This is a list of
LGBT Jews. Each person is both
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
(by birth or conversion according to Jewish law, or identifies as Jewish via ancestry) and has stated publicly that they are
bisexual
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...
,
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
,
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
,
pansexual
, meaning "all"
, definition = Sexual or romantic attraction to people regardless of gender
, classification = Sexual identity
, parent = Bisexuality
, synonyms =
, associated_terms = Polysexual, queer, heterofl ...
,
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
, and/or
queer
''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...
or
questioning (
LGBTQ
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is ...
), or identify as a member of the LGBTQ community. Being both Jewish and LGBTQ is a canonical (recognized) example of some facet of each person on this list, such that the below listed person's fame or significance flows from being both Jewish and LGBTQ.
In ''Queer Theory and the Jewish Question'', editors
Daniel Boyarin
Daniel Boyarin ( he, דניאל בויארין; born 1946) is a Religion historian, Born in New Jersey, he holds dual United States and Israeli citizenship. He is the Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture in the Departments ...
, Daniel Itzkovitz, and
Ann Pellegrini explain:
Politicians
*
Roberta Achtenberg
Roberta Achtenberg (born July 20, 1950) is an American attorney who served as a commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil Rights. She was previously assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, becoming ...
, former
HUD
Hud or HUD may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Hud'' (1963 film), a 1963 film starring Paul Newman
* ''Hud'' (1986 film), a 1986 Norwegian film
* ''HUD'' (TV program), or ''Heads Up Daily'', a Canadian e-sports television program
Places
* Hud, Fa ...
assistant secretary
*
Yossi Avni-Levy
Yossi Avni-Levy (born 25 May 1962) is an Israeli writer and diplomat. He has served in various positions in Israeli embassies in Berlin, Bonn, Belgrade, and Warsaw. He is Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania. From 2011 until 2016, he was Ambass ...
, diplomat
*
Volker Beck, German politician and member of
The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to:
Current political parties
*Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens''
*Greens of Andorra
* Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina
*Greens of Burkina
* Greens (Greece)
* Greens of Montenegro
*Greens of Serbia
*Gree ...
*
Sam Bell,
Rhode Island Senate
The Rhode Island Senate is the upper house of the Rhode Island General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Rhode Island, the lower house being the Rhode Island House of Representatives. It is composed of 38 Senators, each of w ...
member.
["RI State Senator-Elect Alleged He is Being Targeted By NeoNazis"]
''GoLocal Providence'', October 28, 2018.
*
David Cicilline
David Nicola Cicilline (; born July 15, 1961) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 36th mayor of Providence from 2003 to 2011, the first openly ...
, the Mayor of
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...
, member of the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...
*
Barney Frank
Barnett Frank (born March 31, 1940) is a former American politician. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts from 1981 to 2013. A Democrat, Frank served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committ ...
,
Democratic member of the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...
*
Marcia Freedman
Marcia Judith Freedman ( he, מרשה פרידמן; née Prince; May 17, 1938 – September 21, 2021) was an American-Israeli activist on behalf of peace, women's rights, and gay rights. In 1969, she immigrated to Israel where she helped establi ...
, former member of the
Israeli Knesset
*
Ron Galperin
Ron Shalom Galperin (born August 1, 1963) is an American politician who served as the 19th Los Angeles City Controller from 2013 to 2022. He took office on July 1, 2013 and won re-election in 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Galperin is t ...
, City Controller of Los Angeles, first openly gay person elected citywide in Los Angeles
*
Nitzan Horowitz
Nitzan Horowitz ( he, נִצָּן הוֹרוֹבִיץ; Transliterated: ; born 24 February 1965) is an politician and former journalist serving as Minister of Health since 2021. He is currently leader of Meretz. He previously was the chief U. ...
, Israeli Member of Knesset, first openly gay person elected to the Knesset
*
Rebecca Kaplan
Rebecca Dawn Kaplan (born September 17, 1970) is a Canadian-born American attorney and politician who has served as an at-large member of the Oakland City Council since 2009. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Born and raised in Ontario, ...
, City Councilmember At-Large,
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
*
Anne Kronenberg
Anne Kronenberg is an American political administrator and LGBT rights activist. She is best known for being Harvey Milk's campaign manager during his historic San Francisco Board of Supervisors campaign in 1977 and his aide as he held that office ...
, American political administrator
*
Mark Leno
Mark Leno (born September 24, 1951) is an American politician who served in the California State Senate until November 2016. A Democrat, he represented the 11th Senate district, which includes San Francisco and portions of San Mateo County. Bef ...
, California State Assembly member
*
Carole Migden
Carole Migden (born August 14, 1948 in New York City) is an American politician from San Francisco who represented the California's 3rd State Senate district, third district of the California State Senate from 2004 to 2008 and the California's 1 ...
, former California State Senator
*
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised in ...
, former San Francisco city supervisor, first openly gay person to be elected to public office in the United States
*
Jeremy Moss
Jeremy Allen Moss (born June 23, 1986) is an American Democratic politician from Michigan currently representing the 7th State Senate District, which includes Farmington, Farmington Hills, Ferndale, Hazel Park, Huntington Woods, Lathrup Vil ...
, Michigan State Senator
*
Amir Ohana
Amir Ohana ( he, אָמִיר אוֹחָנָה, born 15 March 1976) is an Israeli lawyer, former Shin Bet official and politician who currently serves a member of the Knesset for Likud. He previously held the posts of Minister of Justice and Mi ...
, first openly gay right-wing member of the Knesset
*
Jared Polis
Jared Schutz Polis (; born May 12, 1975) is an American politician, entrepreneur, businessman, and philanthropist, serving as the 43rd governor of Colorado since January 2019. He served one term on the Colorado State Board of Education from 20 ...
, Colorado Democrat and a former Internet entrepreneur; became the first openly gay non-incumbent male elected to Congress; elected Governor of Colorado in
2018
*
Stan Rosenberg, President Pro Tempore, Massachusetts State Senate
*
Barbra Casbar Siperstein
Barbra Casbar Siperstein (November 20, 1942 – February 3, 2019), commonly known as Babs Siperstein, was an American political and transgender-rights activist. She came out as a trans woman in the late 1980s. When her wife died in 2001 she chann ...
, first openly transgender member of the
Democratic National Committee
*
Itzik Shmuli, politician
Religious LGBT figures
*
Rebecca Alpert
Rabbi Rebecca Trachtenberg Alpert (born April 12, 1950) is Professor of Religion Emerita at Temple University, and was one of the first women rabbis. Her chief academic interests are religions and sports and sexuality in Judaism, and she says that ...
, lesbian professor in the Departments of Religion and Women's Studies at Temple University
*
Lionel Blue
Lionel Blue (6 February 1930 – 19 December 2016) was a British Reform rabbi, journalist and broadcaster, described by ''The Guardian'' as "one of the most respected religious figures in the UK". He was best known for his longstanding work wit ...
, first British rabbi publicly to come out as gay; wrote ''Godly and Gay'' (1981)
*
Deborah Brin, one of the first openly gay rabbis and one of the first hundred women rabbis
*
Denise Eger
Denise Leese Eger (born March 14, 1960) is an American Reform rabbi. In March 2015, she became president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the largest and oldest rabbinical organization in North America; she was the first openly gay ...
, first female and the first openly gay President of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California; in March 2015 she became president of the
Central Conference of American Rabbis
The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), founded in 1889 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the principal organization of Reform rabbis in the United States and Canada. The CCAR is the largest and oldest rabbinical organization in the world. I ...
, the largest and oldest rabbinical organization in North America, and she was the first openly gay person to hold that position
[Tess Cutler]
"Rabbi Denise Eger seeks to open doors wider to all Jews"
''The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
''The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles'', known simply as the ''Jewish Journal'', is an independent, nonprofit community weekly newspaper serving the Jewish community of greater Los Angeles, published by TRIBE Media Corp. ''The Journal'' w ...
'', March 4, 2015.
*
Steven Greenberg (b. 1956), first out Orthodox rabbi and staff member of
CLAL The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL) is a leadership training institute, think tank, and resource center. It is an inter-disciplinary and inter-denominational movement, in which rabbis from all major Jewish denominations in ...
*
Dario David Hunter, American-Israeli lawyer,
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
, educator and politician considered the first Muslim-born person to be ordained as a rabbi
*
Jason Klein, first openly gay man to head a national
rabbinical association of a major US Jewish denominations (2013), when he was chosen as president of the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association (RRA) founded in 1974, is the professional association of rabbis affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It has approximately 300 members, most of whom are graduates of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical ...
; also the first
Hillel director to hold the presidency;
[NJ native to lead rabbinical association , NJJN]
. NJjewishnews.com. as of this election, he is the executive director of Hillel at the
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a public research university in Baltimore County, Maryland. It has a fall 2022 enrollment of 13,991 students, 61 undergraduate majors, over 92 graduate programs (38 master, 25 doctoral, ...
, a post he has held since 2006;
[Major US Jewish group elects 1st openly gay rabbi , JPost , Israel News]
. Jpost.com. he will be president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association for two years
*
Sharon Kleinbaum, first rabbi of
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah ("CBST") is a synagogue located in Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 1973, and is the world's largest LGBT synagogue. CBST serves Jews of all sexual orientations and gender identities, their families, ...
, one of the most influential rabbis in the United States
*
Debra Kolodny, openly bisexual American rabbi;
edited the first anthology by bisexual people of faith, ''Blessed Bi Spirit'' (2000), to which she contributed "Hear, I Pray You, This Dream Which I Have Dreamed," about Jewish identity and bisexuality
*
Amichai Lau-Lavie, founder of
Storahtelling and
Lab-Shul.
*
Sandra Lawson Sandra Lawson (born 1970) is a rabbi and the first Director of Racial Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Reconstructing Judaism. She previously served as Associate Chaplain for Jewish Life at Elon University. Lawson became the first openly gay, fema ...
, became the first openly gay African-American and the first African-American admitted to the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) is a Jewish seminary in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. It is the only seminary affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Associa ...
in 2011; became the first openly gay, female, black rabbi in the world in 2018
*
Stacy Offner
Stacy Offner is an openly lesbian American rabbi.Alpert, R.T.Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition Columbia University Press, 1998. , openly lesbian American rabbi who accomplished important firsts for women and lesbians in the Jewish community;
[Alpert, R.T.]
Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition
Columbia University Press, 1998.[Rabbi Offner](_blank)
, Union for Reform Judaism website. Retrieved 2011-11-05. first openly lesbian rabbi in a traditional congregation; first openly lesbian rabbi hired by a mainstream Jewish congregation; first female rabbi in Minnesota; first rabbi elected chaplain of the Minnesota Senate; first female vice president of the
Union for Reform Judaism
The Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), known as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) until 2003, founded in 1873 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the congregational arm of Reform Judaism in North America. The other two arms established ...
; first woman to serve on the US national rabbinical pension board
*
Toba Spitzer, first openly lesbian or gay person chosen to head a
rabbinical association in the United States in 2007, when she was elected president of the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association (RRA) founded in 1974, is the professional association of rabbis affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It has approximately 300 members, most of whom are graduates of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical ...
*
Abby Stein
Abby Chava Stein (born October 1, 1991) is an American transgender author, activist, blogger, model, speaker, and rabbi. She is the first openly transgender woman raised in a Hasidic community, and is a direct descendant of Hasidic Judaism's f ...
, transgender activist, former Hasidic Jew
*
Margaret Wenig
Margaret Moers Wenig (born 1957) is an American rabbi known for advocating LGBT rights within Reform Judaism. Margaret became spiritually aware at an early age. A seminal moment in her development occurred when she was in sixth grade and had a ...
, American rabbi and instructor of liturgy and homiletics at
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
;
in 1976, she and Naomi Janowitz published ''Siddur Nashim'', the first Jewish prayer book to refer to God using female pronouns and imagery;
in 1990 she wrote the sermon "God Is a Woman and She Is Growing Older," which as of 2011 has been published ten times (three times in German) and preached by rabbis from Australia to California
*
Sherwin Wine
Sherwin Theodore Wine (January 25, 1928 – July 21, 2007), Hebrew name שמעון בן צבי, Shimon ben Tzvi, was an American rabbi and a founding figure of Humanistic Judaism, a movement that emphasizes Jewish culture and history as sou ...
(1928-2007), rabbi and founding figure in
Humanistic Judaism
*
Ron Yosef
Ron Yosef (Hebrew: רון יוסף) is the founder of the Israeli organization Hod, which represents Israeli gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews. His organization has played a central role in the recent reevaluation of the role of religious homosexual ...
(b. 1974) (Hebrew: רון יוסף), Orthodox rabbi who helped found the Israeli organization
Hod, which represents gay and lesbian
Orthodox Jew
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on ...
s; his organization has played a central part in the recent reevaluation of the role of religious homosexuals in the Israeli
Religious Zionist
Religious Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת דָּתִית, translit. ''Tziyonut Datit'') is an ideology that combines Zionism and Orthodox Judaism. Its adherents are also referred to as ''Dati Leumi'' ( "National Religious"), and in Israel, the ...
movement
*
Reuben Zellman
Reuben Zellman is an American teacher, author, rabbi, and musician. He became the first openly transgender person accepted to the Reform Jewish seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 2003.
Education
Zellman received his B.A ...
, American teacher, author, and assistant rabbi and music director at Congregation Beth El in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
; first openly transgender person accepted to the Reform Jewish seminary
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
(2003); ordained by the seminary's
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
campus in 2010
Academics
*
Allan Bloom
Allan David Bloom (September 14, 1930 – October 7, 1992) was an American philosopher, classicist, and academician. He studied under David Grene, Leo Strauss, Richard McKeon, and Alexandre Kojève. He subsequently taught at Cornell Universi ...
, philosopher
*
Judith Butler
Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. In 1993, Butler ...
, philosopher
*
Yuval Noah Harari
Yuval Noah Harari ( he, יובל נח הררי ; born 1976) is an Israeli historian and professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of the popular science bestsellers '' Sapiens: A Brief History ...
, professor and author
*
Martin Duberman
Martin Bauml Duberman (born August 6, 1930) is an American historian, biographer, playwright, and gay rights activist. Duberman is Professor of History Emeritus at Herbert Lehman College in the Bronx, New York City.
Early life
Duberman was born ...
, historian
*
Uzi Even
Uzi Even ( he, עוזי אבן, born 18 October 1940) is an Israeli professor emeritus of physical chemistry at Tel Aviv University and a former politician well known for being the first openly gay member of the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) ...
, Israeli chemist and former Knesset member
*
Lillian Faderman
Lillian Faderman (born July 18, 1940) is an American historian whose books on lesbian history and LGBT history have earned critical praise and awards. ''The New York Times'' named three of her books on its "Notable Books of the Year" list. In addi ...
, American lesbian historian
*
Jack Halberstam
Jack Halberstam (; born December 15, 1961), also known as Judith Halberstam, is an American academic. Since 2017, he has been a professor in the department of English and comparative literature and the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, an ...
, Professor of English and Director for the Center for Feminist Research at the University of Southern California
*
Magnus Hirschfeld
Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was a German physician and sexologist.
Hirschfeld was educated in philosophy, philology and medicine. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Com ...
, sexologist and activist
*
Ron Huberman, Israeli-born CEO of
Chicago Public Schools
Chicago Public Schools (CPS), officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, in Chicago, Illinois, is the third-largest school district in the United States, after New York and Los Angeles.
...
*
Fritz Klein
Fritz Klein (24 November 1888 – 13 December 1945) was an Austrian Nazi doctor and war criminal, hanged for his role in atrocities at Auschwitz concentration camp and Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during the Holocaust.
Early life and edu ...
, psychiatrist and sexologist
*
Joy Ladin
Joy Ladin (born March 24, 1961) is an American poet and the former David and Ruth Gottesman Chair in English at Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University. She was the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish institution.
Early ...
, American professor and poet, first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish institution
*
Arlene Istar Lev
Arlene Istar Lev is a North American clinical social worker, family therapist, and educator. She is an independent scholar, who has lectured internationally on topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity, sexuality, and LGBT, LGBTQ fa ...
, clinical social worker, family therapist, and educator
*
George Mosse
Gerhard "George" Lachmann Mosse (September 20, 1918 – January 22, 1999) was an American historian, who emigrated from Nazi Germany first to Great Britain and then to the United States. He was professor of history at the University of Iowa, the ...
, historian
*
Oliver Sacks
Oliver Wolf Sacks, (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in Britain, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford, before moving to the Uni ...
, British neurologist, naturalist, and author
*
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considere ...
, philosopher
Show business
*
Chantal Akerman, film director
*
Simon Amstell
Simon Marc Amstell (born 29 November 1979) is a British comedian, writer and director. He wrote and directed the films '' Carnage'' (2017) and ''Benjamin'' (2018). His work on television has included presenting '' Popworld'' and '' Never Mind th ...
, comedian and television presenter
*
Assi Azar
Assi Azar ( he, אסי עזר; born 10 June 1979) is an Israeli television host.
Biography
Assi Azar was born in Holon, Israel.[Neal Baer
Neal Baer (born 1955) is an American pediatrician and television writer and producer. He is best known for his work on the television shows ''Designated Survivor'', '' ER'' and '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit''.
Biography
Education
Baer w ...](_blank)
, TV writer, producer
*
Orna Banai
Orna Banai ( he, אורנה בנאי; born November 25, 1966) is an Israeli actress, comedian, entertainer and past member of the Tel Aviv-Yafo city Council.
Biography
Banai was born in Beersheba and raised in Omer. Her father was a judge in B ...
, actress, comedian
*
Michael Bennett, choreographer and musical theatre director
*
Ilene Chaiken
Ilene Chaiken (born June 30, 1957) is an American television producer, director, writer, and founder of Little Chicken Productions. Chaiken is best known as being a co-creator, writer and executive producer on the television series '' The L Word ...
, creator of ''
The L Word
''The L Word'' is a television drama that aired on Showtime from January 18, 2004 to March 8, 2009. The series follows the lives of a group of lesbian and bisexual women who live in West Hollywood, California. The premise originated with Ilene ...
''
*
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor (; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head ...
, film director
*
Jason Danino-Holt
Jason Danino-Holt ( he, ג'ייסון דנינו-הולט; born 17 January 1987) is an Israeli television presenter and former MTV Europe presenter. He also presents "The Tube" on i24news English.
Life and career
Danino-Holt was born in Tel A ...
, news anchor, TV presenter
*
Brandon Flynn
Brandon Paul Flynn (born October 11, 1993) is an American actor, known for his role as Justin Foley in the Netflix series '' 13 Reasons Why'' (2017–2020), as well as appearing as himself in the short film ''Home Movies'', and Mike the Intern i ...
, actor
*
Harvey Fierstein
Harvey Forbes Fierstein ( ; born June 6, 1952) is an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for his theater work in '' Torch Song Trilogy'' and '' Hairspray'' and movie roles in '' Mrs. Doubtfire'', ''Independence Day'', an ...
, actor and playwright
*
Diane Flacks
Diane Flacks is a Canadian comedic actress, screenwriter and playwright.
Early life and education
Flacks was raised in the Jewish faith. Her early education took place in Jewish parochial schools. Flacks studied drama at Leah Posluns Instit ...
, Canadian Jewish comedic actress, screenwriter and playwright
*
Eytan Fox
Eytan Fox ( he, איתן פוקס; born on August 21, 1964) is an Israeli film director.
Biography
Eytan Fox was born in New York City. His family immigrated to Israel when he was two. His father, Seymour Fox, was a Conservative rabbi and a prof ...
, Israeli film director
*
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...
, actor, comedian and writer
*
Victor Garber
Victor Joseph Garber (born March 16, 1949) is a Canadian-American actor and singer. Known for his work in film, television, and theatre, he has been nominated for three Gemini Awards, four Tony Awards, and six Primetime Emmy Awards. He has also ...
, actor, comedian and writer
*
Judy Gold
Judy Gold (born November 15, 1962) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, podcaster, television writer, author and producer. She won two Daytime Emmy Awards for her work as a writer and producer on ''The Rosie O'Donnell Show''. Life and care ...
, stand-up comedian and actress
*
Julie Goldman
Julie Goldman (born in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American comedian, actress, and podcaster. She is best known for her work on Bravo’s ''The People’s Couch'', and HBO’s '' Curb Your Enthusiasm''. In 2016, she started a podcast with her ...
, stand-up comedian
*
Amos Guttman, film director
*
Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes (; born January 2, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender ...
, film director
*
Matan Hodorov
Matan Hodorov (in Hebrew: מתן חודורוב; born June 10, 1985) is chief economic commentator and anchorman of "Analyst" Investigative Magazine at Israel's Channel 10 News.
Matan was born in 1985 in Tel Aviv. A pianist as a child, he gradua ...
, journalist, TV presenter
*
Nicholas Hytner
Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner (; born 7 May 1956) is an English theatre director, film director, and film producer. He was previously the Artistic Director of London's National Theatre. His major successes as director include ''Miss Saigon'', ''Th ...
, theatre and film director
*
Moisés Kaufman, award-winning Venezuelan-born playwright and director, US resident
*
Asi Levy, actress
*
Matt Lucas
Matthew Richard Lucas (born 5 March 1974) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He is best known for his work with David Walliams on the BBC sketch comedy series ''Little Britain'' (2003–2006, 2020) and '' Come Fl ...
, comedian and actor
*
Miriam Margolyes
Miriam ( he, מִרְיָם ''Mīryām'', lit. 'Rebellion') is described in the Hebrew Bible as the daughter of Amram and Jochebed, and the older sister of Moses and Aaron. She was a prophetess and first appears in the Book of Exodus.
The ...
, award-winning British actress best known for her portrayal of Professor Sprout in the ''
Harry Potter
''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
'' film series
*
Ezra Miller
Ezra Matthew Miller (born September 30, 1992) is an American actor. Their feature film debut was in '' Afterschool'' (2008), which they followed by starring in the drama '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' (2011) and '' The Perks of Being a Wallf ...
, actor
*
Ben Platt
Benjamin Schiff Platt (born September 24, 1993) is an American actor, singer, and songwriter. He began his acting career in musical theater as a child and appeared in productions of ''The Sound of Music'' (2006) and ''The Book of Mormon'' (201 ...
, actor, singer, and songwriter best known for his roles in ''
Dear Evan Hansen
''Dear Evan Hansen'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and a book by Steven Levenson. The musical follows Evan Hansen, a high school senior with social anxiety, "who invents an important role for himself in a tr ...
'',
''The Book of Mormon'', and ''
Pitch Perfect
''Pitch Perfect'' is a 2012 American musical comedy film directed by Jason Moore and written by Kay Cannon. It features an ensemble cast, including Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Skylar Astin, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, Hana Mae Lee, Alexis ...
''
*
Max Rhyser
Max Rhyser (born July 11, 1982) is an American actor and model.
Early life
Rhyser was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands to a Danish father and American-Israeli mother. Throughout his boyhood he moved often with his family around Europe because o ...
, actor
*
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television.
Among his nu ...
, choreographer and musical theatre director
*
Joshua Rush, actor
*
Jonathan Sagall
Jonathan Sagall ( he, יהונתן סגל; born April 23, 1959) is a Canadian-born Israeli actor, director, producer and screenwriter.John Schlesinger
John Richard Schlesinger (; 16 February 1926 – 25 July 2003) was an English film and stage director. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for ''Midnight Cowboy'', and was nominated for the same award for two other films ('' Darling'' an ...
, film director
*
Antony Sher
Sir Antony Sher (14 June 1949 – 2 December 2021) was a British actor, writer and theatre director of South African origin. A two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and a four-time nominee, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 a ...
, actor
*
Bryan Singer
Bryan Jay Singer (born September 17, 1965) is an American filmmaker. He is the founder of Bad Hat Harry Productions and has produced almost all of the films he has directed.
After graduating from the University of Southern California, Singer d ...
, film director
*
Peter Spears
Peter Spears (born November 29, 1965) is an American actor and filmmaker. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in Overland Park, Kansas. Spears is best known for winning an Oscar for producing ''Nomadland'' at the 93rd Academy Awards ...
, actor and film producer
*
Mauritz Stiller
Mauritz Stiller (born Moshe Stiller, 17 July 1883 – 18 November 1928) was a Swedish film director of Finnish Jewish origin, best known for discovering Greta Garbo and bringing her to America.
Stiller had been a pioneer of the Swedish film ...
, film director
*
Gal Uchovsky
Gal Uchovsky ( he, גל אוחובסקי; born September 27, 1958) is an Israeli screenwriter, producer, journalist, activist and Israeli TV personality.
Early life
Uchovsky was born in Hadera. His family moved to Vienna where his father studie ...
, actor
*
Bruce Vilanch
Bruce Gerald Vilanch (born November 23, 1948) is an American comedy writer, songwriter and actor. He is a two-time Emmy Award-winner. Vilanch is best known to the public for his four-year stint on ''Hollywood Squares'', as a celebrity participan ...
, comedy writer and actor
*
Dale Winton
Dale Jonathan Winton (22 May 1955 – 18 April 2018) was an English radio DJ and television presenter. He presented the shows ''Dale's Supermarket Sweep'' from 1993 until 2001 and again in 2007, the National Lottery game show '' In It to W ...
, TV presenter
*
Evan Rachel Wood
Evan Rachel Wood (born September 7, 1987) is an American actress and activist. She is the recipient of a Critics' Choice Television Award as well as three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations for her work ...
, actress, model, and musician
*
Joey Soloway
Joey Soloway (previously Jill Soloway; born September 26, 1965) is an American television creator, showrunner, director and writer. Soloway is known for creating, writing, executive producing and directing the Amazon original series ''Transparent' ...
, writer, director, producer, comedian
Musicians, composers, lyricists, and vocalists
*
Aderet (singer)
Hadar Babayof, known professionally as Aderet, is an Israeli singer-songwriter, DJ, producer and entertainer. Her music is heavily influenced by pop, trance, and dance music.
Career 2000s
In 2001, her first single "Le'at Uvatuah" ("Slowly and S ...
, singer-songwriter, DJ, producer
*
Howard Ashman
Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...
, musical writer
*
Babydaddy
Scott Hoffman (born September 1, 1976), known by his stage name Babydaddy, is an American musician and the Ivor Novello Award-winning multi-instrumentalist, backing vocalist and composer for the U.S. glam rock band Scissor Sisters. He is the bro ...
, member of
Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters were an American pop rock band formed in 2001. Its members include Jake Shears and Ana Matronic as vocalists, Babydaddy as multi-instrumentalist, Del Marquis as lead guitar/bassist, and Randy Real (who replaced Paddy Boom) ...
*
Jean-Pierre Barda
Michel Jean-Pierre Barda (born 7 March 1965) is a Sweden, Swedish and Israeli singer, actor, make up artist and hair dresser of French/Algerian Jewish descent. He is one of the founding members of the pop group Army of Lovers.
Biography
Jean- ...
, singer, actor
*
Frieda Belinfante
Frieda Belinfante (May 10, 1904 in Amsterdam – March 5, 1995 age 91 when she died in Santa Fe, New Mexico) was a Portuguese Sephardic-Dutch cellist, philharmonic conductor, a prominent lesbian and a member of the Dutch resistance during World ...
, conductor (she has a Jewish father)
*
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
, composer and conductor
*
Marc Blitzstein, composer
* Apollo Braun, musician, author
*
Carrie Brownstein
Carrie Rachel Brownstein (born September 27, 1974) is an American musician, actress, writer, director, and comedian. She first came to prominence as a member of the band Excuse 17 before forming the rock trio Sleater-Kinney. During a long hiatus ...
, guitarist in
Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney ( ) is an American rock band that formed in Olympia, Washington, in 1994. The band's current lineup features Corin Tucker (vocals and guitar) and Carrie Brownstein (guitar and vocals), following the departure of longtime member ...
*
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...
, composer
*
Joel Derfner
Joel Derfner (born January 12, 1973) is an American writer and composer. He is the author of three gay-themed books: ''Gay Haiku'' (2005), ''Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever and What Ended Up Happening Instead'' (2008), and ''Lawf ...
, musical theatre composer
*
Michael Feinstein
Michael Jay Feinstein (born September 7, 1956) is an American singer, pianist, and music revivalist. He is an archivist and interpreter for the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. In 1988 he won a Drama Desk Special Award for cele ...
, singer and pianist
*
William Finn
William Alan Finn (born February 28, 1952) is an American composer and lyricist. He is best known for his musicals, which include '' Falsettos'', for which he won the 1992 Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical, ''A New B ...
, musical theatre composer, lyricist and librettist
*
Ezra Furman
Ezra Furman (born September 5, 1986) is an American musician and songwriter.
Furman was the lead singer and guitarist of Ezra Furman and the Harpoons, formed in 2006, which ended with ''Mysterious Power'' (2011). Her subsequent work has include ...
, singer-songwriter
*
God-Des
God-Des and She are an American hip-hop/pop/soul duo from the Midwest, composed of Alicia Smith (God-des) and Tina Gassen (She).
Since they appeared on the Showtime hit series The L Word in 2006, they have sold more than 30,000 albums and toured ...
(of God-Des and She)
*
Ari Gold, pop singer
*
Lesley Gore
Lesley Sue Goldstein (May 2, 1946 – February 16, 2015), known professionally as Lesley Gore, was an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. At the age of 16, she recorded the pop music, pop hit "It's My Party (Lesley Gore song), I ...
, pop singer
*
Amir Fryszer Guttman, singer, musician, choreographer, actor, theater director
*
Lorenz Hart, lyricist
*
Jerry Herman
Gerald Sheldon Herman (July 10, 1931December 26, 2019) was an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway theatre.
One of the most commercially successful Broadway songwriters of his time, Herman was the composer and lyricist ...
, musical theatre composer and lyricist
*
Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz; yi, וולאַדימיר סאַמוילאָוויטש האָראָוויץ, group=n (November 5, 1989)Schonberg, 1992 was a Russian-born American classical pianist. Considered one of the greatest pianists of all ...
, classical pianist
*
Janis Ian
Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink; April 7, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter who was most commercially successful in the 1960s and 1970s. Her signature songs are the 1966/67 hit "Society's Child, Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" an ...
(born Janis Eddy Fink), American songwriter, singer, musician, columnist, and science fiction author
*
Dana International
Sharon Cohen ( he, שרון כהן; born 2 February 1969), professionally known as Dana International ( he, דנה אינטרנשיונל), is an Israeli pop singer. She has released eight albums and three additional compilation albums. She w ...
, Israeli pop singer
*
Rona Kenan
Rona (Aharona) Rachel Kenan ( he, רונה קינן, born 26 July 1979) is an Israeli singer-songwriter.
Biography
Kenan was born on 26 July 1979. Her father is the late Amos Kenan and her mother is the scholar Nurith Gertz. She was attracted ...
, musician
*
Dave Koz
David Stephen Koz (born March 27, 1963) is an American smooth jazz saxophonist, composer, record producer, and radio personality based in California.
Early life
Dave Koz was born in Encino, California, to Jewish parents: Norman, a dermatologis ...
(born David Kozlowski), jazz saxophonist
*
Adam Lambert
Adam Mitchel Lambert (born January 29, 1982) is an American singer and songwriter. Since 2009, he has sold over 3 million albums and 5 million singles worldwide. Lambert is known for his dynamic vocal performances that fuse his theatrical tra ...
, singer and runner-up on the
8th season of ''
American Idol
''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...
''
[Adam Lambert, the new face of glam rock](_blank)
Malcolm Mackenzie, ''The Times'', 4 February 2010.
*
Ivri Lider
Ivri Lider ( he, עברי לידר) is an Israeli pop star and part of the duo TYP, also known as The Young Professionals. He served as a judge on the first season of '' The X Factor Israel''.
Music career
In October 2005 Lider received ...
, musician, singer
*
Lyrik
Liran Shoshan, better known by his stage name Lyrik (in Hebrew ליריק), is an Israeli music producer, songwriter and singer born in Jerusalem. He is founder of the production house Lyrik Productions. He has cooperated with renowned internat ...
, music producer, singer-songwriter
*
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow (born Barry Alan Pincus; June 17, 1943) is an American singer and songwriter with a career that spans seven decades. His hit recordings include "Could It Be Magic", " Somewhere Down the Road", " Mandy", "I Write the Songs", " Can ...
, singer and songwriter
*
Doron Medalie
Doron Medalie ( he, דורון מדלי; born 5 December 1977) is an Israeli songwriter, composer and artistic director. He co-wrote the song "Toy", which was performed by Netta Barzilai and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2018.
Biography
Doron M ...
, songwriter, composer
*
Jon Moss, drummer, member of
Culture Club
Culture Club are an English pop band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Mikey Craig (bass guitar) and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New ...
and
The Damned
*
Offer Nissim
Offer Nissim ( he, עופר ניסים) is an Israeli DJ, remixer, and record producer. He produced the winning entry of the Eurovision Song Contest 1998, "Diva", by Dana International. Besides his work with Dana International, Nissim has often ...
, DJ, record producer
*
Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro ( ; born Laura Nigro; October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997) was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums ''Eli and the Thirteenth Confession'' (1968 ...
, singer-songwriter
*
Peaches
The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...
, Canadian electro-punk musician and performance artist
*
Phranc
Phranc (born Susan Gottlieb; August 28, 1957), is an American singer-songwriter whose career began playing in several bands in the late 1970s Los Angeles punk rock scene. Her musical style later shifted during the 1980s as a solo artist, into ...
, singer-songwriter
*
Yehuda Poliker
Yehuda Leon Poliker ( he, יהודה ליאון פוליקר; born December 25, 1950) is an Israeli singer, songwriter, musician, and painter. Poliker first became known in the 1980s as the lead vocalist for the band Benzene. In 1985, after Benz ...
, singer-songwriter, musician, producer, painter
*
Yehudit Ravitz
Yehudit Ravitz ( he, יהודית רביץ; born December 29, 1956) is an Israeli singer-songwriter, multidisciplinary artist, composer and music producer. She is one of the most successful and famous Israeli rock musicians, with a career spannin ...
, singer-songwriter, composer, record producer
*
Marc Shaiman
Marc Shaiman (; born October 22, 1959) is an American composer and lyricist for films, television, and theatre, best known for his collaborations with lyricist and director Scott Wittman. He wrote the music and co-wrote the lyrics for the Broa ...
, musical theatre and film composer
*
Gil Shohat, music composer, conductor and pianist
*
Troye Sivan
Troye Sivan Mellet ( ; born 5 June 1995) is an Australian singer-songwriter, actor and YouTuber. After gaining popularity as a singer on YouTube and in Australian talent competitions, Sivan signed with EMI Australia in 2013 and released his thi ...
, South African-born
YouTuber
A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006.
Influence
Influe ...
and actor
*
Harel Skaat
Harel Skaat ( he, הראל סקעת, born 8 August 1981) sometimes known by the mononym Harel is an Israeli singer and songwriter. He represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song " Milim" ("מילים", "Words").
Skaat ...
, singer-songwriter
*
Socalled
Joshua Dolgin (born December 28, 1976), better known by his stage name Socalled, is a Canadian rapper and record producer, known for his eclectic mix of hip hop, klezmer, and other styles such as drum & bass and folk music. A pianist and accordi ...
, rapper
*
Stephen Sondheim, musical theatre composer and lyricist
*
Hovi Star
Hovav Sekulets ( he, חובב סקולץ; born 19 November 1986), known by his stage name Hovi Star ( he, חובי סטאר), is an Israeli singer. He represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song " Made of Stars" by Doron ...
, singer
*
Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas (born December 21, 1944) is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy based in Miami Beach, Florida, Music Director Laureate of ...
, conductor, composer, and pianist
*
Brandon Uranowitz
Brandon Jacob Uranowitz is an American stage and screen actor. He is best known for his roles as Adam Hochberg in the musical ''An American in Paris'' (2014–15) and Mendel Weisenbachfeld in the 2016 Broadway revival of ''Falsettos''. A four-tim ...
, stage and television actor
*
Yeho
Yeho, real name Yoni Getreuer (Hebrew: יוני גטרויר; born 25 October 1977), is an Israeli singer and actor. He has performed under the stage names Gatro and Yehonathan. He has had a long collaboration with Israeli music producer Lyrik.
...
, singer, actor
Writers
*
Leroy F. Aarons, journalist, editor, author, playwright, activist founder of the
National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association
NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists, is an American professional association dedicated to unbiased coverage of LGBTQ issues in the media. It is based in Washington, D.C., and the membership consists primarily of journalists, students, e ...
(NLGJA)
*
Jon Robin Baitz
Jon Robin Baitz (born November 4, 1961) is an American playwright, screenwriter and television producer. He is a two time Pulitzer Prize finalist, as well as a Guggenheim, American Academy of Arts and Letters, and National Endowment for the ...
, playwright and screenwriter
*
Steve Berman
Steve Berman is an American editor, novelist and short story writer. He writes in the field of queer speculative fiction.
Biography
Berman was born on August 28 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in southern New Jersey. Berman realized i ...
, speculative fiction writer
*
Betty Berzon
Betty Berzon (January 18, 1928 – January 24, 2006) was an American author and psychotherapist known for her work with the gay and lesbian communities.
Biography
Berzon was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Jewish family. She was among the fi ...
, author, first psychotherapist in America to come out as gay to the public (1971)
*
Kate Bornstein, writer, playwright, performance artist, gender theorist
*
Jane Bowles
Jane Bowles (; born Jane Sydney Auer; February 22, 1917 – May 4, 1973) was an American writer and playwright.
Early life
Born into a Jewish family in New York City on February 22, 1917, to Sydney Auer (father) and Claire Stajer (mother), Jane ...
, novelist and playwright
*
Alfred Chester, novelist
*
Benjamin Cohen, journalist
*
Nick Denton
Nicholas Guido Anthony Denton (born 24 August 1966) is a British Internet entrepreneur, journalist and blogger, the founder and former proprietor of the blog collective Gawker Media, and was the managing editor of the New York-based ''Gawker' ...
, founder of
Gawker Media
Gawker Media LLC (formerly Blogwire, Inc. and Gawker Media, Inc.) was an American Online and offline, online Mass media, media company and Link farm#Blog network, blog network. It was founded by Nick Denton in October 2003 as Blogwire, and was ba ...
*
Joel Derfner
Joel Derfner (born January 12, 1973) is an American writer and composer. He is the author of three gay-themed books: ''Gay Haiku'' (2005), ''Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever and What Ended Up Happening Instead'' (2008), and ''Lawf ...
, writer and memoirist
*
Gaby Dunn
Gabe Dunn (born June 1, 1988) is an American writer, actor, pop journalist, comedian, LGBTQ activist, and podcaster. They were a writer and director for BuzzFeed Video, before leaving to focus on their YouTube comedy show and podcast ''Just Betw ...
, writer, journalist, comedian, and actor
*
Elana Dykewomon
Elana Dykewomon (; October 11, 1949 – August 7, 2022) was an American lesbian activist, author, editor, and teacher. She was a recipient of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction.
Early life and education
Dykewomon was born Elana Mich ...
, American novelist
*
Eve Ensler
V, formerly Eve Ensler (; born May 25, 1953), is an American playwright, performer, feminist, and activist. V is best known for her play ''The Vagina Monologues''. , playwright and performer
*
György Faludy
György Faludy (September 22, 1910 – September 1, 2006; ), sometimes anglicized as George Faludy, was a Hungarian poet, writer and translator.
Life
Travels, vicissitudes, and remembrance
Faludy completed his schooling in the Fasori Ev ...
, poet
*
Leslie Feinberg
Leslie Feinberg (September 1, 1949 – November 15, 2014) was an American butch lesbian, transgender activist, communist, and author. Feinberg authored ''Stone Butch Blues'' in 1993. , activist, author
*
Edward Field, poet
*
Sanford Friedman
Sanford Friedman (June 11, 1928 – April 20, 2010) was an American novelist. He was gay and his books often featured LGBT themes.
Friedman's ''Totempole'' (1965) features an army love affair between its protagonist and a North Korean doctor ...
, novelist
*
Robert Friend, poet
*
Masha Gessen
Masha Gessen (born 13 January 1967) is a Russian-American journalist, author, translator and activist who has been an outspoken critic of the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the former president of the United States, Donald Trump.
Gess ...
, journalist, author, and activist
*
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
, US
Beat generation
The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...
poet
*
Richard Greenberg
Richard Greenberg (born February 22, 1958) is an American playwright and television writer known for his subversively humorous depictions of middle-class American life. He has had more than 25 plays premiere on and Off-Broadway in New York City ...
, playwright
*
Jacob Israël de Haan
Jacob Israël de Haan (31 December 1881 – 30 June 1924) was a Dutch Jewish literary writer, lawyer and journalist who immigrated to Palestine in 1919 and was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1924 by the Zionist paramilitary organization Haganah for ...
, poet
*
Marilyn Hacker
Marilyn Hacker (born November 27, 1942) is an American poet, translator and critic. She is Professor of English emerita at the City College of New York.
Her books of poetry include ''Presentation Piece'' (1974), which won the National Book Award, ...
, poet
*
Aaron Hamburger, novelist
*
Max Jacob
Max Jacob (; 12 July 1876 – 5 March 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic.
Life and career
After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic ca ...
, poet
*
Chester Kallman
Chester Simon Kallman (January 7, 1921 – January 18, 1975) was an American poet, librettist, and translator, best known for collaborating with W. H. Auden on opera librettos for Igor Stravinsky and other composers.
Life
Kallman was born in ...
, poet and librettist
*
Larry Kramer
Laurence David Kramer (June 25, 1935May 27, 2020) was an American playwright, author, film producer, public health advocate, and gay rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to Lo ...
, playwright, author,
film producer
A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...
, public health advocate,
LGBT rights
Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.
Notably, , 33 ...
activist, and founder of ACT UP
*
Lisa Kron
Elizabeth S. "Lisa" Kron (born May 20, 1961) is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for writing the lyrics and book to the musical ''Fun Home'' for which she won both the Tony Award for Best Original Score and the Tony Award fo ...
, playwright and performer
*
Tony Kushner
Anthony Robert Kushner (born July 16, 1956) is an American author, playwright, and screenwriter. Lauded for his work on stage he's most known for his seminal work ''Angels in America'' which earned a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award. At the turn ...
, playwright and screenwriter
*
Arthur Laurents
Arthur Laurents (July 14, 1917 – May 5, 2011) was an American playwright, theatre director, film producer and screenwriter.
After writing scripts for radio shows after college and then training films for the U.S. Army during World War II ...
, playwright, screenwriter and librettist
*
David Leavitt
David Leavitt (; born June 23, 1961) is an American novelist, short story writer, and biographer.
Biography
Leavitt was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Harold and Gloria Leavitt. Harold was a professor who taught at Stanford University and G ...
, novelist and short-story writer
*
Fran Lebowitz
Frances Ann Lebowitz (; born October 27, 1950) is an American author, public speaker, and occasional actor. She is known for her sardonic social commentary on American life as filtered through her New York City sensibilities and her association ...
, author and public speaker
*
Leo Lerman
Leo Lerman (May 23, 1914 – August 22, 1994) was an American writer and editor who worked for Condé Nast Publications for more than 50 years.Grimes, William (August 23, 1994). Leo Lerman, 80, Editor at Conde Nast Magazines. ''The New York Time ...
, writer/editor
*
Sue-Ann Levy, columnist
*
Michael Lowenthal, novelist
*
Jay Michaelson
Jay Michaelson (born May 5, 1971) is an American writer, professor, rabbi, and podcast host. He is a writer for ''New York'' magazine, ''Rolling Stone'', and other publications, having been the legal affairs columnist at ''The Daily Beast'' for eig ...
, writer, columnist, author of ''God vs. Gay?''
*
Herbert Muschamp
Herbert Mitchell Muschamp (November 28, 1947 – October 2, 2007) was an American architecture critic.
Early years
Born in Philadelphia, Muschamp described his childhood home life as follows: "The living room was a secret. A forbidden zone. ...
(1947–2007), ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' architecture critic
*
Leslea Newman, children's book author, short story writer, editor
*
Harold Norse
Harold Norse (July 6, 1916, New York City – June 8, 2009, San Francisco) was an American writer who created a body of work using the American idiom of everyday language and images. One of the expatriate artists of the Beat generation, Norse w ...
, poet
*
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...
, novelist
*
David Rakoff
David Benjamin Rakoff (November 27, 1964 – August 9, 2012) was a Canadian-born American writer of prose and poetry based in New York City, who wrote humorous and sometimes autobiographical non-fiction essays. Rakoff was an essayist, journ ...
, essayist
*
Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "th ...
, poet and essayist
*
Paul Rudnick
Paul Rudnick (born December 29, 1957) is an American writer. His plays have been produced both on and off Broadway and around the world. He is also known for having written the screenplays for several movies, including ''Sister Act'', ''Addams F ...
, playwright, screenwriter and columnist
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Muriel Rukeyser
Muriel Rukeyser (December 15, 1913 – February 12, 1980) was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism. Kenneth Rexroth said that she was the greatest poet of her "e ...
, poet
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Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...
, poet
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Sarah Schulman
Sarah Miriam Schulman (born July 28, 1958) is an American novelist, playwright, nonfiction writer, screenwriter, gay activist, and AIDS historian. She is a Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at College of Staten Island (CSI) and a Fellow a ...
, journalist, writer and playwright
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Martin Sherman
Martin Gerald Sherman (born December 22, 1938) is an American dramatist and screenwriter best known for his 20 stage plays which have been produced in over 60 countries. He rose to fame in 1979 with the production of his play '' Bent'', which e ...
, playwright
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Andrew Solomon
Andrew Solomon (born October 30, 1963) is a writer on politics, culture and psychology, who lives in New York City and London. He has written for ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', ''Artforum'', '' Travel and Leisure'', and other publica ...
, writer on politics, culture and psychology
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Susan Sontag, essayist and novelist
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Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...
, writer
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Julian Stryjkowski, novelist
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Bogi Takács, poet
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Paula Vogel
Paula Vogel (born November 16, 1951) is an American playwright who received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play ''How I Learned to Drive.'' A longtime teacher, Vogel spent the bulk of her academic career – from 1984 to 2008 – at Bro ...
, playwright and teacher
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Yona Wallach
Yona Wallach ( he, יונה וולך; June 10, 1944 – September 26, 1985) was an Israeli poet. Her surname also appears as Volach. She is considered a revolutionary Israeli Feminism, feminist and Postmodernism, post-modernist.
Wallach was a pr ...
, poet
Artists and architects
*
Yael Bartana
Yael Bartana ( he, יעל ברתנא; born 1970) is an Israeli artist, filmmaker and photographer, whose past works have encompassed multiple mediums, including photography, film, video, sound, and installation. Many of her pieces feature polit ...
, Israeli artist and film-maker
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Claude Cahun, French photographer and writer
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Robert Denning
Robert Denning (March 13, 1927 – August 26, 2005) was an American interior designer whose lush interpretations of French Victorian decor became an emblem of corporate raider tastes in the 1980s.
Early life
Denning was born Robert Dennis ...
, American interior designer, from the age of 15 was the partner of
Edgar de Evia
Edgar Domingo Evia y Joutard, known professionally as Edgar de Evia (July 30, 1910 – February 10, 2003), was a Mexican-born American interiors photographer.
In a career that spanned the 1940s through the 1990s, his photography appeared in maga ...
, photographer and from 1960 both life and business partner of
Vincent Fourcade
Vincent Gabriel Fourcade (27 February 1934 – 23 December 1992) was a French interior designer and the business and life partner of Robert Denning. "Outrageous luxury is what our clients want," he once said.
Family and youth
"Born...to a fa ...
, French interior designer
*
Yishay Garbasz, artist in photography, installation, and video
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Nan Goldin
Nancy Goldin (born September 12, 1953) is an American photographer and activist. Her work often explores LGBT subcultures, moments of intimacy, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the opioid epidemic. Her most notable work is '' The Ballad of Sexual Depe ...
, photographer
[National Foundation for Jewish Culture]
. Jewishculture.org.
*
Herbert List
Herbert List (7 October 1903 – 4 April 1975) was a German photographer, who worked for magazines, including ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'', ''Harper's Bazaar'', and ''Life (magazine), Life'', and was associated with Magnum Photos. His austere, class ...
, photographer
*
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. He became most widely known for his book ''Where the Wild Things Are'', first published in 1963.Turan, Kenneth (October 16, 200 ...
, illustrator and author of
children's books
A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younge ...
as well as costume and set designer for films, theater and opera
*
Simeon Solomon
Simeon Solomon (9 October 1840 – 14 August 1905) was a British painter associated with the Pre-Raphaelites who was noted for his depictions of Jewish life and same-sex desire. His career was cut short as a result of public scandal following hi ...
, painter
*
Uri Gershuni, Israel photographer and educator
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Adi Nes
Adi Nes ( he, עדי נס; born 1966) is an Israeli photographer.
Education
* 1989-1992 Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, photography
Life and career
Adi Nes was born in Kiryat Gat. His parents are Jewish immigrants from Iran. He ...
, Israeli photographer
*
Arnold Scaasi
Arnold Isaacs (May 8, 1930 – August 3, 2015), known as Arnold Scaasi, was a Canadian fashion designer who has created gowns for First Ladies Mamie Eisenhower, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush, in addition to such notable persona ...
, Canadian-born American fashion designer
*
Isaac Mizrahi
Isaac Mizrahi (born October 14, 1961) is an American fashion designer, television presenter and chief designer of the Isaac Mizrahi brand for Xcel Brands. Based in New York City, he is best known for his eponymous fashion lines. Mizrahi was prev ...
, American fashion designer
*
Michael Kors
Michael David Kors (born Karl Anderson Jr. August 9, 1959) is an American fashion designer. He is the chief creative officer of his brand, Michael Kors, which sells men's and women's ready-to-wear, accessories, watches, jewelry, footwear, and f ...
, American sportswear fashion designer
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Elmyr de Hory
Elmyr de Hory (born Elemér Albert Hoffmann; April 14, 1906 – December 11, 1976) was a Hungarian-born painter and art forger, who is said to have sold over a thousand art forgeries to reputable art galleries all over the world. His forgeries g ...
, Hungarian-born painter and
art forger
*
Marc Jacobs, American fashion designer
Sports figures
*
Robert Dover, six-time Olympic equestrian
*
Fredy Hirsch, German Jewish athlete and youth movement leader known for his attempts to save children during the Holocaust
*
Gili Mossinson
Gili Mossinson ( he, גילי מוסינזון; born 29 September 1978 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is an Israeli basketball player who played for several teams in the Israeli Basketball League including Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Rishon Letzion and Hapoe ...
, basketball player
*
Tzipora Obziler
Tzipora "Tzipi" Obziler ( he, ציפורה אובזילר; born 19 April 1973) is a former Israeli professional right-handed tennis player.
She reached her career-high singles world ranking of No. 75 in on 8 July 2007, and career-high doubles r ...
, tennis player
*
Renée Richards
Renée Richards (born August 19, 1934) is an American ophthalmologist and former tennis player who competed on the professional circuit in the 1970s, and became widely known following male-to-female sex reassignment surgery, when she fought to ...
, tennis player
*
Sue Bird, American-Israeli basketball player who has won three
WNBA championships (
2004,
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
,
2018), four
Olympic gold medals, (
2004,
2008,
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...
,
2016), two NCAA Championships (2000 and 2002), and four
FIBA World Cups (2002, 2010, 2014, and 2018)
Miscellaneous
*
Sam Altman
Samuel H. Altman ( ; born April 22, 1985) is an American entrepreneur, investor, programmer, and blogger. He is the CEO of OpenAI and the former president of Y Combinator.
Early life and education
Altman grew up in St. Louis, Missouri; his mothe ...
, CEO of
OpenAI
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory consisting of the for-profit corporation OpenAI LP and its parent company, the non-profit OpenAI Inc. The company conducts research in the field of AI with the stated goal of promo ...
*
Stuart Appelbaum, American trade union leader
*
Gad Beck
Gerhard "Gad" Beck (30 June 1923 – 24 June 2012) was an Israeli-German educator, author, activist, resistance member, and survivor of the Holocaust.
Life and career
Gad Beck was born Gerhard Beck in Berlin, Germany, along with twin sister ...
, Holocaust survivor and memoirist
*
Barbara Brenner
Barbara Brenner (October 7, 1951 - May 10, 2013) was an American breast cancer activist, after activist and legal work on several other causes, including anti-Vietnam War activism, women's rights, civil rights, and employment discrimination.Den ...
, breast cancer activist and leader of
Breast Cancer Action
Breast Cancer Action (BCAction) is a U.S.-based grassroots education and activist organization driven by and supporting people living with breast cancer. It was founded in 1990 by Elenore Pred, Susan Claymon, and Linda Reyes. Based in San Franci ...
*
Roy Cohn, lawyer and co-counsel (with
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
) to Senator
Joseph McCarthy
*
Jonathan Danilowitz, activist
*
Barry Diller
Barry Charles Diller (born February 2, 1942) is an American businessman. He is Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and Expedia Group and founded the Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Diller was inducted into the Television Hall of ...
, media executive
*
Sandi Simcha DuBowski
Sandi Simcha DuBowski is an American director and producer, best known for his work on the intersection of LGBT people and their religion, DuBowski directed the 2001 documentary ''Trembling Before G-d'' and is the producer of Parvez Sharma's d ...
, documentary filmmaker
*
Brian Epstein
Brian Samuel Epstein (; 19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967) was a British music entrepreneur who managed the Beatles from 1962 until his death in 1967.
Epstein was born into a family of successful retailers in Liverpool, who put him i ...
, manager of
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
*
Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, first transgender person in the role of LGBT liaison to the White House
*
David Geffen, film producer and record executive
*
Jazz Jennings
Jazz Jennings (born October 6, 2000) is an American YouTube personality, spokesmodel, television personality, and LGBT rights activist. Jennings is one of the youngest publicly documented people to be identified as transgender. Jennings receive ...
, transgender activist
*
Frank Kameny, prominent gay rights activist from 1957 to 2011 (born to Jewish parents but became an atheist)
*
Cameron Kasky, gun control activist
*
Eva Kotchever
Eva Kotchever, known also as Eve Adams or Eve Addams, born as Chawa Zloczower (1891 – 19 December 1943) was a Polish-Jewish émigré librarian and writer, who is the author of ''Lesbian Love'' and from 1925 to 1926 ran a popular, openly lesbi ...
, Polish feminist, owner of the
Eve's Hangout
Eve's Hangout was a New York City lesbian nightclub established by Polish feminist Eva Kotchever in Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan, in 1925. The establishment was also known as "Eve Adams' Tearoom", a pun on the names Eve and Adam.
History
...
in New York, assassinated at
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
*
Miz Cracker
Miz Cracker (born April 19, 1984) is the stage name of Maxwell Elias Heller, an American drag queen and television personality. He is best known for placing fifth on the tenth season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and for being a runner-up on the fi ...
, American drag queen
*
Ezra Nawi
Ezra Yitzhak Nawi ( he, עזרא יצחק נאווי; 1951 – 9 January 2021) was an Israeli Mizrahi Jew, left-wing, human rights activist and pacifist. He was particularly active among the Bedouin herders and farmers of the South Hebron Hills ...
, Israeli human rights activist
*
Dana Olmert, activist
*
Yotam Ottolenghi
Yotam Assaf Ottolenghi (born 14 December 1968) is an Israeli-born British chef, restaurateur, and food writer. He is the co-owner of seven delis and restaurants in London and the author of several bestselling cookery books, including ''Ottolengh ...
, chef
*
Etai Pinkas
Etai J. Pinkas Arad (born 1973) was a leader of the Israeli LGBT community. Pinkas served as chairman of the national LGBT association in Israel and was a member of the Tel Aviv-Yafo City Council and advises the mayor on LGBT affairs. Pinkas is a ...
, activist
*
Felice Schragenheim, Jewish resistance fighter and Holocaust victim
*
Ari Shapiro
Ari Michael Shapiro (born September 30, 1978) is an American radio journalist. In September 2015, Shapiro became one of four rotating hosts on National Public Radio's flagship drive-time program ''All Things Considered''. He previously s ...
, American radio journalist
*
Joel Simkhai
Joel Simkhai ( he, יואל שמחאי; born c. 1976) is an Israeli-American tech entrepreneur. He is the founder and former CEO of geosocial networking and dating apps Grindr and Blendr. His original goal in starting Grindr was for people wit ...
,
Grindr
Grindr () is a location-based social networking and online dating application targeted towards members of the gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community.
It was one of the first geosocial apps for gay men when it launched in March 2009 an ...
founder and former CEO
*
Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten (born December 18, 1957)''Who's Who in America'', 2007. is an American labor leader, attorney, and educator. She is president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and a member of the AFL–CIO. She is the former presiden ...
, current president of the
American Federation of Teachers
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's labor union in America (the largest being the National Education Association). The union was founded in Chicago. John Dewey and Margaret Haley were founders.
About 60 per ...
*
Riki Wilchins
Riki Anne Wilchins (born 1952) is an American activist whose work has focused on the impact of gender norms.
Background
Wilchins founded the first national transgender advocacy group (GenderPAC). Their analysis and work broadened over time t ...
, activist
*
Ron Yosef
Ron Yosef (Hebrew: רון יוסף) is the founder of the Israeli organization Hod, which represents Israeli gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews. His organization has played a central role in the recent reevaluation of the role of religious homosexual ...
, activist
See also
*
Homosexuality and Judaism
The subject of homosexuality and Judaism dates back to the Torah. The book of Vayikra (Leviticus) is traditionally regarded as classifying sexual intercourse between males as a ''to'eivah'' (something abhorred or detested) that can be subject to ...
*
Keshet Rabbis
Keshet Rabbis is an organization of Conservative/Masorti rabbis, cofounded in 2003 by Menachem Creditor, which holds that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Jews should be embraced as full, open members of all Conservative congregations an ...
*
LGBT clergy in Judaism
The first openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender clergy in Judaism were ordained as rabbis and/or cantors in the second half of the 20th century.
History
20th century
Allen Bennett became the first openly gay rabbi in the United States ...
*
Timeline of LGBT Jewish history
Footnotes
External links
World Congress of Gay & Lesbian Jews
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lgbt Jews, List Of
LGBT Jews
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...