Only Three Gay Israeli Couples Have Been Able To Adopt
Just three gay Israeli couples out of some 550 who asked have been able to adopt children since Israeli policy changed to allow for such adoptions in 2008, according to a Haaretz investigation . That’s compared to 1,700 heterosexual couples who adopted children in the same period.
For decades, same sex Israeli couples were barred from adopting children based on a law stating that “only a man and wife together” can legally adopt.
In 2008, the then attorney general issued a legal opinion that said that gay couples could adopt as “individual adoptive parents.” But this still meant that heterosexual couples got first priority.
The Gay Dads Association has filed two petitions with the Israeli High Court insisting on equality in adoption and surrogacy.
“Even though there is a possibility in the law to adopt, the situation is that it is impossible for LGBT [couples] to adopt. Hundreds of couples would be happy to adopt children but the word for a long time is that it is an impossible process,” Udi Ledergor, chairman of the Gay Dads Association told Haaretz.
Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected]
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO