Israeli LGBTQ campaigners vowed on Monday to step up their fight for the right to become parents following mass demonstrations in Tel Aviv in support of gay fathers.
Some 80,000 demonstrators from Israel's LGBTQ community and their supporters gathered at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Sunday for a mass rally in protest of a parliamentary vote excluding men from new surrogacy legislation.
Campaigners vowed to build on the momentum from Sunday's rallies, which were also held in other cities.
"Yesterday [Sunday] felt like the independence day of the LGBT community," said Shlomi Laufer, a spokesman for The Aguda – Israel's LGBTQ Task Force.
"Now we are talking to other LGBTQ organizations and the local communities in the north and the south of Israel to try to find a solution," he said.
Questions remain over whether parliament will call an emergency session during the summer recess to debate the surrogacy issue, as well as more general LGBTQ rights, or wait for the Knesset to reconvene in October to push new legislation.
However, Julien Bahloul, a spokesman for the Association of Israeli Gay Fathers, said both scenarios looked unlikely due to political uncertainty, including the possibility of an election in the next few months.
"We are very pessimistic," he said.
A recent survey by the Walla News website showed that 57% of Israelis support the right of gay men to have children via surrogacy.
Also on Monday, the state presented the High Court of Justice with its response to an appeal seeking to recognize gay fathers' rights with respect to adoption.
Currently, the Interior Ministry allows for only one man to be named as a legal parent on an adopted child's birth records. The petition seeks to change this situation and allow both fathers in same-sex couples to appear on record as adoptive parents.
The state's response included Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit's legal opinion, stating that in adoption cases, when it is clear that the child will have no contact with their birth parents, both adoptive fathers should be named as legal parents.
Mendelblit stated he believes that not naming both adoptive parents harms the welfare of the child and discriminates against gay couples.
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri has stated in the past that he opposed naming both fathers on adopted children's birth certificate, as that would not accurately reflect the factual situation at the time of birth.
