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COLORWORKS STUDIO OF INTERIOR DESIGN

As you've heard by now, we're making news in design! Whether it's planning
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one of our designers for your next project.

Our spring expansion will include the
"COLORWORKS COLLECTION"
of fine art and custom accessories.

Barbi Krass • Linda Bruder • Linda Hudson

allied member ASID

The Courtyard

32506 Northwestern Highway • Farmington Hills • 851-7540

The Warmth of Family
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6470 Alden Drive, Orchard Lake

(Less than 20 minutes from Maple & Orchard Lake Roads)

FIRE page 7

documented in books like
Richard Plant's The Pink Tri-
angle, praised by no less a
writer than the Holocaust his-
torian Martin Gilbert.
The link of Jews and ho-
mosexuals is one that makes
many Jews extremely un-
comfortable. Understandably
so, up to a point. When many
Jews hear any other group
mentioned as having been
targeted in the Shoah, they
rightly fear that the specific
nature of Jewish suffering
and destruction will be
blurred. That the Shoah will
simply be classed as another
example of human brutality,
and Jews will suffer another
historical erasure.
But this fear can lead to
bizarre and irrational behav-
ior. To speak of Jews and ho-
mosexuals as victims of the
Nazis does no dishonor to
Jews, does not in any way de-
crease the significance of the
catastrophe for Jews. Yet too
many Jews recoil in disgust
and horror, or get enraged
when the subject comes up. I
had ample opportunity to ob-
serve aspects of this behavior
when I toured the country in
1991 and 1992 promoting my
collection of short stories,

Dancing on Tisha B'Av.
In one city, I learned that
organizers of a Holocaust
memorial commemoration ab-
solutely refused to allow a gay
man to light one of the six
memorial candles. The rea-
sons were many but overlap-
ping: it was not his place to be
there, it was not appropriate,
how could you say what hap-
pened to Jews and gays was
the same? But the rage un-
derneath these assertions was
telling. How dare he put him-
self forward, how dare any ho-
mosexual claim the right to
participate in this ceremony!
I've attended Holocaust
memorial ceremonies where
a number of groups are listed
along with Jews, but never
homosexuals.
In another city, I ran into a
wall when I spoke at a JCC
with Evelyn Torton Beck, ed-
itor of the groundbreaking
Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian
Anthology. Like myself, she is
the child of survivors, and
gay. I was dumbfounded
when we met informally with
a group of children of sur-
vivors who asked point-blank
why we had to be gay that
evening. Why couldn't we set
it aside.
When you're in a Christian
group, we asked, do you set
your Jewishness aside, isn't
that always a part of your
identity?
They didn't see the connec-
tion. Our multiple identities
as Jews, children of survivors,
and homosexuals seemed to
embarrass and even confuse
them. And they wouldn't ad-
mit that the rabid hatred di-

rected at lesbians and gays by
some in the Jewish commu-
nity even is hatred.
"It's religion," they insist-
ed, sounding as petulant to
me as students defending an
indefensible statement with
the sullen, "It's my opinion, it
doesn't have to be right."
Lies are lies. Hatred is ha-
tred. As Jews, we know what
it sounds and feels and smells
and tastes like. Those of us
who haven't experienced it di-
rectly know others who have.
And when a New York rab-
bi goes to Oregon to support
and defend the right-wing ac-
tivists who wanted to enlist
state government in limiting
the rights of gays and les-
bians, actively discouraging
homosexuality (as recently re-
ported in The Jewish News),
and claiming religious au-
thority, that is hatred, plain
and simple.
None of this is academic.
We see the rise in gay bash-
ing all over the country linked
with the rise in anti-Semitic
attacks. As they have been be-
fore. It's not me or any other
writer or activist who is mak-
ing these connections between
homophobia and anti-Semi-
tism: history has made them.
With the success of an ini-
tiative in Colorado that
strikes down laws protecting
lesbians and gays from dis-
crimination, bigots in Michi-
gan are on the march.
Already there's talk of a 1994
ballot proposal to limit the
rights of gays and lesbians in
our state.
You'll hear dishonest talk
about "special rights" and
claims that gays and lesbians
are already protected by law.
These claims are untrue.
Gays and lesbians discrimi-
nated against as gays and les- /
bians are not fully protected
by state or federal law.
You'll hear voices in the
Jewish community thunder
about Vayikra and abomina-
tion and family values and
the future of the Jewish peo-
ple. They will sound oddly
and painfully like right-wing
Christians, people who are
our enemies. The religious
right is behind all such pro-
posals and initiatives, no mat-
ter how they are disguised,
and Jews don't fit into their
picture of a Christian Ameri-
ca any more than lesbians
and gays do.
Martin Luther King Jr. was
right when he said that "in-
justice anywhere is a threat
to justice everywhere."
Some of you might know
the Yiddish song Unzer Shtetl
Brennt (our village is burn-
ing). It's poignant chorus
pleads, "Don't just stand there
— put out the fire!"
Even though we may feel
like Moses overwhelmed by
the task ahead of us, it must
be done.

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