Israel is the gayt untry on earth | Yoni Leviatan | The Blogs

Contents:

• WHO IS JOSEPH ZIEGLER, THE GAY IRS WHISTLEBLOWER HUNTER BIN PROBE?
• GAY TEL AVIV FOR BEGNERS
• ISRAEL IS THE GAYT UNTRY ON EARTH
• THE GAY-FRIENDLIT CI ISRAEL

WHO IS JOSEPH ZIEGLER, THE GAY IRS WHISTLEBLOWER HUNTER BIN PROBE?

“The majory of the gay muny Israel is feelg very unsafe, ” said Hila Peer, the chairwoman of Aguda-The Associatn for LGBTQ Equaly Israel.

GAY TEL AVIV FOR BEGNERS

Netanyahu and others his aln say they are mted to protectg gay rights, but the volatile polil suatn means the future is hard to predict. Israel is known as a gay haven the Middle East, and Tel Aviv is equently ced as one of the most gay-iendly ci the world, wh a Pri para that draws hundreds of thoands of revelers om Israel and abroad. A rarely enforced ban on homosexual relatns was taken off the books 1988, and the army began allowg openly gay service members 1993 — the same year the U.

Dpe the legal protectns, LGBTQ Israelis have long faced opposn om wh the haredi Orthodox sector, where rabbis veigh agast homosexualy and policians have vowed to n the untry acrdg to Orthodox terpretatns of Jewish law. The Relig Znist Party, one of three the Relig Znist Bloc, is led by Bezalel Smotrich, who has lled himself a “proud homophobe” and has envisned Israel as a theocracy. He lled the ia of lettg medil provirs ny re to LGBTQ patients “unacceptable” and has appoted a close ally who is gay, Amir Ohana, as Knset speaker.

ISRAEL IS THE GAYT UNTRY ON EARTH

LGBTQ Israelis are playg a ccial role the mountg anti-ernment protts, activatg a work that put some 100, 000 people the streets 2018 after Netanyahu voted agast a bill to allow gay upl to e surrogacy. Instead, chang the valu and polics of Israeli society over the past twenty years or so created the space which a gay and lbian muny uld first gay anizatn was tablished 1975, thanks largely to the work of immigrants om the Uned Stat and other English-speakg untri fluenced by the velopment of gay liberatn and the unterculture of the 1960s. The very name of this first anizatn, the Society for the Protectn of Personal Rights (then, as today, known as the Agudah, Hebrew), reflected the difficulty of anizg sexual mori at a time when the existence of a sodomy law was thought by many to make homosexualy self illegal.

But for many years, Israeli lbians funneled most of their energi to femism, rather than the stggle for gay and lbian velopment of a gay inty was difficult for many at a time when Israeli society was still the midst of s Znist revolutn. Pleadg more prsg issu, the public agenda did not clu the place of mizrahim (Jews who immigrated to Israel om the Arab untri) a society domated by European-born Jews, women’s liberatn, equaly for Paltian cizens of Israel, or gay rights.

The certati of Znism gave way to a multu of polil and cultural inti: ultra-orthodox Judaism, growg assertn of a Paltian inty among Israel’s Arab cizens, natnalism, and yearngs for a more Wtern, liberal society peted for the allegiance of, gay inty and polics still did not go public. So fell on non-gay supporters of gay rights to move thgs the late 1980’s, the efforts began to pay off, layg a road map for future gay polil succs.

THE GAY-FRIENDLIT CI ISRAEL

This pattern of dog thgs quietly, even unr the table, would repeat next few years marked the goln age of gay polil succs Israel. By 1992, lbian and gay activists had succeed gettg the Knset to amend Israel’s Equal Workplace Opportuni Law to outlaw discrimatn on the basis of sexual 1993, the Israeli ary rcd s few regulatns discrimatg agast gays and lbians. And 1994, the Israeli Supreme Court orred El Al Israel Airl to grant a ee plane ticket to the partner of a gay flight attendant, as the airle had long done for heterosexual partners of then, there has been steady progrs, pecially the urts.