Israel to honor marriages of same-sex couples

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, November 21, 2006

MEDIA CONTACT:
Samiya Bashir, Director of Communications
samiya@freedomtomarry.org
Mobile: 917-617-8660

Today the Israeli Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that same-sex couples who marry outside Israel, for example in Canada, South Africa, or Massachusetts, may register as married in Israel and see their marriages treated the same as any other couples'.

Evan Wolfson, Executive Director of Freedom to Marry and author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry (Simon & Schuster 2004), said:

"Today's historic ruling from the Israel Supreme Court applied the best of democratic and ethical principles. The court held that there should be no 'gay exception to the standard rule of law that 'a marriage valid where celebrated should be honored elsewhere.' This rule, generally embraced most of the time by most countries, including Israel and the United States, makes sense, because there are more reasons to respect couples' marriages than to destabilize them. Gay families need and deserve that security, too. And the court in essence, too, applied, the Golden Rule: 'Treat others as you would want to be treated.' Couples who have made a personal commitment in life need and deserve an equal commitment under the law, and in Israel, as in the United States and other countries, that equal commitment, rights, responsibilities, and respect are called marriage."

For more information on this breaking story, see http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/790724.html, or check later on www.freedomtomarry.org for developments as they come in.

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Freedom to Marry is the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. Launched in 2003, Freedom to Marry is headed by Evan Wolfson, nationally recognized as a central "architect of the marriage equality movement." Freedom to Marry guides and focuses this social justice movement on a nationwide level, serving as a strategy and support center for national, state, and local partners, a catalyst that drives and shapes the national debate on marriage equality, and an alliance-builder fostering support from non-gay allies.