The Boston Globe’s report Q & A on with a doctor, Norman Spack, who offers sex-change operations to children struggling with “cross-gender feelings,” takes a Jewish turn.
In the interview, Spack discussed how his Jewish faith informs his work. His response: “My own rabbi said it best: The transgendered are also created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God.”
The comment drew a rebuke from a conservative activist, Brian Camenker:
Camenker takes personal affront to that response. “Being Jewish myself, it’s a tremendous embarrassment that he would try to claim that Judaism has any connection at all to this kind of demonic and lunatic behavior – because it doesn’t,” he states.
UPDATE: In my rush to get this post up, I mixed up the links, leaving people with the – incorrect – impression that I was siding with Camenker. My only aim was to note that the doctor’s comment about his rabbi was irking a Jewish conservative who opposes his work. Sorry about the initial screw-up, but I disagree with those out there who think that there was something wrong with citing the exchange.
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