Rabbi speaks out in defence of trans people

Twitter on Wednesday, Rabbi Sacks shared two of the 1,000 queries the Forever Project hopes to answer. The questions were: What are life’s most important principles to live by? And how does one find one’s purpose in life?

The Forever Project is also hoping that questions on democracy, society and other Jewish issues will be submitted. We are curious to see how the “digital interactions” shape up.

THE SENIOR Rabbi of the Reform movement, Laura Janner-Klausner, has spoken out against the denigration of trans people.

In a joint statement with the Bishop of Liverpool, Paul Bayes, she voiced sadness at “the increasing use of the term ‘transgender’ ideology and other derogatory terms about trans people”.

As faith leaders, they said, “we believe that trans people, like every other person, have every right to be cherished and protected by society and the gender in which they choose to live”.

Bishop Bayes chairs the Ozanne Foundation, which was set up to tackle discrimination and prejudice within religious organsiations on the grounds of sexuality, while Rabbi Janner-Klausner is a founding member of its inter-religious advisory board.

“Our faith compels us to speak up for those on the margins, those whom others would seek to silence or misrepresent,” they said.

“We believe that the time is long overdue for a softening of the rhetoric in this area of our common life, so that trans people may indeed be seen as people, people who long to live their lives without prejudice or fear.”