Homeland Security was in on it btw

If you don’t want to click the first link the TLDR is that LGBT students at YU formed a student group. The school refuses to recognize them so the group doesn’t have access to all the resources that other student groups have, so the students in the group brought the school to court. The New York County Supreme Court said that the school had to recognize the group so now the school is taking it to the Supreme Court saying that the New York County court order infringes on their religious freedom.

The second link is where you can donate to Jewish Queer Youth, an organization by and for LGBT Orthodox Jews who are working closely with YU LGBT students.

I see a lot of people making comments about how religion is bad or that Judaism is homophobic and I just want to say that there are many queer observant Jews, not just because their family or community has them in a position where they don’t have a choice (although that is the case for many people as well), but there are many queer Jews who do find meaningful experiences within Judaism, including probably many of the students at YU who are bringing their school to court. If you want to be in solidarity with queer Jews you have to support both the Jewish and the queer parts of our identity.

Either you stand for all aspects of who we are (Queerness *and* Jewishness) or you don’t stand for us at all.

I would like to add a few more details to this as someone actively involved in this very community (it’s late at night and I’m too tired to link sources on mobile - feel free to google everything I’m saying).

This student group is not a new thing. It’s not like they formed it, YU refused to acknowledge it, so they sued.

Students at YU have been working on this since 2009. Yes you read that right. They’ve been attempting to form a pride alliance for thirteen years. Most recently, in the last few years, a particular group of students began a new push directed at the administration to recognize the club.

They gave the admins so many chances. They scheduled meetings, which were pushed off. They sent emails, which were ignored. They left messages, which weren’t returned. It was then discovered that the administration never had any intention of approving the group, that YU was purposefully pushing them off so that the deadline for forming a new club would pass, to use that as an excuse. Then the lawsuit happened.

Also, YU isn’t a private college that’s stealing money.

They are legally classified as a secular institution. Yes you read that right too. LEGALLY speaking, they are a secular school, which is receiving money from the government as is allowed.

However, they tried to claim religious exemptions, while also staying classified as a secular institution. As the New York judge so succinctly put it: “you can’t have it both ways.”

So, obviously, they lost that suit. New York ordered them to recognize the club. YU immediately filed an appeal, and then requested a stay on the order while the appeal gets heard. Translation: they would have had to recognize the club in the interim, and they don’t want to, so they’re requesting that the NY court order doesn’t go into effect until the appeal. They filed an emergency stay request with the Supreme Court so that they wouldn’t have to recognize the club for the Fall 2022 semester. They’re that desperate.

So that’s what’s happening as of today, September 12 2022. The temporary emergency stay has been approved, and YU doesn’t have to recognize the Pride Alliance until their appeal is considered.

There are many opinions flying around the community. This is, like, The Big News at shabbat tables, and everyone is airing every possible opinion, from militantly against to militantly pro.

This isn’t a case of Big Bad Religion against Sad Persecuted Gays. Judaism is an ethnoreligion. You cannot separate or divide us neatly into categories of identity. There is a whole community of people here going through a very public reckoning. For queer orthodox jews within the community like myself, it’s both terrifying and disheartening to be receiving disgusting messages about queerness from within the community, and about jewishness from outside it.

Everyone here is very, very nervous for the outcome of this case. There are real lives on the line, and we’re not asking for your opinions on our identity. All we’re asking for is your support.

It’s also important to note that even at YU, the attitude among students and faculty, even the ones not directly involved in the suit, is often in support of the pride alliance. Multiple graduate programs have sent out statements in support of the pride alliance and much of the legal support for the pride alliance is being provided by students and alumni of the law school. I worry that painting YU with a broad brush will only cause those who aren’t in support of the pride alliance to become further entrenched in their views and more convinced that the rest of the world is against them, while also ignoring the important efforts of the members of the YU community in support of the lawsuit.

Update: The school canceled all student activities

Update: JQY is going to fund all undergrad activities until the freeze stops