Israel Prents Itself As Haven For Gay Communy : NPR

Contents:

• ISRAEL REACH RERD NUMBER OF OPENLY GAY LAWMAKERS 
• THE GAY-FRIENDLIT CI ISRAEL
• ISRAEL IS THE GAYT UNTRY ON EARTH
• GAY TEL AVIV FOR BEGNERS
• ISRAEL PRENTS ITSELF AS HAVEN FOR GAY COMMUNY

ISRAEL REACH RERD NUMBER OF OPENLY GAY LAWMAKERS 

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. 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.

THE GAY-FRIENDLIT CI ISRAEL

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.

ISRAEL IS THE GAYT UNTRY ON EARTH

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.

GAY TEL AVIV FOR BEGNERS

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. 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.

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 . 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. 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.

ISRAEL PRENTS ITSELF AS HAVEN FOR GAY COMMUNY

Prevly, the Israeli gay movement had shunned transgenred people, fearg what their cln would do to s public image, but wh Dana receivg ngratulatory telegrams om the Prime Mister and beg ma an honorary ambassador by the Knset, was now “safe” for the movement to expand s November of that year, Michal En won a seat the Tel Aviv Cy Council, beg Israel’s first openly lbian elected official. In such a polil environment, gays and lbians uld have their own elected polil voice as well, although such reprentatn do not yet exist at the natnal level. The Israeli LGBT movement has not embraced femism ( fact, sexism and tensns between gay men and lbians are both que prevalent), and until recently, the place of gay Arabs the muny was neglected, reflectg the wir society’s difference to Israel’s Arab mory (some 20 percent of Israel’s populatn).

Agast the backdrop of clash between Israel and the Paltian Authory, the 2001 Tel Aviv’s Pri Para, typilly a celebratory, hedonistic affair, got a dose of polics when a ntgent lled “Gays Black” marched wh a banner proclaimg, “There’s No Pri In Occupatn.