Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebecca Stapel-Wax.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Rebecca. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
SOJOURN was founded in 2001 as The Rainbow Center. Supported by the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, it was a central point to promote change and inclusion for LGBTQ+ Jews and people of all faiths throughout metro Atlanta. As the country’s social and political attitudes evolved, The Rainbow Center experienced enormous growth.
In 2013, the Rainbow Center was renamed SOJOURN: The Southern Jewish Resource Network for Gender and Sexual Diversity. We think of our work as a “sojourn,” a temporary stay, and we are home on the journey to full inclusion.
SOJOURN remains committed to growing and expanding educational programming, outreach, advocacy, and support across the South, both in the Jewish and wider communities. Our website and social media continue to be destinations for support and resources for LGBTQ people and their families. We have reached over 15,000 people since our inception. We organize the Jewish community at Atlanta Pride, with hundreds of marchers and over 50 organizations participating. SOJOURN also publishes The LGBTQ Guide To Jewish Atlanta to increase solidarity, partnerships, and inclusion.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
When we first started, we couldn’t give our services away. It was before marriage equality, before Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was rescinded, and some Jewish denominations weren’t recognizing people who were gay/lesbian, let alone transgender or non-binary.
There have been wonderful and disappointing surprises along the way. Communities are overall interested in learning about inclusion. However, people don’t know what they don’t know, so there’s a sense of self-congratulations that they are already doing everything to make people feel welcome, when in fact, that’s not the experience of marginalized people. Culture change takes time and humility so it can be a struggle to get people to commit to looking at how they can include people differently than “the way it’s always been done.”
There have been situations when the most “liberal” members have said offensive and disregarding comments that attack another person’s dignity and humanity. And then there are experiences of huge strides among the most Orthodox. We recognize that our work is not yet done and that we make an impact with every interaction and relationship where we get to engage.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with SOJOURN, Southern Jewish Resource Network for Gender & Sexual Diversity – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
The work we do falls under four pillars: Education, Advocacy, Outreach and Support.
Our Educational workshops focus on giving students, parents, teachers, clergy, and communities the tools to be welcoming for gender and sexually diverse people, Judaic learning, and suicide prevention. Each workshop is customized for the individual group, their needs, and time allotted. We offer EDGE: Early Development for Gender Equity that engages preschools on the effects of gender stereotypes and their ability to counteract gender bias in the classroom and at home.
Our Comprehensive Sex Education for LGBTQ Teens is age-appropriate, medically accurate, and empowers teens to make informed and responsible decisions about sexual health and behavior. Atlanta has one of the highest rates of new HIV infections and teen pregnancies, and Georgia’s schools primarily use abstinence-only curricula, which have shown no impact on delaying sexual initiation or reducing risk behaviors. In this online setting, and with states across the south enacting legislation to limit access to reproductive care, this program is desperately needed.
Through our Welcoming Communities Project, we work intensively with individual organizations and whole communities to ensure that they are truly welcoming to all people. Locally we have worked with The Temple, Temple Sinai, and Jewish Family & Career Services, among others. We have also worked with the city of Birmingham, AL and in Jackson, MS. We also recently started working with Tapestry Public Charter School. Tapestry is an inclusion public charter school in Atlanta for 6-12th grade students who are on the autism spectrum, have learning disabilities, or are neuro-typical.
We have a weekly meetup for queer teens called Tum Tum. The name was inspired by Jewish commentaries which used it as a way to refer to people with non-specific gender. It also means “stupid idiot” in contemporary Hebrew so our youth decided to reclaim it as a source of pride.
What sets us apart is our wide collaborative partnerships. We produce The LGBTQ Guide to Jewish Atlanta which encompasses 50+ Jewish organizations. Faith communities have been the largest oppressor of gender and sexually diverse people so to have such significant support, from what is considered a religious group, is astounding.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
The South is a unique place for gender and sexually diverse people. Religion is often used as a guide for discrimination. State-wide Religious Freedom Restoration Acts have been proposed for the last seven years to sanction discrimination against people who are LGBTQ and any group of people that the dominant society considers unfit. SOJOURN mobilizes Jewish community members to reject legislation that is going to harm them, their families, their coworkers, neighbors, and friends. We look forward to the day when no Southern states use religion as a legal weapon to discriminate others.
Contact Info:
- Address: SOJOURN
The Phillip Rush Center
1530 Dekalb Ave., Suite A
Atlanta, GA 30307 - Website: www.sojourngsd.org
- Phone: 4042754637
- Email: rebecca@sojourngsd.org
- Instagram: sojourngsd
- Facebook: sojourngsd
- Twitter: sojourngsd
- Other: SOJOURN
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