Rabbi at Historic D.C. Shul Comes Out as Gay

[theHandpuppet]

http://jewishexponent.com/headlines/2014/10/rabbi-at-historic-dc-shul-comes-out-as-gay
Rabbi at Historic D.C. Shul Comes Out as Gay
October 7, 2014
By: Gabrielle Birkner, JTA

Rabbi Gil Steinlauf struggled for decades with an identity that he only acknowledged publicly this week.

On the Monday after Yom Kippur, Steinlauf, the married senior rabbi at Adas Israel — a large and historic Conservative synagogue in Washington, D.C. — announced that he is gay.

“With much pain and tears, together with my beloved wife, I have come to understand that I could walk my path with the greatest strength, with the greatest peace in my heart, with the greatest healing and wholeness, when I finally acknowledged that I am a gay man,” Steinlauf, 45, wrote in an email to congregants.

He said that he and his wife of 20 years, Rabbi Batya Steinlauf — director of social justice and interfaith initiatives at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington — would divorce.... MORE

[Fearless]

1. Good for him for finding the strenght to be himself

I hope that it helps turn heads toward marriage equality.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. I don't know how he did it.

He's my age and I can't even imagine lying to myself that long; the short time that I did was bad enough.