The writer asks a fair question: Why draw a parallel of any sort between intermarried (a.k.a., “interfaith”) and GLBT Jews. The reason, borne out by the research, is that more liberal (or traditional) attitudes with respect to one non-mainstream group are correlated with similar attitudes to other non-mainstream groups. We examined attitudes towards not only these two groups, but to racially and ethnically diverse Jews (a way of saying, other than white), converts, and people with disabilities. Yes, atittudes differed, but they were also correlated — a fascinating and predictable finding, but one with policy-relevance. I hope that clarifies matters, but if it doesn’t, please feel free to write me at [email protected] or Dr. Caryn Aviv who is the lead researcher in this endeavor.

Just a comment. In doing interviews about Kavod House (www.kavodhouse.com) an indy-minyan Jewish social justice house/community center (when something defies categories it takes a lot of adjectives to describe) one respondent said that what she appreciated about Kavod house was that it was clearly welcoming of queer Jews, but did not do specifically GLBTQ oriented programing. I took her to mean that Kavod did not tokenize or segregate queers via special programming, but did have a culture that (more or less) did not impress upon people assumptions about sexuality.
It should be noted that, in opposition to Avi’s comment it takes a lot more than a lack of prohibitions to be welcoming. Battling hetero-sexism, perhaps even by presuming queerness can create a welcoming space without special programing, though it does require that the straights in the community be willing to loosen their grip on straightness and even feel uncomfortable sometime. I want to stress than that in this model, the goal is not everyone feeling comfortable, but everyone feeling like this community in question is “their” community and represents them.

So let me preface this by saying I plan to attend HUC for Rabbinical School in the near future. Is it odd that I would as it stands now have no qualms about officiating at a “same sex” marriage ceremony but that I would have to think long and hard about officating at an “interfaith” marriage ceremony? Does anyone share my view? What do you think this says about the whole dichotomy or lack there of one?

JesseT: Why think long and hard about it?
Neither a same-sex marriage or an interfaith marriage is halakhically defensible.
Given that fact, your reasoning for presiding over a same-sex marriage should be that the importance of recognizing that two people in a relationship are committing to each other is more important than whether it is halakhically valid.
Why apply a double-standard to interfaith couples?
It’s not like Jews who are really concerned about halakha will recognize either marriage anyway.

BZ: Frankly, I don’t think it should matter whether or not halakha supports my being a lesbian. There’s more to life than halakha.
That said, there is a clearly prevailing opinion among poskim on this subject. I’d prefer to not challenge the integrity of that opinion when I’m not as learned as they are. (And I say this as a lesbian and a strong advocate for same-sex civil marriage.)

As the director of Jewish Mosaic and therefore someone involved in the study, a few things:
1) Feygele: Yes, the survey did include independent minyanim. The 1,221 responses represent just under 1,000 unique congregations affiliated with all movements (or non-movements, as the case may be), which is over 25% of all the congregations in the U.S. and Canada.
2) As to interfaith weddings, as Steven Cohen noted above, rabbinic willingness to perform such ceremonies IS correlated with a host of other diversity issues. But yes, it’s complicated, and that correlation doesn’t hold for all clergy. The JTA article was VERY brief and therefore minimally descriptive of the details of the study or the findings. So please don’t make assumptions about the focus of the study or the findings from that 300 word article. A full study report will be available soon, with much more detail about the wide range of questions relating to multiple diverse groups in the Jewish community.
3) On the question of outreach as “tokenizing” it really depends on what you do for outreach. A GLBT havurah, or a program that invites GLBT people to come together (without straight allies) for a GLBT-only event might be perceived by some as tokenizing and by others as creating “safe space.” Context is everything and every community is different. The survey asked about a range of outreach and programs, most of which would NOT have been targeted at GLBT people, but referenced GLBT people/issues or invited conversation about GLBT topics within the entire community.

For BZ’s conversation –
I think there should be a distinction between “interfaith” marriage and marriage between two people of no faith who happen to have different ethnicities. I don’t know which would be more problematic for the officiant (NOT cleric).
It would seem to me that it shouldn’t work under progressive halakha either: marriage is an act with religious significance which can’t extend beyond the borders of the religion. THis wouldn’t preclude a rabbi (or anyone else) “blessing” the union by acting as an agent of the state. THe two roles seem to be confused all the time.

Kari, the reason why same-sex marriage is not as stigmatized as intermarriage in the “liberal” Jewish community is largely sociological. You can marry a person of the same gender in the same faith, but God Forbid you should marry ANYONE who isn’t Jewish! And I won’t repeat the cries against intermarriage here, as anyone can go see one of many Jewish-establishment/Traditionalist websites to see them.

I realize it’s been said, but it was glossed over.
The reason same-sex and interfaith marriages are so often lopped into one category is because no matter how much the Reform movement talks about “progressive halacha,” everyone knows that they’re BOTH ASSUR. There’s no getting around it; halacha does not sanction same-sex or interfaith marriage.