From the Liveblog of
Monday, September 8, 2025
Partner of gay fallen soldier: Equality minister nixed LGBTQ programs to court far right
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Omer Ohana, whose fiancé Maj. Sagi Golan, 30, was killed fending off the Hamas massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023, says Minister for Social Equality and Women’s Empowerment May Golan (no relation) told him in a meeting months ago that she could not support programs planned by LGBTQ community groups because “they don’t have enough values, they’re lefty programs.”
“These are the words she told me,” Ohana tells a meeting of the Knesset State Control Committee, adding that the programs included an HIV clinic and support networks for trans people.
The meeting is being convened, in part, to discuss what activists say is the Social Equality Ministry’s failure to deliver some NIS 24 million ($7.2 million) worth of funding for LGBTQ programs — the remainder of approximately NIS 40 million ($12 million) originally earmarked for the ministry’s LGBTQ division before wartime budget cuts were applied across the board.
Ohana says he met with Golan after learning of conflict between her and LGBTQ community groups, hoping that he could help to bridge the gap.
“I sat with May and we spoke for hours,” he says, adding that the minister cried about his partner’s story. After her comment about the programs, he said, “we agreed to a set of values…. We adapted [the programs] to the set of values that May Golan agreed to.”
Nonetheless, he says, Golan did nothing with the revamped programs, and “now she’s ghosting me,” says Ohana, raising his voice. “Months of work” went to waste, he adds.
Golan and her staff have “no ideological claim” in refusing to fund the LGBTQ projects, Ohana says, adding: “Sagi was not a ‘lefty’ when he helped every family in Be’eri.”
Noting praise Golan has garnered from anti-LGBTQ activists for purportedly safeguarding ‘Jewish values,’ Ohana says: “She sold the [LGBTQ] community because of a promise she gave to [Itamar] Ben Gvir,” the far-right national security minister.
The Ministry for Social Equality has been approached for comment.
The Times of Israel Community.