The world got to watch one gay couple get married despite their home country being dead set against it.
In Israel, gay marriage is illegal. That said, the country does recognize same-sex couples who have had foreign weddings. In 2018, 400 same-sex couples used this loophole to be legally recognized as married in Israel. Liran Buchny and Maor Shtern then followed in their footsteps.
Speaking to and being recorded by CBS News, the gay couple from Tel Aviv traveled to Portugal in order to get married. They then returned to Israel to have their union legally recognized. Then in order to celebrate their marriage, the two held a wedding (minus the marriage license) as a symbol of their devotion and love in spite of national law.
“I think that just by doing a big wedding in Israel, that’s our big statement … not letting the system take you down,” Maor Shtern told CBS News.
This isn’t the first time that gay people have held weddings in protest of the country’s rules. Etai Pinkas-Arad, who also got married outside of the country, organized a “mass wedding” to do the same. The Tel Aviv city council member and founder of Tel Aviv’s LGBT center says the mass wedding, held during this year’s Pride, was to show just how many citizens are in support of legalizing marriage equality.
“We wanted … to give an opportunity for as many couples as possible to get – kind of – married,” Pinkas-Arad said.
To LGBTQ citizens living in the country, Israel is a great place. But to citizens like Pinkas-Arad, Buchny, and Shtern, it’s time that the government truly represents and not use its LGBTQ citizens. But when will the government listen?
Source: CBS News
