As A visitor in Israel, you feel like you’re in gay heaven. but the fight of the LGBT community for equal rights is still going on, and some say it’s only just started.
Homosexuality was forbidden by law in Israel untill 1988. Altough the LGBT community in Israel had won many legal battles and gain several rights since then, the path for equaliy is still going on.
here are some milestones on that path
1974
The Masks Parade – Twenty homosexual men (and one straight woman) walk around Rabin Square wearing masks, and demanding rights for homosexual.
1975
Founding of the Agudah. Approximately 12 men decide to initiate “a national task force that will be recognized by the Israeli public and will officially represent the homosexual community.”
1977
September 17 – The Aguda sponsors “Aliziada,” the first ever pride event in Israel, in Hayarkon Park. The event marks the first anniversary of the Aguda.
1978
May – During the first feminist convention in Beer Sheva a group of lesbians form ALEF – a lesbian feminist organization. The organization organizes parties and lectures, but dissolves at the beginning of the 80’s .
1979
The forth international convention for Jewish gays and lesbians was held during the summer, including participants from New York’s CBST. The “Marina” Hotel and Kibbutz Ma’ale Hachamisha guest house cancel the reservations for accomodations, for fear of losing their kosher certificates. The 30-60 convention participants end up demonstrating in Rabin Square, supported by the Lesbian Feminist Organization. The group also plants a 3000 tree forest in the south of Israel, but until 1992, Keren Kayemet Le’Israel refuses to put up a sign with the real identity of the donors.
1983
First gay-themed movies – the first feature film by Amos Guttman , “Nagua,” is released. The movies are banned from screening, which caused a public controversy.
1985
Israel AIDS Task Force is launched. The first activities include an HIV test at the Theater Club, then the biggest gay club in the country.
1988
The ban on consensual same-sex sexual acts is formally repealed by the Knesset, thanks to Shulamit Aloni.
1989
Jonathan Danilovitch vs. El Al: Danilovitch demands that the Israeli Airline company will recognize his partner as a spouse entitled to the same advantages as heterosexual spouses of El Al workers.
June – first pride week celebrations, 20 years after Stonewall
1991
A correction of the Equality in the Work Place law so it will include LGBT people is accepted. It becomes effective on January 2, 1992.
1993
The new army law becomes effective. It promises equality in recruiting LGBT people into the army. However, commanders were still obligated to report any knowledge of a gay or lesbian soldier in their units.
First ever gay pride parade – Avi Soffer, then the Executive Director of the Aguda, and his partner Avi Robinstein, organize a parade of 14 vehicles that moved and honked along Dizengoff St., carrying rainbow flags. The parade continued to an event at Sheinkin Garden, where surprisingly a large number of gays and lesbians and their straight friends came to participate.
1994
For the first time in Israel’s history, gay and lesbian activists enter Yad Vashem, the national Holocaust Memorial site near Jerusalem, in order to hold a ceremony in memoriam of gays and lesbians who were persecuted during the Holocaust.
1995
Ministry of Interior approves same sex couples changing their last name to the same last name.
1997
first pride event in Jerusalem
1988
Dana International wins Eurovision for Israel
First Gay Pride, in the format that is known today, was organized in Tel Aviv.
2000
The Knesset reduces the age definition of a minor, with whom consensual homosexual sex is allowed, from 18 to 16.
The Knesset passes a law that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation in giving services, entrance to public and entertainment facilities and supply of products.
2001
First pride parades in Jerusalem, Haifa and Eilat.
Professor Uzi Even was elected to the Knesset as number 13 on the Meretz party list, and became a Member of the Knesset for three months in 2001. That made him the first ever publicly out MK in the history of Israel.
2004
Nazereth regional court accepts the demand of a homosexual man that he be recognized as the legal heir of his partner who passed away
2005
Yshai Shlisel, an Orthodox Jewish man, stabbed three participants during Jerusalem Gay Pride. After claiming in court that he came “to murder in the name of G-d,” he was sentenced to 12 years in jail.
2006
Israel marks IDAHO day for the first time.
2009
The 2009 Tel Aviv gay centre shooting resulted in the deaths of two people and injuries to at least fifteen others at the Tel Aviv branch of the Israeli LGBT Association, at the “Bar-Noar”
2015
The israeli parliament “Knesset” is holding the first official LGBT day at the Knesset in Jerusalem
source: awiderbridge.org
