OPINION: LGBTQIQ Jews Under the Rainbow

By Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah of Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue

Pride. Nowadays, all you have to do is say the word, and people immediately recognise it as shorthand for ‘LGBT Pride’.

So, what is LGBT?

On lesbian and gay pride demonstrations in the 1970s and early 1980s, the most common badge on display was the ‘pink triangle’ – in memory of the persecution of gay men by the Nazis. And then, by the late 1980s the ‘rainbow flag’, first designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker of San Francisco (which you can read about HERE) , had become the dominant emblem, proclaiming, an alliance of solidarity, encompassing ‘lesbian’, ‘gay’, ‘bisexual’ and ‘transgender’ people – hence: LGBT.

While ‘bisexual’ challenges binary assumptions concerning sexual orientation, the inclusion of ‘transgender’ acknowledges the more fundamental issue of gender.

For years, lesbians and gay men had been asserting that being lesbian and gay was not just about who you ‘slept with’, and had been presenting ourselves in ways that challenged binary ‘female’/’male’ gender stereotypes. Now, those whose main concern was gender rather than sexuality were coming to the fore.

Continue reading.


For more LGBT news, check out our    page.