Freddie Mercury & Jim Hutton photographed with their cat Dorothy, 1980′s
When Freddie was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987, he offered Jim an exit on their relationship. He told Jim he would understand if he left. In a Freddie Mercury documentary, Jim recalls telling him, “I love you, Freddie – I’m not going anywhere.” And he didn’t; Jim stayed with Freddie until he died. He nursed him, cared for him, and was there when he took his last breath.
I’m not gonna argue that you have some existential obligation not to schedule things on Jewish holidays but I am gonna say that when you do it, it makes Jews a little less welcome in your space
And this is especially an issue in a space that is already for a marginalized group and is trying to be intersectional, eg. an LGBTQ group
And like, I know there are Jewish people who’d still go, but tbh that’s kind of part of the issue — by scheduling things this way, you’re contributing to the stress of having to choose, the pressure to assimilate, and the tension of being a Jew in the diaspora
Non-Jews can reblog this
If you’re like me, then your first reaction to this was “Okay, but there are a lot of holidays and a lot of religions, how do I schedule around all of them?”
So I went and found an Interfaith Calendar of Holy Days for major religions.
Thank you for this addition! I was actually thinking of linking this exact calendar. And very good point about checking in with someone from the religion — many holidays are minor or at least don’t really get in the way of going to events. Like, scheduling something on, say, Tu Bishvat would be totally fine.
sleepliving 