Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #arainbowthread
Most recents (2)
I keep hearing from GOP lawmakers that they "just want to return to a Judeo-Christian idea of men being men and women being women." So let's talk about that "Judeo" part for a moment (because it's a lot queerer and less binary than y'all seem to think). 🧵🏳️⚧️ #aRainbowThread 1/
The most central couple in the bible is Abraham & Sarah, the founders of the Jewish people. And they were both intersex! Or non-binary! Or both! Millennia ago the rabbis of the Talmud shared an ancient tradition of this (Yevamot 64a-b).
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In fact, the rabbis of the Talmud even get into an argument as to which category of (the very much non binary) sex/gender spectrum Abraham and Sarah fall into! Don't believe me that ancient Jews didn't see gender as a binary? Check out the 2000yo sacred Mishnah Bikurim 4:1-4
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Think trans-folk are new? I'd like to tell you the remarkable story of Berel-Beyle, a Jewish man who transitioned in the shtetel in Ukraine in the 1800s. 🧵#ARainbowThread 1/
But first---go and buy Noam Sienna's incredible work of Torah, "A Rainbow Thread: An Anthology of Queer Jewish Texts from the First Century to 1969". It's where I'm pulling this text / hashtag, and it is an essential piece of Torah in any Jewish library.
noamsienna.com/rainbowthread/ 2
noamsienna.com/rainbowthread/ 2
Before we can tell Berel-Beyle's story, we need to jump to the 1930s and the so-called Nazi Olympics, because the American press was evidently in an absolute tizzy over athletes who kept going over to compete in the women's games, and coming home as men! 3/
