Gender rights, which concern the rights of both women and the LGBT community, offer a great point of unity for Jewish/pro-Israel and progressive groups. American Jews have a long history of support for both the women’s rights and gays rights movements.
1. Build a Progressive Coalition
Many progressive student groups may be very interested in joining a Global Gender Rights Alliance, including LGBT groups, Women’s groups, human rights groups, liberal political groups, and liberal religious groups. Focus on how increasing awareness of gender rights violations across the globe. See if you can bring in speakers or show movies about the issue, and ask students how they think they can take a stand or many a difference to preserve these human rights abroad.
2. Jews and Gender Rights
A good point to mention is that many of the most influential gays in America are Jewish, including both gay congressmen (Barney Frank and Jared Polis), the first openly gay elected official (Harvey Milk), and a variety of people in the entertainment industry (David Geffen and Stephen Sondheim). Similarly, more information about Jewish female trailblazers can be found on the Jewish Virtual Library. In addition, Israel has a great record on gay rights and women’s rights, as both have always been able to serve in the military, gays have been elected to the Knesset, Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister over 40 years ago, and Tel Aviv was named “the Gay Capital of the Middle East.”