From:Julie Renszer's 613 Mitzvot
Wednesday, February 25th, 2004

Friends,

I have watched this debate about marriage for gay and lesbian people unfold since the day of the Lawrence decision. I was on vacation in Provincetown and read the Scalia dissent with horror seeing the set up for the 2004 Presidential election.

I've been "gay for pay" since 1991 and have been engaged and enraged with the public approach in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of our country since I was a young teenager watching AIDS be ignored. Still, I feel as though my history is a short one in what is going to be a marathon struggle for equality for queer people.

Yesterday, I was in Annapolis for the judicial committee hearings on the state defense of marriage act. There was the usual array of support of the bill, primarily the Catholic church and even the Mormon church, although the LDS have a small presence in Maryland. There was also strong support from orthodox Jews for the bill (Baltimore has a large orthodox community.) Equality Maryland, the state wide LGBT organization, also organized a great presence and provided compelling testimony. Until yesterday, we felt that there was no way that our very democratic legislature was going to let this out of committee. Now we are not so sure. It is very difficult for politicians to be perceived of as "voting against" marriage and stand up to the way this is used as a wedge issue by the Republicans and the extreme right. Let me be clear: they should be able to stand up to it and it is absolutely the right thing, but the vote on the Federal DOMA demonstrates the difficulty and the drama that is playing out in state houses all over the country further makes that point.

One of the things that saddened me the most was seeing the true fear in the eyes of people testifying to support the bill. Once the paid lobbyists were gone from the room and the hour was late, two panels of folks came to speak from the outlying areas of Maryland. They clearly were using talking points from the christian coalition or some other group (which I don't fault them for--we did talking points for our folks), but their fear about what will happen to this country if gay people can marry was real and palpable. It made me sad more than angry and left me wondering what "compromise" will come out of this like "don't ask, don't tell" came out in 1993 and who will be hurt by the "compromise".

I am further depressed today by Senator Kerry's endorsement of the constitutional amendment process in Massachusetts. I am only heartened by knowing that this is a marathon and that in the end there will be success, although I am somewhat dubious that I will see it in my lifetime.

All of this to say, yes! to Alicia's email about having ways to counter people and ammunition to engage in the change that is happening in our country on behalf of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. A week ago, I decided to journal through the 613 mitzvot that Jews are required to do as a result of a poem I wrote about a shatnes tester (shatnes is on of the mitzvah that commands us not to wear linen and wool together). I was emailing them to a small group when I decided to post as a live journal. Necessarily, because it is me thinking about these mitzvot as I watch and live my life as a lesbian, I am writing more and more on a daily basis about G-d and queer people. I invite you all to visit the journal periodically and join the journey. They are quick and pithy ten minute entries as I am trying to struggle with G-d, being a Jew, and what is happening in the world.


Julie