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September–October 2015
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into something of an infomercial for her upcoming projects with
the Kardashians, a few eyebrows were raised. Reports surfaced
that the ESPY award was a quid pro quo with ABC in exchange
for her exclusive “coming out” interview. Meanwhile, real peo-
ple who are transitioning observed that few have the resources
that allowed Bruce Jenner, age 65, to become the ravishing Cait-
lyn. Which suggests an untold story in this metamorphosis, in
which Jenner went not just from male to female but from an old
man to a young woman (and BTW what is her sexual orientation
now?): we seem to have reached a point where one’s “identity”
can be whatever one says it is—and then transitions into.
Unorthodox Tactics
To demonstrate their disapproval of the
recent Supreme Court ruling on marriage, a small group of Or-
thodox Jewish men stood on the sidelines of New York’s Pride
parade holding signs citing Leviticus and offering rabbinical ar-
guments against gay marriage. A reporter for the
Times
couldn’t
help but notice that not all of the men bearing these signs were
dressed in high Orthodox garb; a larger contingent was clad in
workmen’s clothes. Turns out they were Mexican laborers who’d
been paid by the Orthodox protesters to hold up the signs. A
spokesman for the organizers explained that “
the rabbis said that
the yeshiva boys shouldn’t come out for this because of what
they would see at the parade,” prompting
Gothamist.comto gibe
that “the action was apparently 2 Hott for the littlest of God’s
messengers.” It could certainly have given them ideas; more
likely, the boys just couldn’t be persuaded to inflict Leviticus
upon a summer celebration.
Up Yours!
In the spirit of American flag toilet
paper and Richard Nixon candles, Donald Trump
has been made into a butt plug! The sex toy was
created in reaction to Trump’s comments about
Mexican immigrants, which included gems like:
“They’re sending us not the right people. They’re
bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re
rapists.” The tool itself, one suspects, will be
more often displayed than used for its intended
purpose, which would be just a little weird.
Follow-up on the News
We reported some time ago on a New
Jersey lawsuit involving an “ex-gay” conversion outfit called
Jews Offering NewAlternatives to Healing (
JONAH
), which was
being sued by two plaintiffs who charged that they were sub-
jected to abusive and humiliating “treatments” that did nothing
to change their sexual orientation. These included, but were not
limited to, having to undress and touch their genitals while re-
living painful childhood moments. In the end, J
ONAH
was or-
dered to reimburse thousands of dollars to the plaintiffs. At the
trial,
JONAH
co-founder Arthur Abba Goldberg was exposed as
a convicted felon who went to prison for fraud when he worked
on Wall Street. Expert witnesses for the defense were barred
from testifying on
JONAH
’s behalf if they couldn’t present at
least a modicum of scientific evidence for their claims. What
won the day was the prosecution’s brilliant stroke of suing for
consumer fraud rather than malpractice, which is always hard
to prove. It places conversion therapy right down there with
selling bottles of Dr. Good or phantom real estate.