Homosexuality has been a pivotal issue for Conservative Judaism since the 1980s. A major Jewish denomination in the U.S., Conservative Judaism has wrestled with homosexuality as a matter of Jewish law and institutional policy. As with other branches of Judaism debating homosexuality, Conservative Jews faced both long-standing, Biblically-rooted rabbinic prohibitions on homosexual conduct as well as increasing demands for change in the movements policies toward gays and lesbians. Previously, the Conservative movement had changed its policies toward women, for example, by allowing the ordination of women as rabbis in 1983. Similarly, the Conservative leadership was asked to approve homosexual conduct, ordain gay and lesbian rabbis, and permit gay marriage under Conservative Halakha (Jewish l