LGBTQ Archives - 18Doors

The Eco-Friendly, Queer Wedding of My Dreams

By Ezra Kiers

I’ve always known I wanted a Jewish wedding. I choose to live a Jewish life every day, and falling in love...

LGBTQ, Love and Marriage, Relationships, Wedding Planning, Wedding Recap, Wedding Stories, Weddings

How Choosing Judaism Helped Me Embrace My Black, Bisexual Identity

By C. E. Harrison

Every Jew-by-choice’s journey to Judaism is different. And while we share some similarities, our lived experiences...

Conversion, Identity, LGBTQ

Living the Queer, Jewish Parent Life I Dreamt of When I Converted

By Ada Centonze

The decision to convert to Judaism hit me like a thunderbolt and became an all-encompassing need over the course...

Conversion, Identity, LGBTQ

Glee’s Cheyenne Jackson and Husband Jason Landau are Hollywood’s Sweetest Dads

By Sophie Mortman

Actors and interfaith couple Cheyenne Jackson (Glee and American Horror Story) and...

LGBTQ, Pop Culture

Feeling Unheard as a Jewish, Queer Asian Woman

By Carmel Tanaka

Being a Jewish queer Asian woman is more emotional labor than I have the spoons for right now. It’s Pittsburgh, Orlando and...

Anti Semitism, Identity, Jews of Color, LGBTQ, Multiracial, Race

Living Our True Selves: Queer, Interfaith and in Love

By Ezra Kiers

I don’t remember all of the lessons my mother tried to teach me as a child; let’s be honest, most of us don’t....

Dating, Identity, LGBTQ, Relationship Challenges, Relationship Successes, Relationships

Wedding Planning without Mom

By David Levy

Weddings are supposed to be days full of joy overflowing. Sure, we know that any big event involving multiple...

Engagement, LGBTQ, Wedding Planning, Wedding Stories, Weddings

The Funniest Jewish-Palestinian Lesbian Couple You’ll Ever Meet

By Arielle Kaplan

The saying “opposites attract” has never been truer for Jess Salomon and Eman El-Husseini. One’s a Jew from...

LGBTQ, Love, Pop Culture, Relationships

Two women with their arms around one another smiling.

Proud to be LGBTQI and Interfaith

By Rabbi Mychal Copeland

Rabbi Mychal Copeland served as director of 18Doors/Bay Area until June, 2017 and is now the rabbi at Sha’ar...

Identity, LGBTQ, Professional Development, Professionals Stories

Our Gay, Interfaith Family’s Surprising Synagogue-Shopping Experience

By Liat Katz

“A Y A M,” She writes. “Um, Maya, I think you wrote your name backwards,” I respond. “Nope, it’s just in Hebrew,”...

LGBTQ, Parenting, Parenting Stories, Religion, Religious Education, Synagogue

The Sacred Goal of Interfaith Family Inclusion

By Rabbi Ari Moffic

I recently got introduced to a children’s book called Zero by Kathryn Otoshi. It’s a book aimed at preschoolers,...

Books, LGBTQ, Professional Development, Professionals Stories

A Rabbi and a Priest Officiate a Gay Wedding. (That’s it. There’s no punchline.)

By Michele Zipkin & Vanessa Williams

Recently we’ve been thinking about what it means to be planning a religious wedding as a same-sex couple. Until...

Co-officiation, LGBTQ, Wedding Planning, Weddings

Ketubah: The Bass-line of Our Marriage (Get it? Like a tuba)

By Michele Zipkin & Vanessa Williams

One of the items that we needed to tick off our Wedding To-Do List this month was ordering the ketubah. As an...

Ketubah, LGBTQ, Wedding Planning, Weddings

Why I am Not Hiding After Orlando

By Rabbi Malka Packer-Monroe

Rabbi Malka (left) at a Black Lives Matter rally in Atlanta My face lit up as we entered the room full of glittery...

Death, Death & Mourning, Identity, LGBTQ, Mourning

The End of One LGBT Journey is the Beginning of Another

By Gretchen Rachel Hammond

Throughout my life, I was a person in search of a religion to call my own. Born in the United Kingdom to a...

Conversion, Identity, Israel, LGBTQ, Religion

Surprise! It's a Rabbi!

By Hannah Dancing

In the days after our engagement, we began to imagine our wedding. I had thought about a possible future wedding...

LGBTQ, Officiant, Wedding Planning, Weddings

How Can I Show Her That Judaism Welcomes Lesbians?

By The Jewish Daily Forward

This article was reprinted with permission from The Forward The Seesaw is a new kind of advice column in...

LGBTQ, Religious Life

It’s Time to Dispel the Urban Legend of the Orange on the Seder Plate

By Rabbi Robyn Frisch

If you, like me, are past the age of 40, you may remember years ago hearing the claim that Little Mikey of LIFE...

Jewish Holidays, LGBTQ, Passover, Passover Rituals, Seder

My First Purim As a Catholic

By Anthony Johnson

It was my first year out of college and I was roommates with my best friend and secret crush, Oren. We were...

Dating, LGBTQ, Purim, Relationships

Double Booked: Every Day, Mothers’ Day

By 18Doors

The following is a guest post reprinted with permission from Julie A. Silver and the Religious Action Center...

Camp, LGBTQ, Parenting, Parenting Stories

When Interfaith Meets Same-Sex, Assumptions Get Challenged

By Susan Goldberg

But will the children be Jewish? “Of course they will,” I thought. So, I’m sure, did many...

LGBTQ, Love, Relationship Challenges, Relationships

This Weekend, At Midnight, Under The Chuppah

By Benjamin Maron

We excitedly mentioned that we’ve been able to help Dee and Kate, who will be getting married at 12:01am...

LGBTQ, Officiant, Weddings

NY: First Gay Marriage!

By Benjamin Maron

It was with great excitement that I heard the news from the New York Senate a few Shabbats ago: in a vote of...

LGBTQ

Pride in Welcoming the Stranger

By Benjamin Maron

For some, June is known as Pride Month.” The Stonewall Riots in New York City’s Greenwich Village,...

LGBTQ, Professional Development

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