Pride feels different this year. As Jews, many of us are concerned about rising antisemitism. Some of us worry about antisemitism during Pride.
As LGBTQ+ people, our lives, communities, and families continue to be attacked. Over 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been proposed or passed in the United States. Our humanity is being debated in the public sphere.
As queer and trans Jews, we are vulnerable on multiple fronts. And yet, Pride is a time to celebrate our resistance and resilience. We stand on the shoulders of our LGBTQ+ Jewish ancestors who survived so that we could thrive. And one of the ways to not give in to harmful rhetoric is to show those who don’t believe we should exist that we are here, proudly and joyously. We aren’t going anywhere. Our communities are beautiful, exuberant, generative spaces of love and belonging.
The news is overwhelming and unending. But we know the truth: queer people and queer Jews have always been here and will always be here. We are your friends, family, and neighbors. We need your support.
Here are some actions you can take to support us this Pride Month:
Honor the complexity of Pride 2024 by sharing both the challenges and the joys. This year is not all rainbows and glitter. But we don’t want our community to be demoralized—we want to give them a sense of hope and remind them of the community that embraces them for all they are. Here are some tips for language to use this year when talking about Pride:
- Keshet has been using language like “joy and resistance,” “strength and resilience,” and “celebration and protest.” We encourage you to do the same!
- Name the reality: that hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been proposed or passed in 2024 alone, and that there are concrete ways, actions both big and small, that every person can help.
- Share your story! Your personal narrative, story, and connection to LGBTQ+ rights is more powerful than any talking point. Share with your community about why equality matters to you.
- Draw on your legacy and values. As Jews, we know that we are the inheritors of strength and resilience. No matter how bleak things seem, we are a people who know how to survive and ultimately thrive.
Take Jewish Actions to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community!
- Keshet and the RAC invite you to celebrate Pride through a weekly call to action for LGBTQ+ rights during June. Now more than ever, our Jewish values command us to steadfastly support ALL of our community and affirm all Jewish people’s inherent dignity and worth.
Encourage your Jewish community to participate in a Pride event, or find one near you to participate in on your own!
- Join Keshet Pride festivities in cities across the country. Check out the Pride events calendar here!
- Faith for Pride is an annual, month-long effort to push back against anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, fight anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, and support grassroots organizations that work with LGBTQ+ communities. We hope you will join us and include the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in your Jewish community’s services and programs. Congregations and organizations are now able to register your events to be posted on the Faith for Pride website!
Host your own Pride gathering
- Hold your own space to honor the legacy of Pride and celebrate in community. Create traditions together! Plan your very own Pride Shabbat service! Other ideas include a Pride havdalah, craft and movie nights, or visiting local LGBTQ+ historic sites.
- To ensure that you and your community are creating spaces of LGBTQ+ belonging during Pride month and all year round, use this instructive checklist!
Learn the history and honor the legacy of Pride
- Before there were parades there were protests and riots. They came in response to arrests of LGBTQ+ people and police raids of LGBTQ+ spaces. The Stonewall riots in 1969 led to Pride as we know it today, but before Stonewall were the Cooper Donut riots in 1959 in Los Angeles, Dewey’s sit-ins in 1965 in Philadelphia, Compton Cafeteria riots in 1966 in San Francisco, and several others. Make sure to take some time to learn about the roots of the movement as well as the people who got us where we are.
Support Keshet’s Pride Matching Challenge!
- Join Keshet to build a world in which all LGBTQ+ Jews and our families can live with full equality, justice, and dignity. New and increased annual giving will be fully matched up to $100,000!
