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Drag Queen Florence Konstantina Delight prepares before taking to the stage at one of Istanbul's LGBT+ nightclubs in Istanbul on November 1, 2025. (Yasin AKGUL / AFP)
November 6, 2025, 12:15 pm
Turkey’s LGBTQ community warns of existential threat in bill policing biological sex
Critics predict that if enacted, the legislation would set back community rights by years, argue that it also threatens the broader public with vagueness on public morality
By Cem Taylan and Ionut Iordachescu
Two participants kiss while holding a pride rainbow flag with a Star of David in Tel Aviv on June 6, 2024. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)
May 5, 2025, 4:53 pm
Global LGBTQ group says it’ll lift suspension of Israeli member organization after year
ILGA World chastises The Aguda for ‘silence’ on Gaza, says it will reverse suspension in October, noting it would set ‘harmful precedent’ to demand groups publicly oppose governments
By ToI Staff
An Israeli man wears a rainbow kippa during the annual Gay Pride march in Jerusalem on July 21, 2016. (Thomas COex/AFP/Getty Images via JTA)
October 31, 2024, 11:45 am
Global LGBTQ group suspends Israeli organization, angering queer Jews and allies
After pressure from Israel critics, ILGA World says it both rejected Tel Aviv as potential site for upcoming event and froze Israeli umbrella group’s membership
By Andrew Lapin
Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf at the annual Jerusalem Conference of the 'Besheva' group in Jerusalem, on February 26, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
July 23, 2024, 7:21 pm
Far-right minister slammed for seeming to equate same-sex marriage with incest
After Knesset interviewer protests ‘unpleasant’ suggestion, Yitzhak Wasserlauf clarifies he meant love is not a justification
By ToI Staff
Illustrative: A woman walks next to an advertisement for Golan Telecom in Jerusalem, November 5, 2015. (Lior Mizrahi/Flash90)
July 23, 2024, 11:25 am
Kosher cellphone bill sparks debate on Haredi consumer freedoms vs communal coercion
New legislation would reinforce phone plans that are under rabbinical censorship, raising questions about internal societal pressures and control
By Canaan Lidor
People dance underneath a giant rainbow banner during the 21st annual Jerusalem Pride Parade in Jerusalem on June 1, 2023. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
March 21, 2024, 3:57 pm
High Court orders government to redo birth certificates for same-sex couple moms
Ruling hailed as historic win for LGBTQ parents seeking to have second mother added to child’s legal document following years-long struggle
By Jeremy Sharon and ToI Staff
Two people embrace as they march during the 21st annual Jerusalem Pride Parade in Jerusalem on June 1, 2023. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)
August 21, 2023, 6:50 pm
‘You’re not a family,’ gay couple and kids told while using family pass at park
Attendant at Nahal Yehudia nature reserve briefly bars entry to the five, who are eventually allowed inside after supervisor intervenes
By ToI Staff
Welfare Minister Ya'akov Margi at a Federation of Local Authorities conference in Tel Aviv, December 8, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
July 27, 2023, 4:59 pm
Shas’s welfare minister to court: Same-sex adoption against child’s best interests
AG favors legislation that would broaden the interpretation of the current adoption law to includes same-sex couples
By ToI Staff
A woman at the annual Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem, on June 2, 2022, holds up a sign with the biblical phrase 'Love thy neighbor as thyself.' (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
April 1, 2023, 9:01 am
Gay and Orthodox: Book charts the rise of a once unthinkable dual identity in Israel
‘Queer Judaism,’ a new work from academic Orit Avishai, explores the rapid transformation over just two decades of the visibility and activism of LGBTQ religious Jews
By Amy Spiro
Dr. Charles Silverstein, therapist and LGBTQ rights activist, died on January 30 at the age of 87. (YouTube screenshot; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the copyright law)
February 7, 2023, 7:47 pm
Charles Silverstein, who helped delist homosexuality as mental illness, dies at 87
The Jewish American therapist, author and activist was best known for role in securing the landmark DSM reclassification in 1973 and for his canonical book ‘The Joy of Gay Sex’
By Yaakov Schwartz
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich arrives for a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on January 15, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
January 16, 2023, 11:35 am
Smotrich: My voters don’t care if I’m a homophobe or fascist; my word is my bond
In recording from a few months ago, far-right minister heard saying he could act against LGBTQ community without repercussions from his base; ‘I won’t stone gays [to death]’
By Michael Bachner
President Isaac Herzog speaks at a memorial event for former IDF chief of staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, December 30, 2022 (Video screenshot)
December 30, 2022, 5:12 pm
As hard right takes power, president urges worried Israelis: Don’t say nation doomed
At public event, Herzog appears to criticize fiercest opponents of new Netanyahu government, while again beseeching the coalition to work on behalf of all citizens
By ToI Staff
Pro-LGBTQ demonstrators block a major highway in Tel Aviv as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds his first cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, December 29, 2002 (Kan TV screenshot: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
December 29, 2022, 9:11 pm
As Netanyahu holds first cabinet meeting, hundreds rally in support of LGBTQ rights
Protesters block major Tel Aviv highway, scuffle with police as new PM convenes his ministers in Jerusalem; head of LGBTQ group says ‘darkness has descended on the State of Israel’
By ToI Staff
A man wearing a t-shirt reading "Save Ukraine" runs on the pitch waving a rainbow LGBT flag on the pitch during the Qatar 2022 World Cup Group H football match between Portugal and Uruguay at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, north of Doha on November 28, 2022. (Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)
November 29, 2022, 2:39 pm
Man who invaded World Cup pitch with rainbow flag released from custody
Gay rights and the use of supportive symbols have been a simmering issue at the soccer tournament in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal
By AFP
Illustrative: A prisoner being held in an Iranian prison. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
September 7, 2022, 10:24 pm
France denounces Iranian death sentences for 2 female gay rights activists
Paris stresses universal opposition to the death penalty and support of gay rights, after activists convicted of ‘spreading corruption on earth’
By AFP
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