My Big Gay Jewish Conversion

Overview

Simon Atkins is on a personal journey for BBC Three exploring different religious attitudes to being gay. He wants to find out if Judaism is more tolerant of his sexuality than his Catholic faith, but is it a case of better the devil you know? Simon is a Roman Catholic, but became disillusioned when he realised that being gay he could not marry in the eyes of God. His religion didn’t seem to impact his lifestyle until he met his Jewish boyfriend Matthew, whose synagogue allows same-sex marriage. In this one-off documentary Simon goes on a personal mission to discover if, as a gay man, he could convert to Judaism and whether it is worth sacrificing his Catholic upbringing.