US Reform Jews adopt sweeping transgender rights policy

[steido01]

US Reform Jews adopt sweeping transgender rights policy

*Temples and synagogues affiliated with the nation’s largest Jewish movement should take specific steps to embrace transgender people, a US conference of Reform Jews urged on Thursday in approving a groundbreaking resolution.

In a resounding voice vote, Reform Judaism embraced some of the most far-reaching policies for transgendered men and women seen among any of the nation’s mainstream religious organizations, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) right advocates said.

The resolution calls for congregations to offer cultural training for religious school staff, sermons on transgender issues and gender-neutral restrooms where feasible.
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Read more: reuters.com/article/2015/11/05/us-usa-religion-transgender-idUSKCN0SU1VU20151105#LLVKM5FyyVqUooLT.97

Have there been any similar or counter statements from Conservative or Orthodox Jewish groups? Any Jewish posters care to weigh in?

 

[meltzerboy]

Have there been any similar or counter statements from Conservative or Orthodox Jewish groups? Any Jewish posters care to weigh in?

There have been no official policies of change that I can recall regarding transgender rights on the Conservative or the Orthodox Jewish fronts. However, individual members of these movements do, from time to time, speak out on the issue, and, from the Orthodox wing, I have a vague recollection of reading about a few women who are voicing opinions concerning more equal and compassionate treatment of transgender, as well as gay, people who are part of the Orthodox Jewish community. Still, it is, for the most part, not an issue which is much on the radar, pro or con, among the majority of Orthodox Jews.

 

[7_Sorrows]

this does not seem surprising for the US Reform Jews to adopt this.
They are liberal.

 

[ComplineSanFran]

There have been no official policies of change that I can recall regarding transgender rights on the Conservative or the Orthodox Jewish fronts. However, individual members of these movements do, from time to time, speak out on the issue, and, from the Orthodox wing, I have a vague recollection of reading about a few women who are voicing opinions concerning more equal and compassionate treatment of transgender, as well as gay, people who are part of the Orthodox Jewish community. Still, it is, for the most part, not an issue which is much on the radar, pro or con, among the majority of Orthodox Jews.

That is my sense too, but I have also heard that there are two or three transgendered rabbis coming out of the Reconstructionist seminary.