More Than an ‘Urge’
Avi Shafran’s opinion piece, “Orthodoxy and Homosexuality” (February 24), obscures the relevant facts. He sets up a straw man by disingenuously asserting that we who disagree with him believe “that any human urge is inherently legitimate.” Nonsense. We abhor murder and non-consensual sex, for example. Further, his argument that “there is no incontrovertible evidence of a ‘gay gene’” blinds Shafran to the massive evidence that genes and intrauterine development play critical roles in the sexual responses of adolescent and adult men and women.
Homosexual love is thus a gift from God that, like heterosexuality, draws people into loving relationships. It is much more than “an urge,” and Shafran’s belittling of those of us who recognize this facet of human existence trivializes an important issue.
George B. Driesen
Bethesda, Md.
The writer is a Reconstructionist rabbi and president of The Institute for Science and Judaism.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
