OK, Jewish Queer scene, what era are we talking? There wasn't a whole lot before the 90s, now there is masses. If the setting is contemporary, and Joel has access to the internet, his first port of call will be Keshet [rainbow]: <http://www.keshet.org.uk/> From there he can decide how much he actually wants to be involved, there are loads of links. Most overtly Queer communities are fine with non-Jewish partners.
Denomination: it's a lot more flexible than Christian denominations, lots and lots of people belong to a different denomination from their parents. Particularly because many many towns outside London and Manchester only have one synagogue, so you go to the nearest regardless of whether it's exactly what you were brought up with. The boundaries between Orthodox and non-O denominations are somewhat less permeable, but someone who is male and has a Jewish mother can move about fairly freely.
Happily I can tell you lots about Oxford synagogue because I was a student there. It's almost unique in the country in that the building and facilities are shared amicably between all denominations who want to use them. As you say the services are mostly Orthodox at the moment, though it's to the leftier end of the Orthodox spectrum; for example they are reasonably inclusive of women, sticking to the bare minimum of religious restrictions on participation. There is a strong, well-established Masorti community. There is a smaller but definitely active Liberal community too, plus any number of groups run by students to do whatever style of service they happen to be interested in. Town / gown stuff can get a little weird, but basically there are students from absolutely every part of the Jewish spectrum and all over the world, so it's a particularly diverse community. If Joel is like most kids brought up in Oxford, he'll have sampled all different kinds of services at different times so probably by the time he grows up he will in fact be making a conscious choice of which denomination he feels most comfortable with. He's also likely to be pretty open-minded about the denoms he doesn't choose, though if perhaps if he had a bad experience he may have strong negative feelings.
And yes, shul is a Yiddish word so technically only appropriate for Ashkenazi synagogues. My (non-Jewish) husband thinks that I mainly use the word "shul" to refer to the institution, ie "I'm going to shul" means I'm going there for a service or other specifically religious activity, whereas I say "synagogue" if I mean the building as a physical object. Not totally sure that's true, but there might be a slight nuance there.
no subject
Denomination: it's a lot more flexible than Christian denominations, lots and lots of people belong to a different denomination from their parents. Particularly because many many towns outside London and Manchester only have one synagogue, so you go to the nearest regardless of whether it's exactly what you were brought up with. The boundaries between Orthodox and non-O denominations are somewhat less permeable, but someone who is male and has a Jewish mother can move about fairly freely.
Happily I can tell you lots about Oxford synagogue because I was a student there. It's almost unique in the country in that the building and facilities are shared amicably between all denominations who want to use them. As you say the services are mostly Orthodox at the moment, though it's to the leftier end of the Orthodox spectrum; for example they are reasonably inclusive of women, sticking to the bare minimum of religious restrictions on participation. There is a strong, well-established Masorti community. There is a smaller but definitely active Liberal community too, plus any number of groups run by students to do whatever style of service they happen to be interested in. Town / gown stuff can get a little weird, but basically there are students from absolutely every part of the Jewish spectrum and all over the world, so it's a particularly diverse community. If Joel is like most kids brought up in Oxford, he'll have sampled all different kinds of services at different times so probably by the time he grows up he will in fact be making a conscious choice of which denomination he feels most comfortable with. He's also likely to be pretty open-minded about the denoms he doesn't choose, though if perhaps if he had a bad experience he may have strong negative feelings.
And yes, shul is a Yiddish word so technically only appropriate for Ashkenazi synagogues. My (non-Jewish) husband thinks that I mainly use the word "shul" to refer to the institution, ie "I'm going to shul" means I'm going there for a service or other specifically religious activity, whereas I say "synagogue" if I mean the building as a physical object. Not totally sure that's true, but there might be a slight nuance there.