Preparations for the Queer Bar Mitzvah:

1. Readings and Ideas

a. Read ten random pages from <Song of Myself> by Walt
Whitman.
b. Read Suzanne Pharr's <Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism>
c. Read three poems of Essex Hemphill.
d. Be able to explain briefly the importance of these historical
figures: Leslie Feinberg, Harry Hay, Marsha P. Johnson, Bayard
Rustin, Sylvester, Barbara Gittings & Kay Lahusen, James
Baldwin, Vito Russo, Audre Lorde, Sylvia Rivera, W.H. Auden,
David Wojnarowicz, Joseph Beam ,
e. Explain the distinction between a gay liberation and gay rights
perspective .
f. Read "Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence" by
Adrienne Rich
g. Read Eric Rofes "Gay Bodies Gay Selves"
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2347432/Gay-Bodies-Gay-SelvesUnderstanding-the-GayMens-Health-Movement
h. Read Don Kilhefner 's "Gay Adults Gay Adults, Where are you?"
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2347437/Gay -Adults-Gay-AdultsWhere-Are-You
2. Cultural Artifacts
a. Watch <The Times of Harvey Milk>
b. Attend a piano bar (e.g. Tavern on Camac Philadelphia, the
Monster New York, Marie's Crisis New York) Request a favorite
show tune.
c. Research the life of one queer person who died of AIDS. Be
prepared to talk about their life and explain about why they were
important.
d. Watch <Paris is Burning>
e. Go to the LGBT Archives at the William Way Community Center.
Photocopy two items that resonate for you and be prepared to
present their significance.
f. Choose one microcommunity in LGBT Communities (e.g. leather
community, queer sports team, a vogue house, a trans
organization, the Radical Faeries, a queer
church/synagogues/religious space etc.) and explain both the
strengths and the challenges of that microcommunity.
3. Community Project: create a project of benefit to the LGBT
communities. To be done at the ritual:
a. Recite one 50 line verse of a poem of your choice (ideally
memorized) at the Queer Bar Mitzvah.
b. Present the life story of the person whose life you researched
(see 2C above)

c. Create a D'var Torah (a short talk outlining what is import ant

about your poem/life story/ experience of preparing for the
ritual.)
d. Publicly acknowledge two elders and two youth who have made
a difference in your life as a queer person.
e. Create the music soundtrack for the ritual. Music should be
composed or performed by queer individuals.