New York rapper Yitz “Y-Love” Jordan, famed black convert to Orthodox Judaism and celebrated artist, has announced that he is homosexual in an interview with Out magazine.
Jordan told the magazine he hopes his announcement will not cause him to be alienated by his community, but that he no longer cares very much about what people think. He said he will continue to infuse his music with Jewish values, with Hebrew, and will aim to bolster LGBT hip-hop fans.
Jordan is of Puerto Rican and Ethiopian descent, and completed an Orthodox conversion in 2000, going on to study at Jerusalem’s Ohr Somayach yeshiva.
“I’m ready to find a husband,” Jordan told Out. “My number one priority is to get back into dating.”
According to the interview, Y-Love tried therapy aimed at attracting him to a heterosexual lifestyle, but was not changed by it. He was married to a Jewish woman for a short time, but the relationship ended in divorce.
Out says Jordan now calls himself “ex-Hassidic,” and no longer lives in Flatbush. He continues to celebrate Jewish holidays.