PJ Media

I disagree with Benjamin’s take on Israel’s attitude toward gays, the killing at a gay club last year notwithstanding, I find the secular half of Israeli society extremely accepting of gays, far more than the US, for example. Last year there was a gay member of Knesset which news was greeted without so much as a yawn. One of the most popular singers of all time in Israel is openly lesbian and no one cares. ALL of Israeli society is extremely pro-natalist, so gays who choose to live in more traditional family units and have children (fertility treatments to do so are FREE in Israel up to three children, and there are groups in the major cities to help arrangement men and women who want to have children in non-traditional relationships) are far more accepted than those who don’t conform to that norm. Because marriage comes under the auspices of religious authorities in Israel, which is controlled by an extreme form of Orthodoxy, there’s not much hope for same sex marriage catching on any time soon, but there again, Israeli secular society is more tolerant of non-traditional partnering of all different kinds than I fiind in the US.