It high time for the laiety to call out the Rabbi's who perpetuate this discrimination, such as Twersky from YU. Totally insensitive individuals who have no business teaching anyone.

Kal hakavod and Hazak V'ematz! As a gay man who had a yeshivah education and learned that goodness comes from coming out and living a true life with all of its contradictions I want to congratulate the author of this article. I look forward to the day he feels free and unafraid to publish his name and live a fulfilling open life with people who appreciate him.

But that doesn't give me license to hit people. Each of us has his/her issues, but G-d gives us free-will. We don't have to act on every feeling that we have. We do have to do as He commanded us though.

I am sorry for all the horrible experience you have to handle on your shoulders because of some ignorant people in the community who simply can't realize that one can't make a choice on what his or her basic nature leads them to. They are blind. I am sure many gay and straight people support you and wish you the best. Good luck my friend and please don't give up.

Whether you think it's fair or not or whether you are born with it or not the bible says it's unacceptable. That other people tell you it's OK still doesn't change what the bible says. Twisting the bible's words to make it look OK still doesn't change what the bible says.

just as it is ones to commite adultery although the latter is a sin and wrong it is not abnormal

associate yourself from religion. You'll be a happier, fuller human being and still remain as much a Jew as you wish. It's not going to happen I guess, so you'll be left with your questions, forever subjected to the darkness that religions inflict upon human mind.

I really don't understand anything about the lives of st8 people, I only know that being gay is liberational and part of my tradition. I lived in a small Jewish community that could not afford to alienate anyone.....they did try to hold on to me but the basic values were undermined by religious doctrine that was divorced from any reality. Gay orthodox (and gays from any other tradition) must stand up to the wickedness spouted by puritans who place themselves above humanity and god.

Eat pork, don't circumcise, have gay sex. Do it all, after all we humans are far smarter than the Bronze age God who advises against it. By all means, do whatever you want. It's between you & God. But the term "Gay Religious" is an oxymoron. Stop kidding yourself.

G-d created the lobster too, and we're commanded not to eat it. The commandment to is keep the separation between the holy and the profane. Don't bring G-d into the equation, and then deny the Torah. Worshiping love, or anything else, is missing the target for Jews.

Ok, so you believe that a rational, thinking agnostic or athiest who doesn't follow Halacha is "evil", but it's perfectly OK to be gay? I can only surmise it's because you were born gay, but not born with a rational mind.

Just substitute "Jews" for "gays" in your post, and I could have been reading that post in any non-Israeli online news article discussing Israel or anti-Semitism. Try to be a little more sensitive to the needs of a mistreated minority.

May all gays and lesbians have the courage to 'come out'

You did not choose to be gay much like i want to send you all my love and supper and let you know there is nothing immoral/wrong with the way God made you. I didn't choose to be straight in the same way that you didn't choose to be attracted to men. Those that compare same sex attraction to not keeping kosher don't releaize that sexual attraction is an innate element of human nature, unlike avoiding pork and lobster; Human beings have innate carnal desires, not innate culinary desires. God be with you and I pray for a day where you won't be ostracizedfor being who you are.

You have my full support. I love Judaism, and I believe in equal rights for all. The two can and do coexist when you are a true Jew who questions everything and does not blindly follow. Be a true "Israeli," and "struggle" with G-d. You have every right to live a full and happy life. Nobody should feel ashamed or be discriminated against for being born different than the majority. We Jews should understand that as well as anyone. Wishing you a brighter future!

Even if you are not gay, you are not complying with a lot of mitzvot. Why focusing on this one in particular? Great Rabbis have sinned much worse, and they were praised as great tzadikim.

You can't violate a serious sin like homosexuality and call yourself religious.

The crux here is the belief that being gay is a choice. It Is not. Psychologists came to that collective conclusion after decades of treating it as a behavioral problem. I was created by G-d to know, love, and serve Him in thus life and to be happy with Him in the next. God does not create souls only to damn them for being as He made them. If I am gay, love G-d and have goodwill towards others, who are you to judge?

"..G-d created the lobster too, and we're commanded not to eat it.." Commanded? Where in Ten Commandments ???

Somehow I have a feeling that it was a staff member of the Haaretz :-)

We can afford to throw a few in the garbage now and then? My father used to say that children don't come so cheap that we can throw them away. Judaism survived the centuries and the persecutions because we learned how to bend and how to adjust and how to cope. The rigid lock step ideology of the Heredi are antithetical to everything that has kept us alive over the centuries. I can only say, keep to your faith and ideals, honor your God, honor your parents, but you need not honor some self appointed community leaders. Do you really want to be part of a group that despises you? Sometimes, as our Christian cousins would say, it takes a leap of faith. Come out, be honest with yourself, and you will learn to be honest with others. The single worst thing about being gay is that you never know who your friends really are. And sometimes, you really do know who is not your friend. I wish you luck. No kid should every have to consider suicide as a way out of being gay. And you do deserve to be who you are, in spite of what you are, or what foolish, ignorant people might think you are. Lech l'cha!

A gay couple has a totally different meaning to society than a hetero couple. The same applies for marriage. A marriage has a meaning to society in the context of a hetero couple. Gay couples need something different. I cannot find any progress if we remove the meaning of proven legal institutions like marriage. So society is developing This means, that we need something that keeps marriage intact and gives to gay couples what is good for both: them and society. Rabbis! Do your work! Or do you want to wait until reality overtakes you on the wrong lane, because you are blocking the fast lane with your old-timers?

I am sure you, tzvi, could not be gay and claim to be religious since your understanding of your religion regards homosexuality as a sin. However, it would appear that there are alternative understandings which reconcile religion with homosexuality. You may not like it but that is your problem not Dan's.

a tzaddekes or me a tzaddik. Stop the self righteousness. You want to be gay be gay, I couldn't care less. I really couldn't care what you do in the privacy of your bedroom. Your personnel sexual preference is your business. It is not the business of the collective. We Jews survived because of our heterosexual families. That is a fact of life.

Without going into too much talk ,..the correct term for this young man sex preference is Homo-sexual not Gay ...wrong words have a way to distort the reality as well as feelings

You wrote a cogent and very timely personal plea. With your courage, together, our gay brothers and sisters will overcome discrimination and religious bias and ignorance. Kol Ha Kavod.

in the bloodline. Nephillim and Rephaim beings do not resurrect but cease to exist when they die, unlike those who are entirely human.

My cousin is lightly brain-damaged but has a normal job, reads, is engaged in politics. The only things he can't do are drive (problems with depth perception) and handle money (he tends to spend it if he has it, but hey - many "normal" people do that). Because of his handicap, he was denied a bar mitzvah by his parents' conservative congregation in NJ. They resigned and found another congregation that was welcoming and inclusive. It was more liberal, but they found that a plus. The author needs encouragement to do just that, to not be bogged down by bronze age norms and ancient books written by people who believed that the world was flat (if some talkbackers say that it was written by god, do they really think that most people nowadays believe that an intangible entity can write?). It is hard to go against parents and authority figures, but I hope that in future, he will do just that. Being gay is not a lifestyle choice.