|
|
February 20, 2004/Shevat 28 5764, Vol. 56, No. 22
Gay Jews line up to wed
JOE BERKOFSKY
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Geoffrey Benjamin, left, and Craig Persiko, second from left, are married at San Francisco City Hall, holding Serafina Persiko Benjamin, their 7-month-old daughter. Assemblyman Mark Leno performed the wedding, far right, and their friend Nathan Purkiss, center, served as witness.
Photo courtesy of the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California
|
Rabbi Yoel Kahn originally married 13 years ago, but on Feb. 16 he tied the knot again - to the same man.
Kahn, who leads a congregation in Sonoma, Calif., first wed his longtime partner Doug Dellm under a Jewish wedding canopy, or chuppah, but on Feb. 16 they finally secured a marriage license from the City and County of San Francisco.
Kahn joined a deluge of more than 2,400 same-sex unions the city began sanctioning last week. The move came in the wake of an attempted amendment by the Massachusetts legislature to reverse a state supreme court ruling allowing gay civil marriage.
They also are among the many Jewish gays and lesbians who hope to have civil weddings after being allowed for years to hold Jewish ceremonies in Reconstructionist or Reform synagogues.
For many, the motivation to marry is as much about gaining equal civil and legal rights associated with marriage as it is about principle.
"I don't need the state to bless my marriage; I had a chuppah and a ketubah," said Rabbi Denise Eger, of the largely gay Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood, Calif., speaking of the hallmarks of Jewish wedding ceremonies. But "don't deny me my equal rights as a citizen."
Kahn and Dellm waited with their 12-year-old son and hundreds of other gay and lesbian couples for hours in the rain to wed legally, because "it was important to show the world we wanted this," Kahn said in a telephone interview the following day.
Now Kahn and many other gay and lesbian Jews hope the San Francisco gay wedding parade will spark a legal battle to overturn the state's ban on gay civil weddings and lead the way for other states to follow.
"This is going to force the hand of history," Rabbi Camille Angel of San Francisco's Congregation Shaar Zahav, a Reform synagogue, told JTA.
Angel, who has officiated at more than 200 Jewish weddings for both heterosexual and gay couples, also joined the throngs heading to San Francisco City Hall, waiting five hours to wed her longtime partner, Karen Segal.
Others from around the nation who also have celebrated Jewish unions joined them.
Many Jewish homosexuals say that even if they have had Jewish commitment ceremonies or religious unions, civil marriage remains key to securing more than 1,000 ancillary state and federal rights, ranging from tax breaks to adoption benefits.
Last week, the Association of Humanistic Rabbis issued a statement in support of "diverse sexualities and gender identities,'' citing its longtime support for gay civil and religious weddings. And the Reform movement's Central Conference of American Rabbis also called for Massachusetts to uphold gay civil weddings.
Also last week, 95 Re-constructionist, Reform and Conservative rabbis in Massachusetts took out a half-page advertisement in the Boston Globe saying they oppose any attempt to reverse the high court ruling.
|
