lesbian rabbis in Israel. In June 2012, the American branch of Conservative Judaism formally approved same-sex marriage ceremonies in a 13-0 vote. The British Masorti Movement voted to allow its rabbis to conduct same-sex marriages in 2014. However, each of the 12 Masorti communities will be free to decide, whether they want to conduct same-sex marriage or remain only with heterosexual marriage. Rights for LGBTQ Conservative Jews The Torah mentions explicitly two times that an act is prohibited, in Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13. While the Biblical Hebrew phrase for the act is obscure and likely an ancient euphemism, a long history of traditional Jewish interpretation agrees that it specifically means "anal sex between men." The prohibition has usually been extended to sexual relations between men in general, and often to sexual acts between women as well, in the history of the Conservative movement and Halacha overall. While they are never discussed directly in Torah, the law has been extended to sexual acts between women based on principles of religious interpretation, or an assumption by some rabbis that the unspecified "sins of the Egyptians" referred to in Lev. 18:3 included sex between women. The 2006 decision ruled on male anal sex in particular, leaving room for interpretation for Jewish lesbian couples. Progress has been made for same-sex couples in Conservative Judaism; they are now allowed to marry and receive guidance and support. In 2012, the U.S. Conservative movement endorsed gay marriage and provided guidelines for same-sex divorce. While conservative Jewish rabbis may now bless same-sex marriages, men are expected not to have anal sex with each other because of the verses in Leviticus, and the movement recommends that people who do experience heterosexual attraction marry heterosexually (halachic law gives women the right to sexual satisfaction from a husband and men the obligation to have children, if they can). The Torah verses prohibiting anal sex between men complicate the Conservative movement's position on homosexuality because many people confuse the two. In halachic law, the authority of a statement in Torah is higher than the authority of an agreement among rabbis. So it is much simpler for rabbis to change rules made in statements by past rabbis (prohibitions on ordaining gay rabbis or performing gay unions) than it is to issue new decisions about how to interpret statements made in Torah (Lev. 18:22 and 20:13). The Reform movement does not have this