Why did you create these six “special” episodes?
We come from conservative Jewish backgrounds and we realize that today one of the last shields of homophobes is religion. Everywhere, people hide behind their faith to hold hostile speeches with regard to homosexual people. This gives rise to tragedies: depression, suicide, ostracism from families. In an episodeMargot, a practicing Jew, says that she fell ill because her mother made her live through hell. On these taboo subjects, religious representatives are never questioned. So we wanted to meet them to hear what they had to say.
You interviewed the rabbi of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the priest of the basilica of Saint-Denis and the rector of the Great Mosque of Paris. What did they tell you?
Obviously, all these religious representatives say that homosexuality, according to the sacred texts, is sin. But there is no sanction, unlike adultery in Islam, for example. And there are plenty of sins: not doing Shabbat among the Jews is an abomination. The rector told us: “If you are gay or trans, you are no less Muslim. All of them assured us that they would welcome LGBT+ people and advocated for them to be included in places of worship. We did not expect this openness.
Are there religions more open than others?
If we stick to the texts, everything is valid. Whether we open the Bible, the Torah or the Koran, we find a sexist, racist and homophobic fabric. In practice, in France, the most present religion is Christianity. You would think that homosexuality is accepted there, but it is there that we found the greatest number of promoters of conversion therapies [ces pratiques violentes visant à “guérir” des personnes LGBT+ de leur homosexualité sont interdites en France depuis 2022]. However, today there is an opening in all religions. On homosexual marriage, for example, the priest wondered about the possibility of creating a new form of ceremony.
Do you have other such examples?
Yes, the rabbi told us about a world council of sages, called “poskims”. Legislative rabbis create jurisprudence. Among the 15 million Jews in the world, some are homosexual and some of them have children, so they reflect on these questions: if two Jewish women undergo assisted reproduction, if two Jewish men go through surrogacy, their children are they jews? Do the donor and surrogate have to be Jewish too? With us, it is the mother who transmits religion, and transmission is a central subject.
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