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“He models that being gay and Jewish can be an integrated identity in public life.
WHITE HOUSE IN GAY PRIDE COLORS PROFESSIONAL
Being out was seen as an obstacle to professional success,” Idit Klein, the executive director of Keshet, told Haaretz. “Not too long ago, LGBTQ people were largely invisible both in secular public life and in the Jewish community. He spoke about his journey as an attorney working in advocacy and working in politics as an out gay man and as a Jew. Nosanchuk, who is 50, single, and a member of the Reconstructionist Congregation Adat Shalom in Bethesda, wore a colorful striped tie with a pinstripe suit. On the other hand, “we’re 2 percent of the population but responsible for 90 percent of the asks that come into the office,” he said, prompting laughter.
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On issue after issue, the American Jewish community steps up and has a seat at the table.” “But the great thing about the Jewish community is the tremendous breadth and depth of issues it’s involved with, from gun control to climate change. “Working with the American Jewish community is challenging,” he said. If you think they’re a tough community, just wait until you deal with the Jews,’” he said at the Keshet gathering. When he started his current job, in July 2013, people said, “‘OK, he’s dealt with the gays. And sometimes Nosanchuk even does a bit of the Passover cooking. “Virtually all of the holidays we spend together,” Rep. Along with Nosanchuk’s mother, they celebrate Jewish holidays together as a family. Today Nosanchuk is still close with his ex-wife, their son, who is 18, and her father, Michigan Rep.
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“I was straight identified until I was in my 30s,” he told the Keshet audience. Nosanchuk came out as gay in 2005, ending his marriage to Madeleine Levin. “I went out to speak to groups and was pilloried as a sellout,” Nosanchuk told the Keshet gathering. Earlier, when working on Obama’s election campaign at a time when most in the LGBT community backed Hillary Clinton, he became known as “Obama’s gay.” Nosanchuk also faced pressure when he worked at the Department of Justice on LGBT issues, at a time when the Obama administration still defended the legality of Defense of Marriage Act and the armed forces’ “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Matt Nosanchuk speaking at Keshet event Jordyn Rozensky/ Keshet And he has held it for an unusually long time, too: two and a half years or, as he likes to count it, six Hanukkah parties (two each December). “Many people in the community who worked with other liaisons said no one has held this job at a more difficult time,” Nosanchuk said.
WHITE HOUSE IN GAY PRIDE COLORS FULL
The Iran deal “is the most tendentious issue I’ve dealt with, no doubt about that,” he told Haaretz in an interview this week, after sharing his personal and professional story with about 100 supporters of Keshet, an organization that advocates for full the inclusion of LGBT Jews in Jewish life, in New York a day earlier. Other times, like when various parts of the Jewish community fought each other, and President Obama, over the Iran deal last summer, it’s not. Sometimes, like while watching Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin light candles at last December’s White House Hanukkah party, his job is a pleasure. White House illuminated with rainbow colors after Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage.