By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman
BLOOMFIELD HILLS – The Jewish Gay Network, a two-year-old organization serving Michigan's Jewish LGBTs, has been accepted into the Jewish Community Council.
As a member organization, JGN will join JCC's 200-plus other member organizations that work to improve the lives of Jewish people in the area.
"It means that we are more officially a part of the organized Jewish community. Will it change anything we do? Not really," said Linda Lee, coordinator and "den mother" for JGN. "We just thought it was the appropriate thing to do."
Allan Gale, associate director of JCC, said that the Council is an umbrella organization for a wide range of Jewish community organizations.
"We have everything from the far right, very traditional organizations to the far left, very secular organizations," he said.
"There is no judgment of an organization's membership," he added. "We're not opposed to the gay community, but we accept this group because it meets our narrowly defined membership qualifications."
Gale added that JGN isn't the first Jewish LGBT organization that has become a member of JCC.
JGN's membership is "Not what you would call a breakthrough," he added.
As a member of JCC, JGN members will be eligible for JCC board membership, and JGN will be able to post its events in JCC's Jewish community calendar, Gale said.
JGN to host films for Jewish Community Center film festival
The Jewish Gay Network is sponsoring two LGBT-themed films as part of the Jewish Community Center's upcoming film festival in May.
"Heneini" is about a student at the community Jewish high school in Boston who fought to establish a GSA at her school, and "Keep Not Silent" is about three Orthodox lesbians and how they reconcile their Jewish faith and their sexuality. Both films will screen on May 3 and will be followed by an afterglow.
Tickets are $100 for patrons and $18 for the films alone. Patron-level tickets help defray the cost of sponsoring the films, according to Lee, who said that her organization has been participating in the film festival since JGN formed two years ago.
To purchase tickets send a check made out to the Jewish Gay Network to Jewish Gay Network, PO Box 2141, Royal Oak, 48068-2141. For more information email [email protected] or visit the organization's website at http://jgnmi.org.
