Tony Kushner!

Harvey Fierstein, Les Feinberg, and Alicia Svigals!

Judith Butler for her support for the Palestinian call for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions on Israel and her public refusal of the Berlin Pride Civil Courage award.

 Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum leads the largest congregation of LGBT Jews
Eric Rofes was an accomplished author and LGBT leader
Chai Feldblum named to the EEOC as a commissioner by Pres Obama; accomplished legal scholar

Frank Kameny
Harvey Fierstien
Stephen Sondheim
Leslie Feinberg
Roberta Achtenberg

Allan Ginsberg

How about Dr. Lillian Faderman, fabulous author of “Surpassing the Love of Men”, “Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers” “Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics and Lipstick Lesbians” and her memoir “Naked in the Promised Land”.  She has devoted her academic career to researching and writing the history of LGBT’s in the U.S.

Judith Butler! Adam Shapiro of the International Solidarity Movement! 

My Jewish LGBT hero is Barney Frank. 

Judith Butler!
 

 Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin

And Alan Ginsberg =)

Evan Wolfson, director of Freedom to Marry
Itai Pinkas, Israeli LGBT activist
I’m hopeful that someday we can call Ken Mehlman a hero, but not yet.

Judith Butler please  

Muriel Rukeyser, a brilliant poet and writer, a fighter against fascism and for peace, a mother, a feminist, a lesbian, a friend of Grace Paley’s and her circle of loving gentle warrior writers.

Sometimes changing the world takes place one person or community at a time. Cantor David Berger at Congregation Tikvat Jacob in Manhattan Beach, CA is my LGBT Jewish hero. I was instrumental in hiring Cantor Berger into a completely “straight” synagogue environment. He was very open about his sexuality and marriage and looked forward to educating the community. He had the option of working within the gay community but chose to show the world that we are all the same, and has been a terrific inspiration and teacher of all things Jewish to our synagogue family.

Larry Kramer. If he sometimes comes of as messhugah it’s because his passion can overtake him.  

Jay Michaelson!

Why? Why a boycott of Israel, and not the many, many other Nations whose track record of human rights abuses is far worse than Israel’s? Why no accountability for the complicity of the Palestinian Authority – yes, the Palestinian Authority, not only Hamas, for consistent and continual suicide bombs and other forms of violent attack? Why no nuanced, left discussion about the role of the wall – the admittedly terrible and inhumane wall – in reducing those violent attacks in Israel? And finally, why no discussion of the treatment of feminists, women, and gay and lesbian peoples under the Palestinian government, and by the many radical, fundamentalist Muslims, whose embrace and support they eagerly seek and accept? And finally, why no thoughtful conversation on the rise of anti-semitism in the world, and its very real role in the anti-Zionist and pro-boycott movement? We complain about how reactionary the ADL is, and yet we conveniently ignore facts or accept funding from very dubious sources ourselves. I just understand the claims to moral high ground here. I believe in Israel’s right to exist,and I believe in the civil rights of Arab citizens within Israel, and under its jurisdiction but do you? All those who call for a boycott, do you truly think that Israel is a legitimate state? I do. But I think the truth is, that many of you do not – and certainly many of your allies do not. If that is so, then that is what you should be arguing about – anything else is just disingenuous and I think terribly naive.

add Warren J. Blumenfeld, activist, writer, educator. Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa specializing in Multicultural and International Curriculum Studies; & Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies. He is Co-Editor of Investigating Christian Privilege and Religious Oppression in the United States; Co-editor of Readings for Diversity and Social Justice; Editor of Homophobia: How We All Pay the Price; Co-author of Looking at Gay and Lesbian Life; Co-editor of Butler Matters: Judith Butlers Impact on Feminist and Queer Studies; Author of AIDS and Your Religious Community; & Co-Researcher & Co-Author: 2010 State of Higher Education for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People.
 

 Judith Plaskow, who established the field of Jewish feminist theology. 

Irena Klepfisz

Alix Dobkin – singer/songwriter of lesbian songs in the 1970s
Arlene Raven – feminist art historian (1944-2006)
Laura Nyro – singer/songwriter (1947-1997)

 Allen B. Bennett, the first openly gay rabbi
Evan Wolfson, Freedom to Marry director — a tireless and effective advocate
Roberta Achtenberg — another tireless advocate 
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas
Frank Kameny — father of the gay rights movement
Stephen Sondheim
Jerry Herman
Magnus Hirschfeld 

Gertrude Stein !!  

Debbie Friedman — musician and songwriter 

Maxine Feldman z”l, Joan Nestle, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, Rabbi Rebecca Alpert, Rabbi Stacy Offner, Rabbi Leila Berner, Miriam Kabakov, and many, many more!

I pick the late transgender therapist Gianna Israel of San Francisco, who helped me personally with sessions in the ’90s; and whose Internet articles and book have helped countless others within our community. 

yup, that was my thought too 

A Bronx Cheer! 

Leonard Bernstein – composer and conductor
Mark Leno – San Francisco supervisor and CA state legislator, lifelong activist and real mensch
Marcel Proust – monumental French novelist
Lorenz Hart – lyricist (the other half of Rodgers and Hart)
James Levine – conductor at the Metropolitan Opera
Tony Kushner – playwright
And so many more. . .

Emma Goldman, Shel Silverstein,  Maurice Sendak

Tony Kushner. 

 Janis Ian. 

 Jeanette Gurevitch
Marcy Adelman

Founders of openhouse  - http://openhouse-sf.org

Suze Orman 

 Aaron Copland – composer

 Adrienne Rich is someone who should be honoring for her grounding breaking writing about compulsory heterosexuality and her exploration of her Jewish roots in poems such as “Sources”

Looking to the future…An up and coming rising star…..Sasha T Goldberg!!! 

Too many to name:
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum
Rabbi Rachel Weiss
Idit Klein
Rabbi Alissa Wise
Rabbi Steve Greenberg
Rabbi Denise Eger

Emma Goldman
Joan Nestle
Melanie Kaye Kantrowitz
Susan Saxe
Judith Butler
Leslie Feinberg

 Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum

Magnus Hirschfeld — early 20th-century gay & lesbian rights pioneer
Kurt Hiller — also an early 20th-century gay & lesbian rights pioneer
Richard Berkowitz & Joseph Sonnabend: co-inventors (along with Michael Callen — not Jewish , I think) of safe sex (when the only recommendations for avoiding the mysterious and unnamed new disease that would come to be called AIDS was to stop having sex)

Rabbi Denise L. Eger, first female and lesbian president of the Southern California board of rabbis. Rabbi Eger is a champion of GLBT rights, Reform Judaism, and equality for every human being.

 George Cukor – film director
Sergei Eisenstein – film director
Benedict Friedländer – early German gay rights activist, author
David Geffen – record executive, activist, philanthropist
David Goodstein – founder/publisher of “The Advocate”
Jacob Israel de Haan – Dutch author and journalist
Reynaldo Hahn – composer
Vladimir Horowitz – pianist
Marc Jacobs – fashion designer
Moisés Kaufman – playwright, director
Annie Leibovitz – photographer
Frederick Loewe – Broadway composer (My Fair Lady)
Carole Migden – California politician and activist
Jerome Robbins – choreographer
John Schlesinger – film director
Susan Sontag – writer
Michael Tilson Thomas – conductor, composer
Ludwig Wittgenstein – philosopher

All gleaned from Wikipedia!  There are many others who aren’t shown in their list of famous gay people.  There should be enough for decades of posters!

 Adrienne Rich, the great poet!   And Leslie Feinberg and Lillian Faderman.

 Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum.

And Rabbis Rachel Weiss and Ayelet Cohen.

And Grace Paley.

My two Jewish lesbian “foremothers” are Melanie Kay Kantrowitz and Irena Klepficz.   They were pioneers in bringing a Jewish feminist voice to critical issues of social justice, both in the U.S. and Israel, and have both been outspoken activists and writers for peace and justice from a Jewish perspective, as well as insightful critics of anti-semitism.  I remember when the first Iraq War started, and I felt part of a very small Jewish minority that was opposed to going to war, fearing that it would prompt an Iraqi attack on Israel (which in fact it did) as well as needlessly shedding American and Iraqi lives.  Many Jewish progressives I knew did not feel comfortable going to the march in DC against the war, feeling torn because of potential anti-Israel sentiments that would be expressed, and because so much of the Jewish community supported the U.S. military action.  I went, knowing that there would a Jewish contingent, where I would feel safe and represented.  As I marched along in this group, someone asked me to hold one side of the banner marking the Jewish contingent.  I looked over, and holding the other side of the banner was Melanie Kay Kantrowitz!  Then I realized that marching next to her were Irena Klepfisz and Evie Beck, another important Jewish lesbian pioneer.  I felt like I had died and and gone to  progressive Jewish lesbian heaven.  As a young Jewish lesbian activist, these were some of my most  important role models, and I was literally marching alongside them.

Rabbi Toba Spitzer

Dan Fishback, my absolutely completely favorite queer Jewish performance artist, singer and all around amazing person changed my life, and the lives of all those who’ve witnessed his work, his art and his self!

Allen Ginsberg, Larry Kramer, Sharon Kleinbaum, Brian Elliot, Nitzan Horowitz, Marty Duberman, Leonard Bernstein, Marcel Proust.

 David and Jonathan.

LARRY KRAMER—-playwright and AIDS activist.   He wrote one of the first plays that hit Broadway about AIDS—-’The Normal Heart’   It is currently in revival in NYC.   He is also the founder of ACT UP and is still raising hell.

Rabbi Elan Adler inaugurated the gay Orthodox movie in Baltimore, including discussion.

And since more than 2% of our child’s graduating class was gay, this was incredibly helpful 

Tony Kushner is NOT a role model  

Barney Frank, absolutely.

 Tony Kushner, a true visionary, brilliant playwright, committed activist. His work challenges the intellect, enlarges the spirit and makes the world a better place.

 Without a doubt, my LGBT Jewish hero is Sarah Schulman, journalist, essayist, playwright, and fiction writer. Besides the fact that she writes beautifully, and with humor from the heart, she also asks about family safety for queer youth, she documents our culture, holds us accountable, uses experimental forms and engages in dialog with Palestinian activists.

There is a sex-advice columnist in our area (Seattle), who has made a splash with the _It Gets Better_ YouTube movement (and now published volume) to dissuade queer youth from suicide. In my opinion, his work, though important locates the problem in the issue of personal responsibility, and does not adequately take into account social, legal and familial homophobia. In her recent work, _Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia And Its Consequences_, Sarah Schulman brings these issues to the forefront, asking how youth can be safe when familial rejection is not challenged.

Also, _Girls, Visions And Everything_ is pure poetry – love, sex, activism, life in New York City. I read it many years ago and it’s still relevant.Thanks for asking

 Laura Nyro. She was a composer whose work provided the stylistic link between the Great American Songbook era and the 1960′s. 

Shel Silverstein was straight. 

To call Laura Nyro a “singer/songwriter” is to do her a great disservice. She was a composer, and a brilliant one, to boot! 

 Ruth Berman and Connie Kurtz are my joint heroines.  While  being two  housewives raising their families in Brooklyn they met , and jointly worked together in their community to get a park, to get a traffic light and on and on and in the meantime they fell in love.   Their relationship was a bombshell in their community, but it did not stop them from speaking out in public on the Phil Donohue show for gay rights, they  sued the Board of Education in NYC for domestic partner rights along with two other couples and never  looked back.  They continue to hold coming out workshops every summer which have helped hundreds of gay and lesbian people and are the stars of RUTHIE AND CONNIE :EVERY ROOM IN THE HOUSE a documentary about their lives. When few others spoke out, Ruthie and Connie had the courage to tell it like it is and continue to do so and make  a difference in peoples’ lives.  These Two Jewish bubbies deserve our gratitude and thanx for all their efforts to make a safe world for all of us.  

 Absolutely right!  Debbie Friedman totally needs to be on a poster!  Thank you for this!

Rabbi Linda Holtzman, one of my great teachers at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, a teacher out of the classroom as much as in.

I was providing a very quick identifier for people who have no clue about who Laura Nyro was. Of course she was brilliant! That’s why I listed her! 

 Chloe, I’m just wondering, why not?  I simply don’t know what you’re referring to . . .

I second the nomination of Sarah Schulman!  

I love Grace Paley’s writing and admire her activism, but I’m pretty sure she was straight. 

 What’s up with Ken Mehlman?  Who is he and why is not yet to be called a hero?  I just don’t know; please explain.

Another one to consider is MK Nitzan Horowitz of the Meretz party.

 We might want to add Ruth and Naomi.  

 Jhos Singer..amazing transgendered Maggid at Coastside Jewish Community in Half Moon Bay, California. His deep spirituality and compassion are an inspiration to all that know him.

He was a recent chairman of the Republican National Committee.  He finally came out.  I must say I have a problem understanding the phenomenon of gay Republicanism (too much like self-hating Jews) but the Log Cabin Club is responsible for filing the court case that forced the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, so they have made some positive contribution to tikkun olam. . . 

Andrea Dworkin
Leslie Feinberg
Adrienne Rich
Melanie Kaye Kantrowitz
Joy Ladin
Reuben Zellman
Elana Dykewomon
Esther Rothblum
Judith Butler

Reuben Zellman is my LGBT Jewish hero.  At a time when I was very confused about my own identity, he stood up as a visible, positive role model as the first openly transgender person in a rabbinical seminary.  Today, he continues to be an amazing spiritual leader and person of great intellectualism and compassion.

Yes!  Jhos helped to teach my Hebrew school as I was growing up, and I looked up to him without knowing why…yet.

Also, Rabbi Mychal Copeland.  She started Mishpacha, the LGBT Jewish group at UCLA, which has changed many lives since its founding.

Rabbi Jane Litman – bisexual feminist activist, educator, writer, congregational rabbi 

Roy Freeman from Dayenu is Sydney is making great in-roads  into breaking down discrimination

Roy Freeman from the Sydney GLBT group ‘Dayenu’ is making huge in-roads into breaking down discrimination and fighting for equality in the local Jewish community.  His efforts are tireless and his selfless dedication is superlative.

 My LGBT Jewish heroes are Connie Kurtz and Ruth Berman. They changed the world by joining the first domestic partnership case in NYC re insurance coverage since Ruth Berman was in the NYC school system- but more than that their honest and forthright film Ruthie and Connie Every Room IN The House the HBO documentary went round the world and gave hope to all LGBT people that we could and do have long term relationships and that some things are worth fighting for.  The love they have for each other is inspirational.  Today they continue to inform educate and inspire the world to action for social justice, truth and love.

Ruth and Naomi! 

 Rabbi Steve Greenberg

Gertrude Stein, Oscar Wilde, Susan Sontag, Annie Leibowitz 

Sen. Barney Frank, Debbie Frideman (who came out at the concert she did for Kol Ami), Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins, Allen Ginsberg

Tony Kushner

You should check out Miriam Ben-Shalom, the first LGB person to actually WIN and go BACK in to military service–long before DADT. 

Scott Fried.   http://www.scottfried.org  
educator, motivational speaker, Jewish role model
I met Scott about 7 years ago when he was speaking at a conference for Jewish teen educators.  You can just tell being in the room with Scott that he is overtaken by his passion to help teens and emerging adults.  Since that day, I have partnered with Scott to bring him as a scholar-in-residence to numerous Jewish education programs.  

His raw honesty about his own journey, his early secret gay life, his contraction of HIV, and his coming out makes a powerful statement to his audience.  He teaches them to love themselves enough to use protection, not just sexual but emotional.  When I say that the teens often say that he saved their lives, it’s not an exaggeration.  Parents talk about how he forever changed the relationship they have with their teens.  Scott has touched thousands and thousands of lives.

If you want to read more about teens’ responses to Scott – check out the comments on the I Love Scott Fried Facebook page – which he isn’t a member of and doesn’t see.

Without
a doubt, my LGBT Jewish hero is Sarah Schulman, journalist, essayist,
playwright, and fiction writer. Besides the fact that she writes beautifully,
and with humor from the heart, she also asks about family safety for queer
youth, she documents our culture, holds us accountable, uses experimental forms
and engages in dialog with Palestinian activists.
 

Alice B. Toklas 

Moises Kaufman! He is the
Tony and Emmy nominated artistic director of the Tectonic Theater Project in
New York City. He wrote “Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar
Wilde” and “The Laramie Project”. Watch his It Get’s Better Project
video too http://youtu.be/ys5UrHqNULo

 Magnus Hirschfeld, (May 14, 1868 – May 14, 1935) was a German physician and sexologist. Hirschfeld was an outspoken advocate for homosexual rights. In 1919 Hirschfeld founded Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Research) in Berlin. His Institute housed his immense library on sex and provided educational services and medical consultations. People from around Europe visited the Institute to gain a clearer understanding of their sexuality.

 My list of over 40 gay Jewish heroes: http://guydads.blogspot.com/2009/04/remembering-gay-jewish-history.html

Dr. Mekah Gordon, Ph.D.
Educator, Writer, TG Consultant, Advocate/Activist, HumanitarianGender Awareness – 1st Annual Commitment to Care Award Winner　
In order to achieve the same rights, without compromise, there are NO other options, than UnequivocalEquality!Dr. Mekah Gordon, Ph.D.　
　
As a nationally recognized Activist/Advocate for establishing Diversity Education as well as　Unequivocal Equality for those Men and Women in the Transgender Community, my　perennial commitment for their health, welfare and peace of mind is pinnacle.
　
I educate unprogressive thinkers concerning the necessity of establishing Sensitivity, Understanding and Respect for Diversity in our multicultural society, based on the foundation of mutual Dignity, as well as including a non-Judgmental Open Mind through civil discussion.

My name is Dr. Mekah Gordon; as a Transgender & Human Rights Activist/Advocate, I have achieved remarkable precedence in NY, and continue to do so, in my home state of New Mexico.
My reputation as a tenacious, passionate, generous, and vigorous Transgender Educator/Consultant throughout the nation is exemplary.

As the former Santa Fe Regional Editor, for the former Normal Heart Newspaper, now known as The Southwest LGBT Press, I wrote a monthly column, titled, Transitionally Speakingaking.
Topics ranged from current and/or personal Transgender issues, to political controversies, specifically related to the GLBTI community.

I am the　President/Founder of the S. U. R. E. Foundation Foundation® {Sensitivity, Understanding, and Respect, through Education}, here in Santa Fe, NM.
We specialize as Objective Arbitrators, for families, relatives, friends, work place environments, as well as any other area where individuals are beginning to Transition, through a series of Lectures and Workshops,　including time set aside for　Questions　and Answers.

By　gently, yet proficiently educating employers concerning every aspect required　toward the　sensitivity, understanding and respect for　those employees who wish to Transition as well as secure their position　of employment, the S. U. R.　E. Foundation®, since 2001,　has been extremely　effective in safeguarding that status quo.

I am available as a consultant, in addition to being a Lecturer/Keynote Speaker, concerning my expertise in the area of Transgender Issues.

I had taught in New York State a total of 26 years as a “man,” before coming out to my School Districts Superintendent, in the summer of 2000, of my plans to transition from M-F.

I was the first M-F Transsexual teacher in New York State and the Nation, to ever maintain a teaching position in any Public School District, receiving a *Year Off With Full Pay, in addition to Maintaining My Health Benefits, enabling me to begin full time transition, before returning.
*This alone was unheard of, and Historically Precedent Setting, throughout the entire Country!

I’ve been featured on TVs The Early Show w/ Katie Couric, The View w/ Barbara Walters, in numerous national, and overseas newspaper articles, as well as a variety of Radio Stations from coast to coast.

Peace, Unequivocal Equality & Solidarity ~Dr. Mekah GordonDr. Mekah GordonPioneering, Frontier Renaissance Woman, & Visionary Founder/CEO S. U. R. E. Foundation®SUREducation@aol.comSanta Fe, NM 87508505-466-4277I’m a lifetime member of GLSEN, NY, where I served as a Steering Committee Member – Formerly served as secretary on the board of the HRA, {Human Rights Alliance}, – Former Board Member of The Normal Heart Newspaper/Southwest LGBT Press, – Member of the NMSPC,{New Mexico Suicide Prevention Coalition}, – Recipient, of the prestige’s, “2007 Commitment to Care Award” from the Alliance for Gender Awareness, – Full membership; World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly known as the Harry Benjamin Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), Former Executive Director of the Emerald City Foundation, a 501(c)3 Federally Registered Nonprofit, Santa Fe, NM.*The word, “Tolerance,” no matter how you bend it, twist it, or turn it inside out, “Reeks” of Discrimination.”RESPECT,” however, eradicates implicitness for bigotry, hate, bias, & prejudice.
~Mekah Gordon

*No One on this planet, should ever have, or be granted the power, right, nor stand in judgment, of anyone’s Basic Human Civil Rights, by enforcing through Constitutional Decree, or otherwise, whom one should love, and marry, NO ONE!
~Mekah Gordon

*It’s the Tenacity, Persistence, Fortitude, & Faith,　that’s perennial, in those of us, who refuse to give up, in our pursuit for Unequivocal Equality, & Basic Human Civil Rights.
~Mekah Gordon　*Transitionally Speaking: Quotes, From a Pioneering, Frontier Renaissance Woman© 2011 Dr. Mekah Gordon, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved*The word, “Tolerance,” no matter how you bend it, twist it, or turn it inside out, “Reeks” of Discrimination.”RESPECT,” however, eradicates implicitness for bigotry, hate, bias, & prejudice.
~Mekah Gordon

*No One on this planet, should ever have, or be granted the power, right, nor stand in judgment, of anyone’s Basic Human Civil Rights, by enforcing through Constitutional Decree, or otherwise, whom one should love, and marry, NO ONE!
~Mekah Gordon

*It’s the Tenacity, Persistence, Fortitude, & Faith,　that’s perennial, in those of us, who refuse to give up, in our pursuit for Unequivocal Equality, & Basic Human Civil Rights.
~Mekah Gordon　*Transitionally Speaking: Quotes, From a Pioneering, Frontier Renaissance Woman© 2011 Dr. Mekah Gordon, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved
~Mekah Gordon

*No One on this planet, should ever have, or be granted the power, right, nor stand in judgment, of anyone’s Basic Human Civil Rights, by enforcing through Constitutional Decree, or otherwise, whom one should love, and marry, NO ONE!
~Mekah Gordon

*It’s the Tenacity, Persistence, Fortitude, & Faith,　that’s perennial, in those of us, who refuse to give up, in our pursuit for Unequivocal Equality, & Basic Human Civil Rights.
~Mekah Gordon　*Transitionally Speaking: Quotes, From a Pioneering, Frontier Renaissance Woman
© 2011 Dr. Mekah Gordon, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved　　Santa Fe, NM 87508505-466-4277Founder/CEO S. U. R. E. Foundation®SUREducation@aol.comSanta Fe, NM 87508505-466-4277I’m a lifetime member of GLSEN, NY, where I served as a Steering Committee Member – Formerly served as secretary on the board of the HRA, {Human Rights Alliance}, – Former Board Member of The Normal Heart Newspaper/Southwest LGBT Press, – Member of the NMSPC,{New Mexico Suicide Prevention Coalition}, – Recipient, of the prestige’s, “2007 Commitment to Care Award” from the Alliance for Gender Awareness, – Full membership; World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly known as the Harry Benjamin Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), Former Executive Director of the Emerald City Foundation, a 501(c)3 Federally Registered Nonprofit, Santa Fe, NM.*The word, “Tolerance,” no matter how you bend it, twist it, or turn it inside out, “Reeks” of Discrimination.”RESPECT,” however, eradicates implicitness for bigotry, hate, bias, & prejudice.
~Mekah Gordon

*No One on this planet, should ever have, or be granted the power, right, nor stand in judgment, of anyone’s Basic Human Civil Rights, by enforcing through Constitutional Decree, or otherwise, whom one should love, and marry, NO ONE!
~Mekah Gordon

*It’s the Tenacity, Persistence, Fortitude, & Faith,　that’s perennial, in those of us, who refuse to give up, in our pursuit for Unequivocal Equality, & Basic Human Civil Rights.
~Mekah Gordon　*Transitionally Speaking: Quotes, From a Pioneering, Frontier Renaissance Woman© 2011 Dr. Mekah Gordon, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved*The word, “Tolerance,” no matter how you bend it, twist it, or turn it inside out, “Reeks” of Discrimination.”RESPECT,” however, eradicates implicitness for bigotry, hate, bias, & prejudice.
~Mekah Gordon

*No One on this planet, should ever have, or be granted the power, right, nor stand in judgment, of anyone’s Basic Human Civil Rights, by enforcing through Constitutional Decree, or otherwise, whom one should love, and marry, NO ONE!
~Mekah Gordon

*It’s the Tenacity, Persistence, Fortitude, & Faith,　that’s perennial, in those of us, who refuse to give up, in our pursuit for Unequivocal Equality, & Basic Human Civil Rights.
~Mekah Gordon　*Transitionally Speaking: Quotes, From a Pioneering, Frontier Renaissance Woman© 2011 Dr. Mekah Gordon, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved
~Mekah Gordon

*No One on this planet, should ever have, or be granted the power, right, nor stand in judgment, of anyone’s Basic Human Civil Rights, by enforcing through Constitutional Decree, or otherwise, whom one should love, and marry, NO ONE!
~Mekah Gordon

*It’s the Tenacity, Persistence, Fortitude, & Faith,　that’s perennial, in those of us, who refuse to give up, in our pursuit for Unequivocal Equality, & Basic Human Civil Rights.
~Mekah Gordon　*Transitionally Speaking: Quotes, From a Pioneering, Frontier Renaissance Woman
© 2011 Dr. Mekah Gordon, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved　　Santa Fe, NM 87508505-466-4277I’m a lifetime member of GLSEN, NY, where I served as a Steering Committee Member – Formerly served as secretary on the board of the HRA, {Human Rights Alliance}, – Former Board Member of The Normal Heart Newspaper/Southwest LGBT Press, – Member of the NMSPC,{New Mexico Suicide Prevention Coalition}, – Recipient, of the prestige’s, “2007 Commitment to Care Award” from the Alliance for Gender Awareness, – Full membership; World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly known as the Harry Benjamin Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), Former Executive Director of the Emerald City Foundation, a 501(c)3 Federally Registered Nonprofit, Santa Fe, NM.*The word, “Tolerance,” no matter how you bend it, twist it, or turn it inside out, “Reeks” of Discrimination.”RESPECT,” however, eradicates implicitness for bigotry, hate, bias, & prejudice.
~Mekah Gordon

*No One on this planet, should ever have, or be granted the power, right, nor stand in judgment, of anyone’s Basic Human Civil Rights, by enforcing through Constitutional Decree, or otherwise, whom one should love, and marry, NO ONE!
~Mekah Gordon

*It’s the Tenacity, Persistence, Fortitude, & Faith,　that’s perennial, in those of us, who refuse to give up, in our pursuit for Unequivocal Equality, & Basic Human Civil Rights.
~Mekah Gordon　*Transitionally Speaking: Quotes, From a Pioneering, Frontier Renaissance Woman© 2011 Dr. Mekah Gordon, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved*The word, “Tolerance,” no matter how you bend it, twist it, or turn it inside out, “Reeks” of Discrimination.”RESPECT,” however, eradicates implicitness for bigotry, hate, bias, & prejudice.
~Mekah Gordon

*No One on this planet, should ever have, or be granted the power, right, nor stand in judgment, of anyone’s Basic Human Civil Rights, by enforcing through Constitutional Decree, or otherwise, whom one should love, and marry, NO ONE!
~Mekah Gordon

*It’s the Tenacity, Persistence, Fortitude, & Faith,　that’s perennial, in those of us, who refuse to give up, in our pursuit for Unequivocal Equality, & Basic Human Civil Rights.
~Mekah Gordon　*Transitionally Speaking: Quotes, From a Pioneering, Frontier Renaissance Woman© 2011 Dr. Mekah Gordon, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved
~Mekah Gordon

*No One on this planet, should ever have, or be granted the power, right, nor stand in judgment, of anyone’s Basic Human Civil Rights, by enforcing through Constitutional Decree, or otherwise, whom one should love, and marry, NO ONE!
~Mekah Gordon

*It’s the Tenacity, Persistence, Fortitude, & Faith,　that’s perennial, in those of us, who refuse to give up, in our pursuit for Unequivocal Equality, & Basic Human Civil Rights.
~Mekah Gordon　
*Transitionally Speaking: Quotes, From a Pioneering, Frontier Renaissance Woman© 2011 Dr. Mekah Gordon, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved
　
　
 

My Mom & Dad, who gave me the greatest gift, a child could receive, UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!
Miss and adore you both.

Love Forever ~
Your Daughter ~
Mekah 

Nick Teich is my hero. He started Camp Aranu’tiq, the only camp in the world for transgender and gender-variant youth. CampAranutiq.org.

not yet mentioned-
freda kahlo
martha ackeslberg

support many on this list- especially ruth berman and connie kurtz

Rabbi Steve Greenberg
Rabbi Benay Lappe

Blogger Benjamin Daniel Blatt @ GayPatriot.

Nobody wants to talk about that. It fascinates me how gays can whine about imagined oppression and executions while cheering for those who actually carry it out.

Oh G-d, please not Larry Kramer. Please someone less divisive.

So, I gotta go with Magnus Hirschfeld, Leslie Feinberg, Adrienne Rich and Judith Butler. Each one of them is a brave, bold game changer. And, yeah, I know Judith Butler is hugely controversial, but her expansion of the discourse on queerness and gender is truly revolutionary.

That being said, I am loving reading these comments! It’s so heartwarming to see the small town rabbis and community activists getting acknowledged. Awesome. 

Noach Dzmura (Editor of Lambda Literary Award winning book Balancing on the Mechitza), Lisa Finkelstein (LGBT Alliance Director), Rabbi Camille Shira Angel(Rabbi at Cong. Sha’ar Zahav, Victor Silverman (Screaming Queens filmmaker),
Maggi Rubenstein (Bisexual activist and author), Marc Smolowitz (Filmmaker, The Weather Underground, 2003; Trembling Before G-d, 2001), Rabbi Reuben Zellman (1st trans man to be accepted into HUC for rabbinical school) & Rabbi Eliott Kukla.

The rabbinic pioneers of the LGBT community: Allen Bennett, Reuben Zellman, JB Sacks, Deborah Brin, Denise Eger, Steve Greenberg, Elliot Kukla, Jane Rachel Litman, Linda Holtzman, Toba Spitzer, Aaron Weininger, Sydney Mintz, Leila Gal Berner, Shirley Idelson, and others who I’m not remembering right now (apologies to those I left off!!). These are all people who were “firsts” in some way (first openly LGBT rabbi to XXXX). By being out and being themselves, they have each done so much to raise visibility and awareness of LGBT people in the Jewish world.

This is great!  When I was a kid my parents used to watch TV and point out the Jews with enormous pride.  Now I can watch TV and point out the Jews and the LGBT Jews separately!  My vote is for Rabbi Lionel Blue.  

I think Rabbi Ayelet Cohen is also straight. “Straight, not narrow.”  “Straight and great!”

Absolutely Debbie Friedman.  She changed so much with her music.  Who ever thought an orthodox or conservative shul would be rocking to her music?   It’s a great way to end the divide among us.

Norma Bowles
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=204020646294459#!/profile.php?id=584171337

My hero is Hannah Rossiter, an openly transgender jewish woman, in New Zealand.

Joan (JEB) Biren, video-photographer, photographer, activist in early Furies, etc. Someone who brought the wonderful world of lesbians to us with beautiful black and white photographs in her many publications; and much more.

I would like to nominate “myself”! I have been fighting for Civil,Equal,Human and Gay Rights as a one man Army for over 40 years. However some of my footnotes have been constantly over looked… so I have to keep up my self promotion mode. Back in the 1960s and 70s I was a Chicago transplant living in San Francisco, because being gay was considered Taboo in Chicago, at home, in school or the workplace. I arrived in S.F. at the tail end of the Beatnik era. I bought a cheap camera to send images of the bridges,wharf and cable cars to friends and family back home. To start the 70s, I moved between the Haight Ashbury and the Castro. I bought a better camera and became a Freelance photographer and publicist that specialized in gay clients and businesses and exhibited my images in a Castro St. bakery shop window, just a few yards away from today’s Harvey Milk Plaza. I became friends with Harvey Milk when he opened his camera shop at 575 Castro Street.

Back then, there was no WWW. and the only way to get national attention were the wire services. However, back then they seldom if any paid attention to gay theme stories. Yet in 1977, in a matter of less then a month, I was able to get 3 vital images and stories on the Associated Press and UPI service when I created the ANITA BRYANT’S HUSBAND IS A HOMO SAPIEN! T-shirt and outed myself at a time it was not yet fashionable to do so, even in San Francisco! I was able to get Jane Fonda to wear one and it too made the A.P. wires. However it was on 6/7/77 that I took a historic image of Harvey Milk at the tail end of an impromptu march that was flashed on the Associated Press wires that introduced Harvey nationally 5 months before he was elected as the 1st openly gay male politician from a major city. In stead of of giving you my whole story…

visit  http://www.thecastro.net/street/memoriespage/pritikin/scene05.html       and my blog   http://www.jerrypritikin.blogspot.com/

I continue to speak OUT, and often get my images in documentaries,books and exhibits. I continue to write Letters to the Editors,
and use my blog, and other ways to continue as a one man Army fighting for Just causes. Of course, I would of preferred someone else to nominate me… but too many of those who I worked with over the years are no longer around. Do a Google search on my name and images to get an idea of some of the work I have done as a one man Army.

Leslie Feinberg–fierce trangender activist, writer,historian, as well as fighting on man other social justice issues. Amazingly courageous in all things including fighting advanced Lyme disease.  

Rabbi Andrea Myers

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.12589306639.31395.560666639&type=1#!/TheChoosingRabbi

since when is Oscar Wilde jewish?

Sandi Simcha DuBowski- for opening the door for so many of us non-Orthodox Jews to learn on a deep level what our Orthodox friends and family really experience. And for opening the door to so many Orthodox GLBT Jews- that being Frum and LGBT can happen.

Rabbi Steven Greenberg, Rabbie Sharon Kleinbaum, Rabbi Rachel Weiss.

ari shapiro on NPR

Also Rachel Maddow

My heroes would be:
1. Jonathan and David;
2. Daniel and Ashpenaz; &
3. Jesus and His beloved John.

I hope my answers are acceptable, especially for a mixed blood Caucasian/Native American gentile such as myself…

Tim Denis-Pollard

I am new here but noted my 3 Jewish heroes at the beginning of this comment list (recent date / 12/02/11); if you read this I hope my heroes are acceptable as well.

I second many of the people listed here including Judith Butler, Lilian Faderman, Les Feinberg, Tony Kushner, Larry Kramer, Magnus Hirscfeld, and Gertrude Stein. I also think you should add Dr. Ronni Sanlo (and possibly Bob Schoenberg) who is the matriarch of the profession of LGBT administrators in higher education. She is the co-founder and was the first chair of the National Consortium for LGBT Resource Center Directors. Bob is the founding director of the second oldest LGBT center, which is at Penn. He also helped co found the Consortium and was its second chair. Though, Ronni is more published in the field, they are both heroes. Also, what about Kerry Lobel, former ED of NGLTF? She is also a sheroe.

Magnus Hirschfeld.            
 In the late
1890s, small network groups, namely the Scientific Humanitarianism
Committee (WhK), were being formed to help protect the rights of the homosexual
population of Germany. Designed to defend human rights, the WhK was the
first group of it’s kind. Magnus Hirschfield founded the WhK in 1897. “Hitler
denounced homosexuals, leftists and Jews as traitors who had undermined
Germanys will to resist and caused the military defeat of 1918. Hirschfield
was a representative of all three groups.”[1]  Influenced
in part by the works of Freud, who changed “the concept, approach and way of
thinking about sexuality,”[2] Hirschfield believed that it was of most importance to
create a powerful and strong homosexual identity in society, and to unite
together, to claim their own rights. The WhK created a library and museum,
provided medical and psychological support for homosexuals, and served as a
safe community center. 

            The WhK was aimed at creating an identity for homosexuals in the
modern world, and involving the outside community in this process. Initially,
a great deal of attention was focused on trying to abolish paragraph 175 of the
German Imperial Penal Code. A true threat to the lives of the growing
number of homosexual males living in Germany at the time, as it made
homosexuality illegal, and punishable by imprisonment. “The existence of
the institute did enable Hirschfield to carry on his campaign against paragraph
175 much more effectively than before. It was a visible guarantee of his
scientific respectability which reassured the timid and the conservative” [3] The
WhK used modern media to create awareness, and devoted a great amount of time
to repealing anti homosexual laws.

[1,3] Isherwood,
Christopher. Christopher
and His Kind.
Minnesota: University of

Minnesota Press, 2001. Pg 18

[2] Tamage,
Florence. A
History of Homosexuality in Europe: Berlin, London, Paris

1919-1939. New York: Algora Publishing, 2006. Pg 160

Barney Frank is not my hero because he spent many years making transphobic comments and trying to stop trans people from getting equal rights. I’m glad he has changed, but he is more of an ‘L and G’ hero than an ‘LGBT’ hero.

Eric Rofes is my LGBT Jewish hero. He was a prolific writer of 13 books on homosexuality and  on education, and he was heavily involved with gay rights advocacy all around the United States. He may not have been a traditionally observant Jew, but his Jewish identity certainly played a key role in his life. Even after he died, his legacy lives on. The Eric Rofes Queer Resource Center at Humboldt State University was established in his honor after his passing in 2006.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/us/29rofes.html

 I’m Eric Rofes’s nephew. Please feel free to shoot me an e-mail at Alexander_Rofes@brown.edu. Whenever I find people out there who were touched by him I do my best to introduce myself. I could learn a lot from the way he lived his life.

My LGBT Jewish hero is Jerry Stuart Silverman, co-founder of Congregation Beth Ahavah in Philadelphia PA in 1975. Jerry has multiple degrees from Gratz College, ’80 BHL, HTD, ’87 MA JEd. MEd from Temple Univestiy. He travelled to Israel many times, as well as serving as a volunteer for the IDF through Volunteers for Israel. He taught Hebrew School for many, and was Educational Director of Hebrew schools in Philadelphia and NJ, as well as being a retired math teacher for the Philadelphia school district. He is currently a docent for the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, as well as being a mentor for teachers at the University of Pennsylvania. He most recently volunteered for President Obama’s reelection.

The poster series doesn’t have any bisexual people. How about featuring my hero, bisexual activist Brenda Howard? She is known as the “Mother of Pride” for her work in coordinating a rally and then the Christopher Street Liberation Day March to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Howard also originated the idea of a week-long series of events around Pride Day which became the genesis of the annual LGBT Pride celebrations that are now held around the world every June. In 1987 Howard helped found the New York Area Bisexual Network to help co-ordinate services to the region’s growing Bisexual community. She was also an active member of the early bisexual political activist group BiPAC, a Regional Organizer for BiNet USA, a co-facilitator of the Bisexual S/M Discussion Group and a founder of the nation’s first Alcoholics Anonymous chapter for bisexuals.

A cool quote about her is, “Only a handful of activists in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement were there at Stonewall and never stopped”

—Andy Humm describing Brenda Howard in Gay City News August 11–17, 2005

Leslie Feinberg!!!!!!

Maurice Sendak and Adrienne Rich (sittin in a tree)

Roy Freeman, former president of Dayenu in Sydney Australia and now resident in Israel. He is a courageous advocate for equality, inclusion, visibility and acceptance. His tireless efforts are an inspiration and has left very large shoes to fill in the queer Jewish space in Australia.