The right to be gay

[Behind the Aegis]

Two significant events related to the gay community are due to take place shortly in Jerusalem, the city of three religions and the capital of Israel. Over the next few months, an expanded panel of the High Court of Justice will rule on a petition filed by five male couples who wed in Canada and are asking the Interior Ministry to register them as married. In addition, the international Gay Pride parade is slated to take place in the city next month.

The five couples are demanding that the state register them as married, just as it registers heterosexual couples as married if they are wed abroad. The gay couples are arguing that the Interior Ministry's refusal to register them as married impinges on their right to equality. The state counters that Israel does not have a "suitable legal model" for recognizing same-sex marriages.

The institution of couplehood is constantly in flux. Once, polygamy was allowed; today, it is a criminal offense. Once, homosexuality was a criminal offense; today, Western culture recognizes the right of the individual to love someone of his or her own sex. In Israel, too, there has been significant progress, and same-sex couples have been recognized as partners in common-law marriages for the sake of issues such as financial agreements, inheritance and survivors' benefits.

We hope that the justices will further this trend in their ruling. But there is no doubt that ultimately, as Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has said, it is up to the Knesset to decide whether to recognize same-sex marriages, and it is up to the Knesset to legislate recognition of same-sex couplehood.


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