One of the key reasons I created the LGBTminyan is best articulated by Rabbi Eliyahu Fink in the final sentences of the Forward‘s article on his minyan on the Venice, California boardwalk.

While I certainly do not think I am worthy of creating this minyan, I feel it is necessary to build an independent traditional / Orthodox minyan that makes LGBT people feel included and where they can celebrate their simchas / simchot.

“I used to think that it was easier to leave Orthodox Judaism than it is to stay – that those who leave are weak. That’s what I was taught in the Orthodox world. But I’ve discovered that it’s the actually the opposite. It takes a tremendous amount of strength to leave and most do because they are in a tremendous amount of pain. And if someone is in pain because of a world that I am a part of, if I can do anything to alleviate their pain, I will do it.”

Forward: ‘Shul on the Beach’ Makes Orthodox Waves in Los Angeles