The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has announced the launch of its Jewish Organization Equality Index. The index would opperate similarily to the Health Equality Index and the Corporate Equality Index which are systems that respectively rate healthcare organizations and corporations on the quality of services and benefits they provide to LGBT clients and employees.

According the HRC's website the Jewish Organization Equality Index is (JOEI):

"...an innovative, first-of-its-kind effort to analyze and rate U.S. Jewish non-profits on their policies, practices and programs as they are pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees and members. The 18-month collaboration between the HRC Foundation and Jewish community organizations will include a survey to benchmark current practices, educfirst-of-its-kind effort to analyze and rate U.S. Jewish non-profits on their policies, practices and programs as they are pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees and members."

The JOEI will focus on partnering with Jewish social service agencies, summer camps, Jewish Community Centers (JCCs), and synagogues.

The HRC provides several significant reasons why organizations should participate:

1) LGBT Jews make up approximately 7% of the Jewish community

2) This project mirrors basic Jewish ideals, especially the ideas of b'tzelem elohim, that every person is created in G-d's imagge, and of kavod habriyot, that every person is deserving of basic dignity and respect.

3) Studies show that even organizations that think of themselves as "welcoming" are often not viewed as such by the local LGBT community.

4) HRC's work has shown that workplaces with inclusive politices and practices create more productive work environments and help improve recruitment and retention.

On a more individual and less organizational level, I believe that organizations should participate for another reason. According to Lease, Horne and Noffsinger-Frazier lesbian, gay and bisexual* (LGB) adults who participated in affirming faith communities had less negative feelings about their LGB identity, a more positive sense of spirituality and more positive overall psychological health than LGB adults who participated in non-affirming faith communities (2005). By participating in the JOEI organizations will be publicly recognized for being LGBT affirming, which will allow LGBT Jews to reach out organizations that affirm their LGBT identity and in turn support their psychological health.

In addition, these positive outcomes for LGB people who belong to LGBT affirming communities of faith are not limited to Jewish LGB individuals. Hopefully the JOEI will only be a stepping stone toward a broader set of equality indexes that will extend to many different faiths.

If you would like to find an LGBT affirming synagogue in Rochester, NY before the JOEI is published, I would encourage you to explore the "Spiritual" section of our Resource Directory. The directory also includes listings for other LGBT affirming communities of faith.

If you want to encourage your synagogue or Jewish organization to participate click here.

What are your thoughts on the JOEI?

*I was unable to find similar studies about the relationship between transgender affirming communities of faith versus non-affirming ones and their impact on transgender community members' psychological health.