- Title: ISRAEL: Gay and lesbian community celebrate pride parade
- Date: 8th June 2008
- Summary: (L!WE) TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (JUNE 6, 2008) (REUTERS) WIDE OF CROWD AT GAY PRIDE PARADE, HOLDING BALLOONS IN GAY FLAG COLOURS MEN WRAPPED IN GAY PRIDE FLAG DANCER DANCING ON TRUCK CROWD AT PARADE MAN USING WATER GUN, DANCING ON TRUCK CROWD AT PARADE DRAG QUEEN DANCING ON TOP OF TRUCK WOMEN KISSING WIDE OF DANCERS ON TRUCK VARIOUS OF TRUCK DJ LOOKING IN MIRROR, PROPOSING TOAST D
- Embargoed: 23rd June 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVACRZ1SX1SP4D7O135F089W09LK
- Story Text: Tens of thousands of gays, lesbians and their supporters celebrated on Friday (June 6) the 10th gay pride parade in Tel Aviv, the main annual gay event in Israel, in a city that became the capital of gay life in the Middle East.
This year, participants had a very good reason to celebrate, with the opening of the first Israeli community center for gay culture, opened and sponsored by the municipality of Tel aviv.
"We are celebrating the tenth annual pride of GLBT's (Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Transsexual community) pride parade, and also the opening of this building. The first culture and community center for GLBT's in Israel.
It's going to be completely financed and it's built by the city, workers are city employees, and we hope it to be the front-line of gays and lesbians in Israel," said Itay Pinkas, a member of the Tel Aviv municipal council.
Celebrations lasted for hours and participants, many of them in drag, danced on top of trucks and floats decorated with disco theme elements. Few right winged Jewish extremists protested against the event, wore surgery masks in order not to be contaminated by the gay participants, and held signs calling gays 'mental patients'.
Israel, home to a majority of secular Jews, is the only country in the Middle East which holds such parades. Israel is also the only country in the region that has legalised gay sex, fuelling anger among it's minority of Ultra-Orthodox community.
Reforms for legitimising the lesbian and gay movement in Israel started in the 1990s, with the establishment of new laws and the ending of discriminatory rules in the military in 1993. In 2000, the age of consent was lowered to 16. Israel's Supreme Court ordered the government in 2006 to recognize same sex marriages that were performed abroad, giving same sex couples tax breaks and other benefits. Earlier this year Israel's Attorney General ruled that same sex couples will be able to adopt a child who is unrelated to the couple.
However, anti-gay sentiments are still very common in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, and past attempts to hold a pride parade in the city of Jerusalem were met with continuing attempts to block the event in court, and violent incidents weeks before and during the parades. The Jerusalem parade for 2008 is planned for the end on June. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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