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GLBT Timeline
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JQ International GLBT Haggadah
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1939 Gad Beck, a gay Jewish teenager living in Hitler’s Germany joins the Jewish underground, smuggling food, arranging housing and helping Jews escape from Berlin, often by bribing German officials.

1955-1956 Poet Alan Ginsberg authors “Howl,” which contains gay sexual imagery.

1969 Stonewall Rebellion in New York City.

1972 Two gay men and two lesbians decide to form their own synagogue in Los Angeles. Beth Chayim Chadashim holds its first service in July of 1972. In London, The Jewish Gay and Lesbian Group, JGLG is formed.

1974 Beth Chayim Chadashim is chartered by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, making it not only the first gay and lesbian synagogue, but also the first gay religious organization of any kind to be officially recognized by an American national body.

1974 David Goodstein buys the LA Advocate, which will become the largest circulating gay newspaper.

1978 Rabbi Alan Bennett allows himself to be outed in the San Francisco Chronicle as the first gay rabbi in the United States.

1980 World Congress of Gay and Lesbian Jewish Organizations founded.

1984 The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College faculty vote to admit gay and lesbian students.

1989 Barnett “Barney” Frank comes out becoming the first openly gay Jewish member of the US Congress.

1992 The Conservative law committee declared that Jewish law clearly prohibited commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples and the admission of openly gay people to rabbinical or cantorial schools.

1993 Israel forbids discrimination against sexual orientation in its military.

1997 the Jerusalem Open House is founded to serve the city’s LGBTQ population regardless of religion or nationality.

1999 Rabbi Steven Greenberg challenged this tradition when he became the first Orthodox rabbi ever to openly declare his homosexuality.

2000 The Central Conference of American Rabbis, which is part of the Jewish Reform movement, has agreed to sanction religious ceremonies for same-sex couples.

2000 Hebrew Union College founds the Institute for Judaism & Sexual Orientation to challenge and eliminate homophobia and heterosexism and to transform the communities connected to the Reform movement into ones that are inclusive and welcoming of GLBT Jews.

2001 Award-winning documentary Trembling Before God released, a cinematic portrait of various gay Orthodox Jews who struggle to reconcile their faith and their sexual orientation.

2002 Uzi Even is sworn in as the first openly gay member of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.

2002 Paul Colichman and Stephen P. Jarchow found HERE! America’s 1st GLBT dedicated TV network

2003 Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion admits the first openly transgender rabbinical student in the world.

2004 JQ International is born to serve the 20’s and 30’s demographic of the GLBT Jewish community with specific programming designed to fully integrate and reconcile the Jewish and GLBT identity among its young adult members. JAG, Judios Argentinos GLBT was born in Buenos Aires due to the interest of a group of friends and Rabbi Sergio Bergman who, together, addressed the lack of treatment of gay Jewish issues in the local Jewish Community.

2006 The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, adopted policies giving gays and lesbians the chance to serve as clergy.

2006 Israel’s High Court of Justice rules that two gay men married in Canada, as well as four other same-sex couples wedded abroad, should have their union recognized in Israel.

2007 The Jewish Community Foundation recognizes the valuable work of JQ International and provides significant funding to advance JQ’s mission and create lesbian specific programming.

2007 The Jewish Theological Seminary, the intellectual and spiritual center of Conservative Judaism, began accepting openly gay and lesbian candidates into its rabbinical and cantorial schools.

2008 The Women’s Programming committee is launched by JQ International to better understand and serve America’s young adult lesbian Jewish population.

2008 The 1st fully integrated GLBT Haggadah is created.
haggadah Section: Introduction
Source: JQ International

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