Grindr is reaching out to rally support and financial aid for an Israeli gay couple struggling to start a family. While it is no surprise that the company is a gay-ally, its humanitarianism is certainly a wide step away from the original business plan. The app is marketed as a dating tool to match gay men with partners in their geographical area. To the masses, it is better understood as a quick search for sexual encounters without the added drag and delay of having to romance a person before seeing them naked. A …More

The Human Rights Campaign recently published a lengthy survey on the LGBT practices of US Jewish institutions, with largely positive results. The HRC, the nation’s leading gay advocacy organization, found that of the 204 participating Jewish groups, 98 percent offered memberships to gay couples and 90 percent contained LGBT-inclusive language in its publicity materials. Half of the Jewish institutions also received the organization’s top tier rating of “inclusive.” In contrast, the …More

A Reform synagogue in Louisiana made headlines this week after cutting ties with the Boy Scouts of America, and citing gay rights as the reason. The Touro Synagogue in New Orleans pointed to BSA’s refusal to accept openly gay members as cause for its absence from a local Scout tradition. Each year, “cubs” in the area visit synagogues, churches and mosques to learn different religious interpretations of the Ten Commandments. This year, Touro isn’t participating. "Maybe it would be one …More

A Jewish day school has cut ties with the Boy Scouts of America, citing the group’s anti-gay policies as reason. The Golda Och Academy, a Conservative New Jersey school, informed parents of the decision to end its chapter of the BSA in a recent letter. “To exclude same-sex families from membership and adult volunteerism is in direct contradiction of school policies, which place high value on inclusion,” the Oct. 17 note read. Rabbi Lisa Vernon and Mike Schazberg are scout leaders for the …More

Jerusalem’s 10th annual gay pride parade saw 4,000 attendees last week, despite a protest by the ultra Orthodox community. The event took place along its original King George to Keren Hayesod route for the first time since a killing spree cast a dark shade over the event seven years ago. In 2005, three marchers were stabbed and killed by a haredi extremist, and this year’s parade included a moment of silence for the victims. “Against violence, you can never give up,” said Adam Russo, who …More

Jewish groups reacted positively to a Boston appeals court’s ruling that an application of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. The 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld yesterday a court ruling declaring the block of federal benefits to same-sex couples went against an individual’s constitutional rights. "We commend the First Circuit Court of Appeals’ unanimous decision striking down the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act’s provisions denying federal benefits to legally …More

President Barack Obama announced this week he supports gay marriage, in a groundbreaking interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts. “I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama said. The stance was the first time a US president confirmed support of gay marriage. Previously, even politicians who backed same-sex civil unions would shy away from use of the word marriage. The remarks came just …More

Rep. Barney Frank, one of the first members of Congress to announce he was gay, will marry his partner in a ceremony in Massachusetts, a state where gay marriage is legal.  The 71-year-old Democrat will marry Jim Ready, 42, a small business owner who has been Frank’s partner since 2007.  “I have a partner now,” Frank said in an interview earlier this month. 'I’m in love for the first time in my life.”  The Massachusetts representative will not be running for …More

First, Isaac Mizrahi got married to partner Arnold Germer at New York’s City Hall in November. Now, he has his eyes on taking advantage of some of the other new opportunities open to him as a gay man! "Who knew I wanted to get married? You're gay so you don't have to get married and you don't have to go to the army and you don't have to have kids,” he said. “Now all of a sudden all those crazy things we're allowed to do, so it's like, 'Come on...' I'm gonna enlist next; I'm gonna go into the …More

Did you think that Rick Perry ad was ridiculous? The one that's collected over 400,000 dislikes on Youtube? Well, so did Rabbi Jason Miller! Miller released his own parody version of Perry’s “Strong” ad. The pitch-perfect video is basically what would happen if Perry got stuffed into an machine that cloned him, except for that clone now being completely opposite of him in every single way. Switch Christian to Jewish. Then switch anti-gay rights to pro. To top it all off, switch the reason …More

It's no surprise that the Oscar winner supports gay rights, so it totally makes since that she's decided to toast Gay Pride month on her Goop blog. She decided to tackle the hot button issue of gays and religion. "A few months ago, in the heat of the tragic teen suicides that came about from intolerance of homosexuality, I saw a man on television who was apologizing for wishing death on gays from his Facebook page," Paltrow writes in a post, titled "Homosexuality in the Bible." "This member of an Arkansas school …More