Published: 4 October 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Right-leaning LGBTQ voters have found an unlikely political home in the Religious Zionism alliance, despite its history of homophobia.
Gilad Halahmi and his partner, Gad Dafna, both list right-wing values as key glue in their relationship.
The gay couple hosts encounters with right-wing political figures in their yard. The group made history earlier this month when for the first time it hosted a Knesset member from Religious Zionism, Simcha Rothman.
That parlour meeting was unusual not only because Rothman comes from deep within the religious Right, but also because the Religious Zionism list’s leaders have a gloomy history with the LGBTQ community.
In 2006, MK Bezalel Smotrich organized a “Beasts Parade” to show his contempt for the Pride Parade and MK Itamar Ben-Gvir was documented kicking a trans woman at the 2008 Pride Parade in Tel Aviv.
But for many right-wing members of the LGBTQ community, cooperation for the sake of national goals outweighs the struggle for equal rights, which they believe has pretty much accomplished what it set out to do.
Says Halahmi: “From my viewpoint, the issue of LGBTQ rights is summed up today in the question of whether I need to fly abroad in order to be married, or whether I can be married in Israel. Issues like introducing gender lessons in school or whether someone can register as queer or non-binary on their ID card are to me a type of wackiness. They don’t involve basic LGBTQ rights.
“From my perspective, there are more urgent issues: expulsion of infiltrators [referring to asylum seekers], personal security, the state’s Jewish identity, a right-wing economy.”
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What It's Like to Be Right-wing and Gay in Israel (Haaretz)
Photo: MK Simcha Rothman with the Proud Right-Wing gays this month. (Tomer Appelbaum/Haaretz)
