Thou Shalt Not Employ a Transgender Professor? It's Not a Verse in the Bible
by: Joy Ladin on September 27th, 2013
http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2013/09/27/thou-shalt-not-employ-a-transgender-professor-its-not-a-verse-in-the-bible/#.UkXeSyF35rY.facebookI don't know H. Adam Ackley, the professor of theology at Christian Azusa Pacific University who was recently fired after coming out as transgender after teaching there for fifteen years, but having gone through my own difficult coming-out experience at Yeshiva University, I can imagine some of what Professor Ackley is going through.
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As someone who spent most of my life – 45 years – cowering rather than facing my fears of human rejection, I have no right to expect more courage from you than I showed myself. But now that my Orthodox Jewish university and I have lived through my highly publicized gender transition, I can offer you practical encouragement in facing the fears aroused by Professor Ackley's transition.
My university's religious identity has not been changed by my transition. Yeshiva University continues to attract Orthodox Jewish students, including many who are quite conservative in their values, and remains a leading and respected voice in the Orthodox Jewish world. Students who are uncomfortable with me are not required to take my classes. This has reduced my enrollment, but it has not prevented me from teaching. Indeed, there are students who seek me out, not because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, but because, as one student confided in me while her father was dying, they know that I have lived through pain and loss, fear and isolation – and that I have come through those experiences with my love of God and humanity intact. Despite my presence on the faculty, and the publicity I have received in the Jewish world, Orthodox parents continue to send their children to our university, donors continue to give, trustees continue to serve on the Board, rabbis continue to teach at our seminary, and Orthodox congregations, schools and other institutions continue to hire Yeshiva University graduates.
