Conservative Jewish rabbinic group issues guidelines for wedding rituals for same-sex couples

A landmark vote last week by the Conservative movement’s rabbinic committee has established rituals for wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples, affirming that same-sex marriages have “the same sense of holiness and joy as that expressed in heterosexual marriages.”

Last week’s position paper, which was adopted by a vote of 13-0, with one abstention, outlines two possible marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples. The paper’s authors, Rabbis Elliot Dorff, Daniel Nevins and Avram Reisner, were also the authors of a 2006 responsum titled “Homosexuality, Human Dignity and Halakhah,” which declared gays eligible for rabbinic ordination.