This is the Forward’s coverage of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, queer and questioning Jews.
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Life Transcending Beauty: Israeli Pageant for Transgender Women Signals Desire for Normalcy
The 12 women posing for their photos in Eitan Tal’s Tel Aviv studio have quite diverse looks. Some have soft facial features while others show signs of the cosmetic and surgical interventions they have gone through. Yet not one of them looks like they have made an exaggerated effort to emphasize their feminine appearance. Natural…
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Opinion Why Israel’s $2.9M Rainbow Plane Is a Joke — and You Don’t Have Be a BDS Fan To Say So
I confess when I first saw the simulated image of an airplane bedecked in the colors of the rainbow flag, ostensibly on its way to Tel Aviv Pride, I thought it was some sort of joke. Yet it really was the Israeli government’s intent, as part of an 11 million shekel ($2.9 million) advertising blitz,…
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Fast Forward Argentina Lesbians Tie Knot in First for Latin America Jews
The first Jewish same-sex wedding ceremony in Latin America was celebrated in Buenos Aires. The ceremony took place on Sunday evening at NCI Emanu El Temple of Buenos Aires. It was officiated by a female rabbi, Rabbi Karina Finkielstein. Victoria Escobar, 36, who is a convert to Judaism, and Romina Charur, 35, together entered the…
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Fast Forward ‘Wicked’ Composer Nixes North Carolina Shows Over Anti-LGBT Law
Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz has barred North Carolina theaters from producing his shows, in protest of a new state law that entrenches discrimination against LGBT people. The Jewish composer, who worked on such musical hits as “Wicked” and “Pippin,” called the law “reprehensible and discriminatory,” in a letter obtained by . “I feel that it…
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Fast Forward Congregation Beit Simchat Torah Opens New Sanctuary
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah officially opened its modern new sanctuary on Manhattan’s West Side on April 3. Jubilant congregants blew a shofar and Mayor Bill de Blasio and Sen. Chuck Schumer spoke at the dedication of the new space on West 30th Street. CBST bills itself as a home for progressive Jews and is considered…
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Opinion In Response to North Carolina’s Law, a Jewish Case for Intersectionality
North Carolina has once again made reactionary history, this time rolling back anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people by means of a complete fabrication: that transgender women are, in fact, male sexual predators. There is not a shred of data to support this conclusion — none. On the contrary, by forcing transgender men to shower, urinate…
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Fast Forward Transgender Activist Janet Mock Cancels Talk at Brown U. Hillel After ‘Pinkwashing’ Campaign
A prominent African-American transgender activist canceled her scheduled appearance at the Brown University Hillel after facing criticism for allegedly supporting the Jewish group’s “pinkwashing” of Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. Janet Mock announced Wednesday that she had cancelled her talk scheduled for March 21 at the Providence, Rhode Island Ivy League school, The Brown Daily…
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News Jewish Transgender Woman Named White House LGBT Liaison
President Obama has promoted the first openly transgender person to work in the West Wing to be the White House’s top liaison to the LGBT community. Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, who is Jewish, has been serving as the Outreach and Recruitment Director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel since last year. Mara Keisling, executive director…
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Culture RFK Jr.’s poems to Olivia Nuzzi are peak cringe — so were King Solomon’s
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News As young Jews move away from Israel, Jewish leaders are reluctant to change their approach
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Culture A shocking true story of Mexico’s Jewish community comes to Netflix
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Film & TV For ill and for good, this ‘Wicked’ song has become ubiquitous
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward From golems to Horton to banana menorahs: This year’s Hanukkah kids’ books light up the imagination
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Fast Forward America’s oldest Jewish congregation launches a kosher food pantry on the Upper West Side
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News DNA test kits spark a surge of online conversions to Judaism in the U.S.
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Fast Forward Jewish moderate Julie Menin claims victory as next City Council speaker
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