Israeli Gay Dad Gets
"Maternity" Leave

In another gay first for Israel last week, the National Insurance Institute authorized the country's first "maternity" leave for a male couple on Thursday. Yonatan Gher, director of the Open House Pride and Tolerance organization in Jerusalem, received approval for a 64-day leave from work after the birth of his biological son.

Gher and his partner of seven years, who will attempt to adopt the child, sought a surrogate mother in India two years ago, when they realized that formal adoption by a single man or two gay men was not an option in Israel.

"What we have here is the establishment taking responsibility for a process that had been forced upon us," Gher told the newspaper Haaretz. "We have no legal possibility of having a child with a surrogate mother in Israel. Because it won't allow that, the state is obliged to share with us the costs of the alternative, by the very fact of recognizing the maternity leave."

Now approved for leave, Gher awaits an answer from NII to his request for reimbursement of hospitalization costs.

Also last week, a family court in Tel Aviv recognized the right of a gay male couple to adopt their foster son, a first for a country that previously allowed same-sex partner adoptions only by female couples.