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

Contents:

• THE SHOCKG LIFE OF ISRAEL'S MOST FAMO GAY PORN STAR
• GAY ISRAEL
• ISRAEL IS THE GAYT UNTRY ON EARTH
• GAY TEL AVIV

THE SHOCKG LIFE OF ISRAEL'S MOST FAMO GAY PORN STAR

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.

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.

GAY ISRAEL

Mastream SuccsThe reasons for gay and lbian polil succs durg this perd om 1988 through the mid-1990s were many.

ISRAEL IS THE GAYT UNTRY ON EARTH

Chief among them was the fact that gay activists pursued a very mastream strategy, seekg to nvce the wir public that gay Israelis were good patrtic cizens who jt happened to be attracted to the same strategy, pursued until recently, rerced the perceptn that gay rights was a non-partisan issue, unnnected to the major fissure Israeli polics, the Arab-Israeli nflict and how to rolve .

GAY TEL AVIV

Embracg gay rights enabled Israelis to pat themselv on the back for beg open-md, even as Israeli society wrtled ls succsfully wh other social equali. Another reason for succs was that the only source of real opposn to gay rights Israel stems om the untry’s relig parti. Th, the opposn of relig parti to gay rights has engenred the oppose reactn among non-relig Revolutn BegsThe mastream path started to grate on some gay and lbian Israelis the late 1990s.

Lbian and gay activists nounced what they saw as police ercn.