Liberal Values

Gay rights

The coastal city of Tel Aviv was named by Out Magazine as the ‘gay capital of the Middle East’ and is often mentioned in the same breath as San Francisco as one of the world’s most thriving gay metropolises.

The annual Tel Aviv Gay Pride Parade is a perennial highlight in the city’s hectic cultural life. In 2011, over 100,000 people – the equivalent of a quarter of the city’s population! – took to the streets on floats and with flags to celebrate their pride in an open and tolerant city.[1] The parade, which streams through the city’s most famous boulevards, has grown exponentially more popular since its introduction and shows no sign of stopping.

It is no surprise that with its miles of pristine beaches and thronging night life, Tel Aviv is setting itself up as a serious gay tourist destination. Increasingly, it is shaping up to be one of the world’s most chic and exciting getaway resorts.[2]

Gay culture forms an important part of Israel’s cultural scene. Israel won the 1998 Eurovision with a world-acclaimed performance by transsexual singer Dana International. ‘Diva’ stormed onto the records charts across Europe, making Dana a global star: she remains one of the most popular artists in Israel today and returned to perform at Eurovision 2011.

An annual feature on Tel Aviv’s calendar, every summer is the Tel Aviv Cinemathèque which plays host to the TLV Fest, an international LGBT film festival, showcasing the best of gay cinema from abroad and from up-and-coming Israeli talent.

Despite challenges, enormous progress has been made in Israel in recent years in the advancement of gay rights. Like in all liberal Western countries, discrimination in the workplace on the grounds of sexual orientation was outlawed long ago. Openly gay soldiers had been freely serving in the Israeli Army for nearly twenty years before the US repealed ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’!

In 2000, Israel equalised the homosexual and heterosexual ages of consent – the very same month as the UK! Gay couples can adopt children and lesbians can conceive by IVF. The State also recognises gay marriages conducted abroad, and gay couples are entitled to the same benefits as straight couples across the board.[3] The future looks progressive: in a recent poll, a large majority of the Israeli public declared itself in favour of full civil marriages for gay couples.

Women

“The State of Israel…  will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex”

Women in Israel, naturally, enjoy full social and political rights and have risen to the very top of their professions in all walks of life. Since Golda Meir became the world’s third female prime minister, women have scaled the political ladder.  Recently, women concurrently held the roles of Foreign Minister, Knesset Speaker and Supreme Court President![4] The level of female representation in the Knesset matches that of the US Congress.  Women serve in the Defence Forces, including in combat roles, and the Army recently appointed its first female Brigadier-General.  In 2006, a woman topped the Forbes list of Israel’s richest citizens[5] and women have run some of Israel’s largest corporations. Israeli actresses, models and singers have won international acclaim whilst women have also risen to the top in academia and in 2009, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to an Israeli female scientist – the first woman in 45 years![6]