Kami Knapp, a member of the Philadelphia affiliate of the National Council of Jewish Women, heard her organization start a conversation about gender inclusivity at its 2016 Washington Institute, held March 13-15 in Washington, D.C.
“There are positives to being a woman’s organization,” Knapp said before attending a workshop at the triennial institute called “Creating Gender-Inclusive Social Justice Work.”
“But we need to frequently be having conversations about where our boundaries are,” she said, “and where our permeable entry points are and who we’re excluding from the conversation.”
The institute, which gathers advocates from across the country to promote progressive social change, also included LGBT voices in a workshop about what’s at stake for LGBT equality in the 2016 elections. Angela Peoples, co-director of GetEQUAL, and Catalina Velasquez, a policy analyst and advocate for transgender and undocumented communities, spoke on that panel.
Edie Windsor, the plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act, attended the workshop while she was at the institute to receive a social justice award.
Institute attendees were also encouraged to bring socks and toiletries as donations for Casa Ruby, an LGBT community center in Washington.
“Within NCJW, we’re saying, ‘OK, we’re traditionally a women’s organization. We have a lot of women who identify as LGB,’” said Knapp, a student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Cheltenham Township. “Now we’re coming into a generation that’s identifying as LGBTQ. What does that mean [for our organization]?”
Jessie Sheffield, a member of the steering committee for Showing Up for Racial Justice, and Idit Klein, executive director of Keshet, which advocates for LGBT Jewish people, attempted to answer that question in the gender-inclusive workshop.
The 90-minute workshop started by asking people to consider the first time they became aware of their own gender, then explained language precision and accepting the identities that people give for themselves.
Many in the audience were curious about how to respectfully interact with gender-nonconforming people.
Sheffield, whose preferred pronoun is they, said they feel affirmed when people start by introducing themselves with their own names and pronouns.
“That makes me feel like, oh, wow, this person knows about pronouns and is inviting me to share mine as well,” Sheffield said. “That’s very different than somebody asking intrusive questions about what you were assigned at birth.”
Sheffield also emphasized the difference between gender presentation or expression and gender identity. They said whether they present in a dress or a suit, their gender identity remains the same.
Klein pointed out that in the wake of marriage equality, there has been “a really vicious backlash that we’re now living through.” Transgender and gender-nonconforming people find themselves at the forefront of that backlash, she said, noting 30 anti-trans bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the country. Those bills primarily deal with limits based on a person’s biological sex in access to facilities like bathrooms and activities like sports, among other things.
When Knapp asked about including trans and non-binary people in local NCJW conversations, Sheffield suggested adding language to promotional material that says, “This is a trans-affirmative space,” or “All genders welcome.”
Before the workshop, Knapp talked about the similarities that can help cisgender women and transgender folks work together. Regarding reproductive justice, Knapp said women accessing abortions and transgender people seeking hormones have overlaps in their journeys. Both face stigmas and medical systems that do not always support them.
Knapp said it’s a balance between honoring the difference in experiences, while building relationships through similarities.
“It’s very different being asked to be an ally versus volunteering yourself,” she said. “I want NCJW to build the relationships first with LGBTQ organizations and not say, ‘Oh we’re your ally, we’re going to be there,’ until we’re asked. It’s important that you give the power to the groups to choose who they want to be allies.”