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Lessons from history tell us that now is the time to act in support of the trans communityRabbi Elliot Kukla is on the faculty of SVARA: a traditionally radical yeshiva where he also directs the Communal Loss Adaptation Project (CLAP). He is also a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR).
On May 14, 2006, I was ordained as the first openly transgender rabbi. I walked to Wilshire Boulevard Temple through the mist of a very early Los Angeles Morning, wearing a navy men’s suit for the first time. The freshly tailored blazer felt as stiff and unfamiliar as my brand-new name and pronoun. I was terrified.
In the months before my ordination, I had come out to my teachers and mentors in the Reform Movement, Judaism’s largest and most progressive denomination. Almost all of them expressed care and support, but they also told me that they felt America was not “ready” for me, and that they didn’t think I would ever find work as a rabbi. I hoped they were wrong, but I had no idea what the future would look like.
I could never have imagined 2023. Since the day I was ordained, the challenge has not been finding work, but deciding how to prioritize my limited energy to meet the growing hunger for trans spiritual leadership. Over the past 17 years, I have had the opportunity to help countless Reform synagogues create rituals to mark non-binary milestones and integrate gender-inclusive language into their prayerbooks. Today, trans and non-binary people are no longer at the edges of many liberal congregations, but proudly celebrated in the heart of the sanctuary.
At the same time, I have never felt as afraid for the trans future as today. There are currently more than 550 anti-trans bills moving through 49 states in the US courts. These laws pose an existential threat to trans youth, as they attack the healthcare and social supports that are well documented to bolster the mental health of trans kids and even prevent suicide.
This high-stakes moment is often seen as a battle between age-old traditional religious values and newfangled secular views about gender. However, gender diversity can be found throughout history and around the globe. In the Mishna and Talmud, Jewish holy texts from the 1st-6th-century C.E., there are hundreds of references to figures beyond male and female, known as the tumtum and androgynos. Moreover, Judaism teaches that each human being is created in the image of God, and that our wild, infinite variety is proof of God’s greatness. In one 5th-century interpretation, even the first human being was an androgynos.
After my ordination, many people expected me to work in a young, hip congregation as I navigated transition. Instead, I became a chaplain in hospices and nursing homes serving the aged. My patients were also in profound transition as they moved from life to death, wellness to illness, independence to care. Many of them did not fully understand my gender identity, but they often intuitively grasped that I knew what it felt like to be treated as less than fully human. We connected deeply because of their own experiences of being treated like an outsider due to aging, illness, and increasing disability. This experience showed me that trans liberation creates more space for everyone to be fully human.
This is not the first time that there has been a wide-reaching attack on trans lives. In Berlin in the 1930s, there was a vibrant fledgling trans community. When the Nazis came to power, books on sexual and gender diversity were banned, gathering places were closed, and research was halted. Eventually, transsexuals and homosexuals were among the first to be sent to the camps. They were soon followed by disabled people, Roma, communists, and six million Jews.
If you’ve ever wondered what you would have done in Berlin in the 1930s, please don’t wait to find out just how bad this can get. Now is the time to speak out for trans youth. Call your local representative. Reach out to that quiet non-binary kid in your church or school. Make a donation to an organization that supports trans kids like the Trevor Project. You can find out what trans projects need support in your own state here. No one is free while trans kids are in danger.
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