Answer: By making it a debate of Jew vs. Jew, citing the Jewish doctor, Norman Spack, who works with trans youth in Boston, and pulling a quote by Brian Camenker, head of an ultra-conservative “family rights” organization in Boston called MassResistance.

Not only did Eden not link to the original article in the Globe (here you go) and provide no context, he sadly fell into the trap that many fall into, that I remember reporting on for the Advocate around gay parenting, that more often than not, news sources are more than happy to pit researchers and doctors who are supporting LGBT folks against opinion makers who are against.

Eden pulled the quote from a piece in One News Now, a division of American Family Network:

AFN is a Christian news service – with more than 1200 broadcast, print and online affiliates in 45 states and 11 foreign countries – that exists to present the day’s stories from a biblical perspective. We not only feature the latest breaking stories from across the United States and around the world, but also news of the challenges facing Christians in today’s society.

At, you will get your news from reporters you can trust to give the latest news without the liberal bias that characterizes so much of the “mainstream” media.


Here we are again. We’re not being offered two researchers or doctors who are working on this issue and have varying opinions. No, we’re being given the voice of a doctor who works everyday with trans youth, and then because he’s asked about how his Jewish faith impacts his work, and he gives a loving answer, then that opens up for the “family values” religion doesn’t support trans people opinion-maker?

Come on. Aren’t we tired of this yet?

We see time and time again in LGBT communities, and reporting on LGBT issues. The “pro-family man,” as he’s quoted in the piece, spouting bigotry, and being put up then by a media outlet as a valid counter argument against people who are researchers, medical providers, doctors who work on the issues day in and day out. Couching it in saying that the quote is only about how they have two different opinions in regards to how this impacts Jewish faith just won’t fly. Come on JTA! Y’all are smarter than to fall into some ultra-conservative Christian trap, I know you are! Sadly, you took the bait.

As Spack stated in the Boston Globe article:

SPACK: All I know is that when I see preadolescents, they have been dressing in the underwear of the other sex for years. These kids are almost certainly transgendered. They’re a unique population of patients. By the time a kid comes in to see me, both parents have agreed that the child is in danger and needs some form of intervention. And that has led to heavy-duty counselling for the child and parents. Therefore I see young people and families who have been evaluated by skilled professionals.

That, my friends, is the heart of the issue. To derail the conversation by saying it takes a “Jewish turn” because the head of an anti-LGBT organization not surprisingly condones the issue and takes offense to Spack believing that trans people are made in the image of G-d, well sh*t, not only should we condone Carmenker’s bigotry, but we should be celebrating Spack, and telling Carmeneker, “yes, it’s true, we are all made in the image of G-d. And guess what? The rabbis have “discussed gender-variant bodies and people for hundreds of years. We, today, are more closed than the rabbis of old were, who grappled more explicitly with the two creation stories, and the more than two sexes and genders that were, and are, part of human life.”

Give me the number of Dr. Spack’s Rabbi! I want to give him a big ole hug, and say thank you to another Jewish faith leader who works to embrace all of our communities.