This week: a very Scottish drama, Spain and “self-attestation”, Israel's black list, the NYTimes trans coverage showdown, Moms for Liberty, the inaugural LGBTQ+ Boardroom survey, Sam Brinton & more...
About the story from Israel on Yair Sherky, a popular ultra-orthodox reporter in prime time TV coming out.
Indeed it is encouraging. His father previously said homophobic shit though I think his response now was more muted. Actually I'm not even sure how to interpret it. He said he just wishes for his son to have kids from a woman (which is what many gay Israelis do, through surrogacy).
But even as public perception is very positive about LGBTQI+ people and there were good reactions to Sherky's coming out, our extremist government can do a lot of damage to our community. Many of Netanyahu's supporters wholeheartedly support the regime change (there's no other legitimate way to describe it). As most progress for our community was achieved through the Supreme Court, we can't expect protection anymore, when the court loses its independence (as well as the government's legal advisors and other civil servants).
Take a small example, they just finished a first stage in the legislation of a law that would enable the rabbinical courts to handle cases of civil matters (they used to be restricted to divorce). Supposedly this would be limit to when both parties consent to submit to the rabbinical court, but we assume some marginalized parties, particularly women, would be compelled to do so, and there they would not be judged by the Israeli law but by the interpretation of the Bible. Oh, and the government wants to lower the status of the primary law that enshrines (only some) human rights.
About the story from Israel on Yair Sherky, a popular ultra-orthodox reporter in prime time TV coming out.
Indeed it is encouraging. His father previously said homophobic shit though I think his response now was more muted. Actually I'm not even sure how to interpret it. He said he just wishes for his son to have kids from a woman (which is what many gay Israelis do, through surrogacy).
But even as public perception is very positive about LGBTQI+ people and there were good reactions to Sherky's coming out, our extremist government can do a lot of damage to our community. Many of Netanyahu's supporters wholeheartedly support the regime change (there's no other legitimate way to describe it). As most progress for our community was achieved through the Supreme Court, we can't expect protection anymore, when the court loses its independence (as well as the government's legal advisors and other civil servants).
Take a small example, they just finished a first stage in the legislation of a law that would enable the rabbinical courts to handle cases of civil matters (they used to be restricted to divorce). Supposedly this would be limit to when both parties consent to submit to the rabbinical court, but we assume some marginalized parties, particularly women, would be compelled to do so, and there they would not be judged by the Israeli law but by the interpretation of the Bible. Oh, and the government wants to lower the status of the primary law that enshrines (only some) human rights.