Honestly, what is the actual message when someone parades that he-she-they is “proud” to be LG(B)T(QIA)+? (I place “B” in parentheses for reasons I explain below. Also “QIA.”) If we penetrate the static, he simply is declaring he wants the world to know his coitus preferences. That’s it. He is not declaring his religion, ethnicity, or political views. He simply is declaring: “I am proud of my unnatural coitus preferences.” Aside from all other concerns, isn’t that, uh, terribly private? It is Judaically shameful to disclose even normal heterosexuality to others. TMI. In Judaism, homosexuality always was personal and private — and so was and is “straight” heterosexuality. We are private about when mom goes to mikvah . Architects literally hide the entrance and exit of the mikvah , and shuls ask husbands not to park in front to pick up or drop off their wives. In a normal society, people sensibly would be repulsed by such parading: “ That is something to celebrate? My father and mother — and all other billions of fathers and mothers — do not promenade, bellowing whom they prefer in the bedroom. Who parades to tell the world he lusts for redheads? Or for certain body shapes and dimensions? Who does this ? Keep your private business to yourself — we don’t want to know.” That simple commonsense reaction would be true even if LG(B)T(QIA)+ behavior was not defiant of the living G-d and His Torah. It is no one’s business. Do people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome parade behind a brown flag to proclaim pride in their common situation? Or people who need to wake up several times nightly to micturate? How did this perverted and corrupted culture ever come to this? That a Magen David Adom (Israel’s Jewish variant on the “Red Cross”) should have forms refusing to acknowledge that children come from (i) a father, and (ii) a mother? That MDA instead should give options simply to list “Parent 1” and “Parent 2”? This is crazy — and obscene. Or that Naftali Bennett’s Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid, ordered his ministry to fly rainbow flags? Is that the message for which there yearned in the innermost Jewish heart a hope of 2,000 years — to be a Nation in our own land, the Land of Jerusalem Zion, so that we could parade obscenely like the most morally depraved of Europeans, North and South Americans, and others? Truth can coexist with courtesy. We can empathize with and care for those with gender dysphoria, mental illness, unnatural attractions, and other orientations outside society’s norm. Doors should be open to those who approach with respect. We love all Jews who respect Judaic fundamentals as they grapple with unique and painful challenges. Thus, even people who drive to shul on Shabbat to worship in an Orthodox synagogue are welcomed — as long as they do not burst in telling everyone about their drive. They know you live 40 kilometers or 25 miles away and are glad to see you. They won’t ask. They just expect, out of common decency, you won’t tell. And show a bit of humility and shame: don’t park in front of the shul. The ongoing years-long pitiful failures of “Modern Orthodox” (or “Centrist”) rabbinic and congregational leaders, organizations, and institutions to address LG(B)T(QIA)+ tyranny has emboldened outliers on Orthodoxy’s outskirts to assert and even demand a brazen “right” to have their LG(B)T(QIA)+ status extolled in a rubric that actually condemns it. Brazenly, they expect a Yeshiva University to mainstream the unnatural deviance of LG(B)T(QIA)+ as legitimate. They expect their Orthodox parents, siblings, and other relatives to attend their “gay nuptials.” They expect shuls to celebrate their public desecrations by joyously announcing their “weddings” and even hosting their “kiddush” collations. Like children who threaten to hold their breath “until they turn blue,” they insert into their every polemic that, if they are not given everything they demand, then all LG(B)T(QIA)+ suicides will be everyone else’s fault. Suicide often stems from mental illness. That is why we are able to bury suicide victims in the regular sections of Jewish cemeteries, not the outskirts — because, in almost all cases, we hold they acted not because of apostasy but driven by mental illness. The very polemic advanced by LG(B)T(QIA)+ advocates that, if we do not reverse Judaism and 3,300 years of Torah to accommodate them, their numbers will commit suicide, powerfully reflects the relationship between LG(B)T(QIA)+ and mental illness. Mental illness, gender dysphoria, unnatural desires, and related matters must be approached with sensitivity and lovingkindness. But they must be recognized for what they are. Throughout nature, the male-female union is normal. Even hardware, appliance, and high-tech stores sell extension cord plugs as either “ male ” or “ female .” Yet, so many “Modern Orthodox” or “Centrist” rabbis and institutions are terrified to speak a simple truth: “LG(B)T(QIA)+ is not normal.” They fear donors will withdraw funding. Or shul boards will censure or fire them for offending a long-time member or “making waves.” So the public arena is abandoned to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), whose frequent slanted reporting almost always must be read with skepticism, to celebrate two lesbian "conservative judaism" rabbis “tying the knot.” Or an extreme-left “Orthodox rabbi” ordaining and celebrating a public homosexual who flagrantly flamingly flaunts his homosexuality and who accepted an engagement ring from his yarmulka’d homosexual partner in the presence of a large cheering non-Jewish concert audience. For shame. The LG(B)T(QIA)+ subject barely can be discussed safely from a Torah hashkafah (perspective) in today’s woke world. Will Channel 12 and Galit Gutman call us all “blood suckers”? Woke tyranny coerces silent acquiescence. To hold their jobs, normal people grimly hold their tongues. Ironically, I probably have pastorally counseled and stood by more LG(B)T(QIA)+ men and women than have 99% of my rabbinic colleagues and readers. Most whom I have counseled have been non-Jews who have approached me in venues varying from law schools where I taught to actual law-firm practice where law associates approached me confidentially. Many in disquietude just naturally assume that a rabbi would be more caring than a regular law professor or big-firm litigator. They are correct. Then word of mouth spreads from those I helpfully have counseled, giving rise to more individuals privately seeking my guidance and caring. Yet, when I read mushy, touchy-feely, woke-inspired apologetics by Orthodox rabbinic and congregational leaders and associations about how much “ more ” needs to be done for the LG(B)T(QIA)+ community, I ask: “ More needs to be done? More ? And . . . . . . What about religious teens within our community who face brainwashing and social stigmatizing to become non-observant while being spiritually destroyed at left-wing secular colleges? . . . . . . More ? And what about Torah -observant women (long-term singles, divorced, widowed) over age 40 or 45 who desperately want to marry, but cannot find a husband, so (i) live desperate lonely lives, and (ii) sometimes ultimately will marry a non-observant guy and give up Orthodoxy because the loneliness is unbearable? . . . . . . . . . More ? And what about non-Jews seeking to convert to Judaism properly according to halakha (Jewish law) but who face undeserved social rejection and stigma on their journey? . . . . . . . More ? And what about men or women going through divorce, needing gittin (bills of divorce) that are being disrupted by vengefully recalcitrant and bitterly intransigent ex-wives or husbands? . . . . . . More ? And what about people diagnosed with terminal diseases like cancer, needing incredible amounts of chizuk (encouragement) and reassurance just to go on? To do their chemo, overcome the psychological impact of their hair falling out, sitting for hours during infusions, living with bouts of nausea, doubting the time they have left? And what of their families and loved ones? . . . . . . More ? And what about people who have lost their jobs or incomes or never really have had enough income, and maybe never will, and face losing their homes or marriages for financial reasons? . . . . . . More ? And what about people with all kinds of other needs — physical, spiritual, emotional — who deserve at least as much of our time and focus as do the LG(B)T(QIA)+ population? . . . What about them — they who comprise such a larger part of our community but do not enjoy the glamor of Woke advocacy and TV and movie entertainers and TikTok influencers endlessly parroting their “cause”? "Human nature is such that a person in his beliefs, character, dispositions, and actions is drawn after his friends and colleagues and acts in the same fashion as his countrymen." Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot De’ot 6:1. We must not allow others to silence the voices of Torah Truth and to intimidate us to adopt their perverted alien values and priorities. We must bear witness to the Torah Truth. Vayikra (Leviticus) 18:22 and 20:13. Chulin 92a-b. Nidah 13b. Sukkah 29a. Nedarim 51a. Rambam, Mishneh Torah , Hilkhot Issurei Bi’ah 21:1, 2, 4, 8. Shulchan Arukh, Even Ha-Ezer 24. The Torah speaks of the perverted behaviors of Egypt where we found ourselves for centuries, and the deviant ways of Canaan where we were destined to enter, and warns that such behavior must be avoided if we do not want to replicate upon ourselves the end result of Canaan: exiled and spit out from Holy Land. Those who have LG(B)T(QIA)+ inclinations should receive compassion, not a stage at a shul or public audience accolades and hands clapping . They should be seeking rabbinic pastoral counsel privately rather than promenading in boisterous “pride parades.” Pride ? In having unnatural desires? Take particular note the next time you read of an “ Open Orthodox ” or similar heterodox rabbi advocating for “LGBTQIA+.” The “B” in that acronym exposes what really animates those advocates. They even demand Orthodoxy endorse bisexual conduct. How can they? A bisexual person, by self-definition, is psychologically unhindered from halakhic fulfillment with the opposite gender. To be “bisexual” and to demand rabbinic endorsement to “go both ways” is like asking for rabbinic approval of extramarital consorting because one spouse at a time is not enough to satisfy. (That is why I always put the “B” in parentheses.) The advocates and virtue signalers for even the “B” in LG(B)T(QIA)+ thereby demonstrate that they are impelled not by a Torah perspective but by “woke” parroting that dominates today’s coarse secular Western culture. LGBTQIA+ is an acronym that means Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Two-Spirit, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Ally, A-gender, Bi-gender, Pansexual, Pangender, and Gender Variant. Keep an open mind because this list continually expands, and English has 19 letters left. Those LG(B)T(QIA)+ people whom we may be able to help will seek and find us because we do nothing to alienate them. If they do not seek us, our plates always will be full with so many others whose needs are even more deserving of our focus and time. Parade that with Pride. Adapted by the writer for Arutz Sheva from a version of this article that first appeared here in The American Spectator. To receive Rav Fischer’s Weekly Extensive Torah Commentaries or to attend any or all of Rav Fischer’s weekly 60-minute live Zoom classes on the Weekly Torah Portion, the Biblical Prophets, the Mishnah, Rambam Mishneh Torah, or Advanced Judaic Texts, send an email to: shulstuff@yioc.org