Israel: LGBT community lays out demands

Following massive protests over the exclusion of gay couples from recently passed surrogacy law, the heads of the LGBT community on Wednesday presented a list of demands for “equality and freedom,” threatening continued demonstrations if they are not met.

At a press conference in Tel Aviv the community presented a document, endorsed by 14 LGBT organizations, listing what it expects from the government, stressing they would accept nothing less than “full equality” and an “end to discrimination.”

The demands were divided into six categories — preventing violence against the LGBT community, full recognition of gay families, including equality in surrogacy, providing appropriate social welfare to LGBT people, equality in health care, and educating the general population for tolerance and acceptance of the LGBT community and allocating at least NIS 50 million ($13.75) for the community.

Chen Arieli, head of the Association for LGBT, told Hadashot news that if the demands were not met, “we will continue the struggle, as we have been doing even before the big protest. The protest proved that we have strength in the field.”

“We need to take a position of strength and change the balance of power,” she added. Read more via Times of Israel