Yair Cherki, a prominent religious journalist for Channel 12 News, came out as gay on Tuesday.
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"I love men and I love God, and this is neither contradictory nor new," he wrote in a Facebook post that went near-viral. "I am the exact same person that I was; the only difference is that it is not only me who knows now, you know, too."
Cherki explained that he had wanted to come out for a long time, but kept postponing because his sexuality conflicted his religious beliefs.
"This is neither a trend nor a political statement. This is simply who I am. I don't know if I would call it an identity. Just another element of who I am and who I have been since the day I came into my own. In my yeshiva, in my family, at work," he said, stressing that his religious "beliefs have not changed. However, they did take shape over the years alongside the doubts, and from this difficulty, which necessitates a different outlook on faith, truth and complexity."
Cherki, 30, grew up in the Religious Zionist neighborhood of Kiryat Moshe in Jerusalem. His father, Ori Amos Cherki, is a community rabbi and lecturer at the nearby prominent Machon Meir yeshiva. He joined Channel 12 News in 2014 after serving in the military as a religious affairs reporter for Army Radio.
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