Being Queer and Jewish in Ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn

[DriftingCrow]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/je-reich/being-queer-and-jewish-in-ultra-orthodox-brooklyn_b_4020113.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices
Author: J. E. Reich Source: Huffington Post

I walk down Troy Avenue [. . .] and see them approach: women my age or slightly older, in twos and threes, in knee-length skirts and black leggings, in chic frills and shirtsleeves bunched above the hinges of their elbows. One wears a wig, denoting her marriage. [. . .] For a moment I smile. And as we pass each other, I think, Is one of them like me? Despite the husband or the stroller in the hallway at home, or the way she dresses, is one of these women gay? Long after I have come to the door of my apartment, I try to guess, because if one of them is like me, then in Crown Heights I am not alone.

[. . . ]

Perhaps my refusal to truly be myself in Crown Heights, to be open about who I am, a Jewish queer woman, is not entirely oppressive. Lost in my own preconceptions about the community that I love with verocity, despite everything, I forgot that people here, as everywhere, are complex, that they, as most, are loving.

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This is an editorial written by a Conservative Jewish queer woman about her experiences moving to the Crown Heights neighborhood.