Is it illegal to be gay in israel

Homosexuality is a crime in 64 countries worldwide

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Ghana has turn into the latest African territory to propose legislation outlawing homosexuality.

The Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, which seeks to criminalise LGBTQ+ activities and representation, is returning to parliament after former president Nana Akufo-Addo failed to approve it into law before leaving office at the beginning of this year.

The bill is being sponsored by 10 lawmakers from both major parties, "an unusual bipartisan effort in Ghana's polarised political landscape", said The Africa Inform , and comes "despite international outcry and warnings from Ghana's key development partners".

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & Store

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the top of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Nice News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

The legislation, which has the backing of President John Dram

Israel Society & Culture: LGBT Rights in Israel

History
Expanding Legal Rights
Military Service
Legal Cases
Timeline of LGBTQ Rights
A Homosexual Friendly Nation
Events and Incidents
More Progress Needed

History

On March 22, 1988, the Knesset repealed a British Mandate-era law banning sex between people of the same gender and thereby legalized homosexuality in Israel. The action followed a 10-year strife to overcome the opposition of the religious parties, all of which boycotted the vote.

In 1953, the Attorney General issued a directive ordering the police to refrain from enforcing the British Mandate-era law banning sex between consenting adults of the alike gender. A decade later, the Supreme Court ruled that the law should not be applied to acts between consenting adults in private. Israel never prosecuted anyone under the law against sodomy since the 1963 court decision; nevertheless, its maximum penalty of 10 years in prison created fear in the lesbian, queer, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people. After a lengthy battle to overcome the opposition of the religious parties, the Knesset repealed the law despite the religious members b

Israel is a Beacon for Gay Rights in the Middle East

Tags: Living Israel, Human Rights, Israel Engagement, Diversity

Many in the LGBTQ+ society fall for anti-Israel and often, Antisemitic propaganda, ignorantly bashing the Jewish mention. While no democracy is perfect, Israel is the embodiment of what all those who have faith in basic human rights want the Middle East to be.

Israeli culture embraces gay rights as an element of basic human rights, something that is certainly not a given in the Middle East, making Israel the outlier. Homosexuals serve openly in Israel’s military and parliament, and many popular artists and entertainers are homosexual.

In Israel, it is illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation in employment, adoptions, partner benefits, and the army service. While America hid gay military personnel with its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, the Israel Defense Forces began protecting by rule men and women in 1993.

Countless celebrities and allies adore Israel, often times due to its progressiveness and unseal community. After a concert, Lady Gaga exclaimed, “Tel Aviv is magnificent. The worldview of Israel is just not reality. It’s a beautiful place, the peop

LGBT Network President David Kilmnick’s Op-Ed: The abandonment of Israel by LGBT groups is hypocritical and cruel

(JTA) — For more than 30 years, I have stood on the frontlines and been an outspoken leader for LGBT people and families. I own been called every name in the book, my life has been threatened because of my being gay, the police insisted on installing a panic button in my house because of these threats. But that hasn’t stopped the organizing work that I continue to do to bring safety and peace to the LGBT community.

And yet, there’s been times when I’m at LGBT events, where the shelter that should be a given quickly dissipates because I am Jewish as well. There are unfortunately countless examples, but one that I will never neglect is the protest that occurred at the National LGBTQ Task Force’s Creating Change conference I attended in Chicago in 2016. The protest was organized by pro-Palestinian activists who accused A Wider Bridge, a Jewish LGBTQ organization, of “pinkwashing” Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. 

As I was getting off the escalator to go to a reception hosted by A Wider Bridge, which featured members of Jerusalem Open House, a gay rig