Thousands protest in Tel Aviv after government blocks surrogacy rights for same-sex couples
July 24, 2018(Photo: Motti Kimchi via ynetnews.com)
More than 60,000 protesters took to the streets on Sunday in Tel Aviv after the government refused surrogacy rights to same-sex couples. Conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced considerable pressure from Orthodox members of his coalition to block the rights to same-sex couples after initially supporting it.
The surrogacy laws now allow single mothers to join heterosexual couples in using a surrogate to have a child – but specifically blocks same-sex couples from becoming parents.
The protests on Sunday followed similar protests during the week – and a strike from LGBT+ people refusing to work.
Many pointed out the hypocrisy of the government – which gladly took in revenue from the hugely successful Tel Aviv Pride, but still refused to grant its own LGBT+ citizens basic human rights. Elad Nahshon, who was awarded the medal of honour by the president of Israel for his service in the IDF said: "I do not intend on paying hundreds of thousands of shekels for a surrogacy procedure abroad at the expense of savings for the future, and why am I denied the basic rights in my country? The country benefits from LGBT tourism with millions of dollars in revenue and it should fully support the community that put Tel Aviv on the map as a preferred LGBT tourism destination like Berlin and Madrid.”
Demonstrators were shouting “Homophobia is terror” and “Shame, shame”, according to The New York Times.
“This is the 21st century,” Itzik Shmuli, a gay lawmaker from Israel’s Zionist Union party, told The Times. “People are not seated at the back of the bus because of the colour of their skin, and they will not be deprived of the right to be parents because of their orientation.”
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