THE DISCUSSION about lesbians in the neighborhood continues. This has brought to mind an interesting incident from my own childhood.

When I was 13, one of my best friends, whose house was across the street, moved away to a distant state. I had spent hundreds of afternoons playing in her house. In place of her family, a large family with 13 or so children moved into the house. They were Protestants from the Assembly of God denomination. My mother, in keeping with her custom, took a plate of homemade cake over to the new family. It was then – or it may have been on their second encounter – that the mother of the new household announced politely that her family would be having no interaction with ours. She said they restricted all of their social interactions to members of their church.

My mother was surprised. She said something to the effect that we would honor their lifestyle. Thereafter, whenever she ran into this woman, they exchanged polite greetings but nothing more. This was all a shocking development to us, especially since I had freely walked in and out of my best friend’s house for years. But in time it just became an accepted part of the neighborhood. There were a few small incidents with children from across the street teasing passersby, but in general living as strangers did not mean we lived as enemies. We lived across the street, but in different countries.

The appearance of several homosexual couples in a neighborhood could be met in the same way. A neighbor could politely announce: We will be having no interaction with you. We are not enemies, but we are strangers.

                                            — Comments —

Laura adds:

But, there is a big difference between the two cases. The child of the lesbian neighbors does not have automatic playmates as did the Assembly of God children. As I pointed out in my original entry on this issue, I generally believe it is wrong to keep children in the same neighborhood from playing together. The reader Robin makes the same case here.

Josh writes:

The homosexual is the original radical liberal, the destroyer of all unions and hence destroyer of all things.

Much like homo-sexuals “flocked” to the Catholic Church because that’s where the boys are, homosexual couples are seeking fertile  battle grounds because that’s where the unions are. Why not treat this self-annihilating nature like it were 50 menacing and disheveled- looking black males? It’s not just good enough to think you will defeat the enemy. You must  assume that the enemy is seeking to defeat you. Afterall, he moved  right in your neighborhood.

By the way, I wholly disagree with calling devout dykes or homosexual males,  women or men, respectively. Man is most certainly not sexually averse to Woman. The acceptance of this liberalization of Man and Woman is  why we have “Lady” Gaga.

Josephine’s Grandmother writes:

Laura’s characterizaton of the lesbian neighbors as an insoluble problem is correct.  It’s more serious than even presented though; these false couples have the law on their side and any perceived snub might result in them resorting to it.

This is how one commenter at Cross-Currents replied to one dissatisfied member of such a  “couple” who has been making public her dissatisfaction with being refused a listing in an
Orthodox Jewish community directory in Israel a few years back. The original article there by Rabbi Dov Fischer is about other topics mostly, she found it and once again raised the specter
of gaybashing:

Why do you expect to be able to join an orthodox congregation when your lifestyle contradicts some of its core values? It seems like you are taunting an entire community to accept your idiosyncrasies. You will never be accepted as a `family unit’ in orthodox society. Comparison of homosexuality to other sins is misplaced. It is simply not the issue of a congregation accepting someone who openly violates this or that commandment.

This is not a legal issue but an issue of principles. Ever since the emancipation that came with the enlightenment, when the traditional kehilla structure collapsed – the focus of traditional Jewish
identity has moved solidly to the family unit. The traditional family, not the kehilla, became the guarantor for the sanctity of Jewish life as well as for Jewish communal life. The traditional
family, in orthodox society, is not just a value among values, it is the guardian of all other values.

That being the case, there is no technical legal loophole that would allow you to be socially accepted. Your lifestyle crosses a red line that will never go away. If you truly feel that your lifestyle cannot change then you must stop looking for acceptance in a society that will never ever accept you as you currently are.

Please follow and like us: