No Asterisks, No Afterthoughts: A Community Built on Pride

I want to begin by saying something I should say far more often: I am proud of us. Here at the Danforth Jewish Circle, we have done real work and good work. Queer and trans members of our community are not an asterisk or an afterthought; they are teachers, Torah readers, Board members, and beloved friends. We have built something genuine here, something worth naming and worth being proud of. Over the years, the DJC has done the internal work with seriousness and love, and it shows.

And because we have that foundation... because we are not thinking about whether queer and trans lives belong here, we are free to turn our eyes outward, beyond our own community and into the larger world. And when we do, what we see is not easy to look at.

Canada has seen organized opposition to queer and trans inclusion in school boards and communities across the country. Governments in Saskatchewan and Alberta have taken aim at the fundamental rights of queer and trans youth by denying them access to education, health care, and other protected human rights (Canadian Labour Congress).

The rhetoric of our neighbours to the south has found an audience here, and the tide is moving in ways we cannot ignore. In the United States, trans people are living through a rapidly escalating effort to restrict their visibility. Access to healthcare, the right to update identity documents, protections in schools and workplaces, the right of families to access medical care for their trans children: all of this is facing coordinated and accelerating attacks. These are not abstract policy debates, but the conditions of real people's lives, and those lives are made harder and more frightening every day.

As humans and Jews, we are rightly concerned with these matters. And thank God Jewish tradition does not offer us the option of concern without action. Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof (Justice, Justice You Shall Pursue) is a command at the forefront of our tradition. The command Tirdof is a verb. It moves, and it requires feet and voices and action. The pursuit of justice cannot remain only a feeling we have in the sanctuary on Shabbat morning; it is what we do the following Monday when offices are open and vital work needs to be done.

So what might Monday look like for us? It looks like contacting our MPs and MPPs and making our values known as constituents. It looks like finding local, national, and international organizations doing frontline work for queer and trans rights and supporting them. It looks like attending Pride activities this month, not just in celebration but as a witness and ally. It looks like being the person in your workplace, your neighbourhood, or your extended family who does not let the quiet cruelties pass unremarked. It looks like asking your trans and queer friends and family members what they actually need right now, and then doing that thing.

Chazak v'amatz - Be strong and courageous. That is what this moment asks of us, and this community has shown, again and again, that it is prepared to do this work.

Strength, our tradition knows, does not come from us alone. It never has. Judaism has always sent us back to the deepest well we have, the well of prayer, of communal intention, of turning toward the Holy One together. As we approach the start of Pride Month, let us be inspired by these words by Rabbi Lily Solochek:

Birkat Hodesh Ga’avah: A Blessing for Pride Month

May it be Your will,

our God and God of our ancestors,

God of Ruth and Naomi, 

God of David and Jonathan, 

God of Joseph, 

God of all our queer ancestors whose names have been erased, 

grant that this Pride month bring us joy and celebration, 

and bestow upon us a long life:

a life of safety, 

a life of healing,

a life of employment and housing, 

a life of love and support, 

a life of blessing and sharing of gifts,

a life free of shame and reproach,

a life of friendship, partnership, and love in the ways we wish to give and receive it, 

a life with dreams of the future.

May the One who delivered our ancestors from oppression to freedom, redeem us and all marginalized peoples. 

May the Holy One instill in us the wisdom to know our liberations are entwined together. 

May the One who creates liberation on high,

bring liberation to us, 

to all oppressed communities, 

and to the entire world, 

V’nomar, and we say, 

Amen.