewish gay and lesbian bisexual transgender people are equal to those of jews or heterosexual i was destroying the jewish soul just make me more committed to the work and doing your itty bitty and more

committed to make sure that their progressive religious oriented that they know they have not the god we believe and this is not the god we believe have given us our great jewish traditions and i know i have many colleagues in the christian world as well who were doing the same things what was the hardest thing about coming up in a religious community well by the time i first law i do i was in an orthodox high school age but i didn't really come out publicly until i was in college outside of the community each but i didn't feel very much like i was losing a deep connection and i know that when i became visible if an openly lesbian rabbi that the school i went to fresh issue high school in paramus new jersey i was horrified that they had a graduate freckled woman became a rabbi but secondly that i was so visible and at one point they are a fickle actually took me off their alumni list though i understand i've been reinstated

this is our testing and we're talking with russia and climbed down about the relationship between lgbt individuals and religion by crime baum is a recipient of the woman of our award given by the jewish funds for justice the forward a national jewish weekly newspaper and newsweek have both men brought crime down as one of the top fifty american robins new york jewish week another publication named her as one of the forty five leading young american jewish leaders in new york she's been activists and psychologists like kind of what kind of work do you do in the jewish community regarding lgbt rights well you wanted different kinds of work first of all how long by being the most visible in a gut community in the tristate area and we were known to every all different jewish communities within the tristate area so i am often asked to speak at the pentagon so the federations or in different communities about issues related to deal bp right

in fact we just had a program that we invite a rabbi from all different pentagon has wealth clergy from mosque and from churches to engage in the program that we've had up to understand more deeply at new york right now for queer homeless youth thirty eight hundred teenagers everything all night are sleeping on the streets of new york city the night lariat hundred and yet the native forty percent of them are lgbt and queer and many of them have been thrown out of their homes because they are gay or they are forced out of their community and they end up living on the street though where tripoli because we were trying to organize other gay leaders had taken banned about the victims and make sure i am the budget which has been so devastated by this terrible economy and the

cuts which have been made that weekend i raised money and being creepy it really is before we'd start of this interview you said you were on the phone with city hall in regards to the issue you just mentioned do you think you've found support for this issue in city hall i do i think people want to do the right thing the problem of a very tough economy and the budget is you know where the federal government is getting less money to debate the fate of giving less money to the city if the really tough economy we all know that the question is well how do we determine what the priorities are and the homeowner bought and they have no one to advocate for them and they're not a big political force their expendable from the perspective of those who put together the city budget and mayor bloomberg the budget

typically not by a lot of the number of dead that we need for the ticket heavily politically that night and something that now we have to fight in only if the hall and albany here at home though the vital cared deeply will hunting how do you think that lgbt youth are overrepresented amongst homeless yes there's no question about it a long week at the conservative number that forty percent of the homeless youth are lgbt i think it's for a number of reasons most significantly many of them are thrown out of their homes also played a company or from all over the country they're thrown out of their homes in ohio were in kansas they get on a boston company york and either kids who are really i read many of them haven't tried a foster care homes once they come out as gay

or queer and they ended up on the street and many of them have returned to flex work in our even our plate this week we're pleased to have really just not enough of the thirty eight hundred kid that would be on the street that it has about two hundred and fifty shelter bed and the budget that now been proposed cutting that number of dead down the nineties it's for thirty eight hundred get it that it's related crime that's really a critical night criminal and i think it's often painful and we must take care of the kids there are kids if the city of new york doesn't have enough beds for the these homeless youth where could someone walk to find the fun sport the resources in order to acquire these bets well i think if you don't have enough money and it's a matter of making that a priority and machel were demanding annotate it and they together the battle were working on very very much

how do you think your sexual orientation has affected your relationship with different parts of the jewish community that's an excellent question i think far i you know i live my life and i live my life and i'm happy to work with anybody who's willing to work with us hands down i think for some people and i described from it at the high school i created a credit for the school because there at the school with very concerned that my being well known mitten openly lesbian rabbi tom firth normal woman rabbi that's a difficult issue in an openly lesbian person who said that not only am i not ashamed of it but i think so i think no one can live a holy a sanctified life equally as a gay person as a straight person it depends how other choices people make not be not their sexual orientation rather but the spiritual orientation of any given relationship or of the values that we choose to live our lives so for them very

tremendous confirmed that public knowledge and connection that would hurt both their fundraising and the recruitment for the school many of their value to have an orthodox institutions what gives you the most gratification from being an lgbt advocate and a religious community i really believe the shift that we've seen in the last year since i started this work gives me tremendous gratification when i talked to a young person who tell me or they knew that gave them strength or they respond to my video of my kid gets better video which i get tremendous response from i ate very deeply moving to me and were creating a global community of people gay and straight young adult corgi named we want young people to grow up whole and healthy and develop a healthy sexuality of which ever orientation is to evolve into

healthier adult relationships that you there not to have children and have healthy relationships with those children or leaving it makes it all worthwhile when i hear from a teenager a person what was the intent of the b anthony has done for them very deeply moving we have one young person who told us that every day every week we would check to make sure that the shabaab services were happening at the vietti even when he was too young to get here himself oh he was old enough to travel into the family income to further than just knowing that there was a query jewish community that welcomed gay and straight i gave him the strength to get through adolescence and then he was old enough he could travel into the city on his own and actually become part of the community that makes it all worthwhile for me you why and that cbs state has made such a significant difference in

the lives of young people who today have to go through so much just to get through to the next day or are there other religious organizations that support the fight for lgbt equality you know why now they're an end i'd go in every religious community their income group involved in the fight for lgbt rights and it's now become understood to be a human rights issue and in different religious community that are different than their definition on the different issues but it in everything or religious community i know whether it's a conservative or a liberal and there are people within those traditions fighting for the foley quality of lgbt people are there and individuals that you admired missouri well there are many people i admire how i'm lucky that i get to be surrounded by one of the great heroes of not only our generation but people have been doing work for a long time now one of them that i am irish kate bornstein she's been a great thinker and a leader and

our creative human being whose work has been very very inspiring to me this is our testing and we're talking with russia and climbed down about the relationship between lgbt individuals and religion rabbi crime baum is a recipient of the woman of our award given by the jewish funds for justice the forward a national jewish weekly newspaper and newsweek have both men draw on bumpers one of the top fifty american robins new york jewish week another politician named her as one of the forty five leading young american jewish leaders in new york she's been activists and psychologists about my mom and you work with people who are members of a synagogue cbs day oh yes we work with all different people and communities were very actively engaged in all different kinds of coal coalition working partnerships i believe very much that life about being connected to those who are like you and people were very different and god could do that in all different kind of where does this inspire you

well it depends on what issues right now are working very much we've created an organization called shelter of the inuit people can find out about it shelter piece dot org are witches referring to the shelter of people that we talk about in our liturgy that we want to cover even those marginal and that really good lgbt runaway and homeless youth and in that organization we have partners from all the different social service in egypt service agency than the committee who share of coyote beatty are homeless youth like the alley for nave and cary grant green chimney the only there for innovation as well as many many many different churches synagogues and mosques they're interested in being involved in a broad coalition of many different kinds of organizations are religious community and clergy what do you think is the biggest change cbs today has made for the better

i think the biggest change is the radical redefinition of what it means to be a jew and i think it's not when he would formed started forty nine nineteen seventy three not anything old jewish organization i believe in the quality of gay people not in jewish organization had a resolution that supported the full equality of gay people or even said there should be no discrimination really assumed that everybody was straight in the jewish world and when people came out of nearly seventy there were jewish they had to leave the jewish world he had been a part of a movement in the last forty years in which that has completely changed all three non orthodox movement of reform reconstruction of the conservative movement now a connected openly gay candidate to be clergy and they connect an advocate for the marriage of same sex couples and maybe it had been a very big player in

changing the attitudes of the movement of the jewish world in general social justice work i'm very involved in issues that they can turn me deeply about our society here in new york of urban issues that can turn question of racial and economic justice and thinking about how that played out in our community i care very deeply about the issues of conflict between the palestinians and israel and i've been very involved in advocating for a judge a pollution for all the people of that region and we care very deeply purity be empty and in my own life about the environment and to our stewardship of the earth which got to give enough to take care of and i'm afraid we're not going to get rich out costs of the list some of the issues that a what would you say to people who think that religion and the fight for lgbt equality don't go together well i think religion

goes together with everything and i do believe it's true their religion has been a source of some of the worst oppression of lgbt folks and that only inspired me that it should be a sort of liberation what would you say to young people who were struggling with either their sexual orientation or their gender identity i would trade the right to struggle and if they should come to surround themselves with people who will reflect back to them the death of who they are and who they can be and make sure that they're surrounded by voices of love and support and if they don't have that immediately available to find is another plaintiff sure is the people who were around them works thank you so much for joining us here are very welcoming you in all of your things you listen to

rabbi sharon climb down of congregation that some hot car in lgbt synagogue located in new york city rabbi as recipients of the woman of valor were given by the jewish funds for justice the forward a national jewish weekly newspaper and newsweek have both an end rabbi climb down as one of the top fifty american rabbis you're jewish week another publication nature as one of the forty five leading young american jewish leaders in new york this is our testing the lower hudson river valley is only used one radio show dealing with lgbt q news issues well testing is a production of west chester public radio the beauty of h fm ninety point three and passing new york and on the net activity of age die of archie next we will hear from maddy about her experiences with stereotypes and when i was fifteen years old i had this black curly almost stupidly long absurd less affair

that summer during a phase where i only listened to the strokes and amos off sharply tattoos i cut off things like when a writer in the nineties when as the romance with johnny depp i was thrilled with the result they didn't really anticipate how others would react when i say for the record that i stopped really caring what others thought about me your earlier in eighth grade no schools ending and i got super into indie music and activism and all that just i don't wanna be part of the system i didn't want the man to jimmy down so i cut my hair it made me feel independent and really in control of my body and my appearance which i loved i got mostly positive reactions people seem to like it a few days after the new school year started i was leaving half cups today as we're talking behind me and i didn't like what i heard what you do that your hair one of them said the other said i don't know man i think is a kind of dike now i've been bullied before of course also be winners but this was different

at christmastime first economic with sexuality with hair styles i could damage your rainbow and buzz the words giant lesbian into the back of my head and it would make me a lesbian that's not how it works second and it just to retake a straight girl and have been all my life so i haven't really had this word used against me before according to we get here take a slang terminology referring to a lesbian or was an innocent and originated as a derogatory label for master one woman and sometimes the words to use that way now there's obviously nothing offensive about being masculine a woman a lesbian or all of them at once so you see where the problem is i wasn't offended that these guys had called me like i was offended that they thought it was a bad thing before then my sexuality had never been questioned and so i have to wonder if it had to do with my parents i believe that we make judgments about people based on the way they look before anything else that's just in our nature what's important is separating a preconceived

notions from the way people really are sometimes i like to dress in all black and were heavy makeup and if people brooding looks you'd never guess that in my spare time i'll select a dance around early hillary duff songs and dazzle the heck out of anything in my hands on the back to the point when you to sexuality it appears for that matter and something to be ashamed of not only doesn't make no sense and creates and perpetuates the idea that being who you are it's something to be ashamed of and that is nonsense sexuality does not equal gender and gender does not equal appearance ultimately i think that people should be able to be whoever they want to do whatever they want to do as long as it doesn't hurt anybody and having my short hair harms anyone calling me names or and certainly does say to those two guys and anyone who uses gender sexuality race or other personal traits as an insult these educate yourself i think before you speak

that's it for this edition about casting the lower hudson river valleys on the youth run radio show dealing with lgbt q struggles triumphs lifestyles and favourite nineties cartoons you don't have to be cleared to be here if you're having trouble whether it's at home at school or just with yourself call the trevor project lifeline at eight six six four eighty seven three eight six or visit them online at the trevor project double r g the trevor project is an organization dedicated to lgbt q youth suicide prevention again the number is eight six six forty eight seven three feet six and being different isn't a reason to hate or hurt yourself the casting is production of westchester public radio the media phage fm ninety point three osman york and on the net at the media fruit bowl party for more information on this

program a list of resources including the trevor project hotline visit us at the beauty at h o r g and click on our testing and travis thanks for joining us tune in again next week