On conversion therapy, American law and Jewish law are moving in different directions |
I do not typically sign public rabbinic statements. I rarely agree with every word of a collective letter, and signing one can shift the focus from the work itself to defending the decision to sign. But a recent letter had me questioning my commitment.
The letter, signed by nearly 100 Orthodox rabbis so far, declares that “conversion therapy” — counseling meant to change sexual orientation from gay to straight — is outside the bounds of Jewish law, or halacha.
I felt drawn to sign by the letter’s considerable significance. And though I declined to add my name, the substance of the letter stayed with me. For decades, gay Jews were told explicitly and implicitly that their identities were problems to be solved. Conversion therapy was sometimes tolerated, even framed as a religious response.
Increasingly, such therapy has been discredited by medical and mental health professionals. There is near-universal consensus, medical, psychological, and increasingly religious, that conversion therapy is harmful. That so many Orthodox rabbis have now stated that such practices fall outside the bounds of Jewish law marks an important moment of reckoning. The law is now one of the last places still struggling to catch up.
A recent and devastating development in U.S. law makes the letter even more significant. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Colorado’s law banning conversion therapy for minors, ruling that such practices are protected speech. In Chiles v. Salazar, the Court extended constitutional........