Ramat Gan expresses LGBT support
Photo: Ramat Gan Municipality
Ramat Gan to establish LGBT center, condemns chief rabbi's statements
It's been discussed for the past two years, but Ramat Gan's chief rabbi's homophobic speech caused the city council both to issue a condemnation and move forward the establishment of an LGBT center for the city's residents.
The homophobic pronouncements of Ramat Gan's chief rabbi, Yaakov Ariel, have led to the quickening of an LGBT center's establishment in that city. Over the past few days, activists from the LGBT community in the city have met with Mayor Yisrael Zinger, who promised to establish such a center, which has been discussed already for the past two years.
Three months ago, the Ramat Gan Municipality decided to set up an LGBT center in the city after two years of discussions with the LGBT community in the city. Ariel's statements managed to significantly speed up the project, which is expected to reach completion in 2017. Following a meeting last week at the mayor's between Zinger and representatives of the LGBT community, the former said, "I promised that Ramat Gan will be a home to every community as they are, and that's how it will be too for the LGBT community. The LGBT center in the city is not the end, but the means. Thus we'll be able to ensure that the LGBT community, which is an inseparable part of the Ramat Gan public, receives the services that it needs."
Zinger said that the community's needs should be examined and that the center should not be established quickly just to justify the construction of its building.
L-R: Aguda Executive Director Ohad Hizki, Local Activist Coordinator Gaya Polat, Mayor Yisrael Zinger, Deputy Mayor Tsachi Zelicha, Aguda Co-Chair Imri Kalman (Photo: Ramat Gan Municipality)
Heading the committee to establish an LGBT center by the municipality are Deputy Mayor Tsachi Zelicha and Adjunct Mayor Adva Polak. Speaking to Ynet, Zelicha said, "The mayor gave me his blessing to do whatever it takes so that the new center will provide the right needs and conditions for members of the community. I can promise that by the end of the mayor's term, the center will be standing. This is our best response to the rabbi's outrageous statements, to establish an LGBT center."
The Aguda – The Israeli National LGBT Task Force Co-Chair Imri Kalman was present at the above-mentioned meeting with the mayor. "Even though the mayor gave his promise, said Kalman, "a political promise doesn't satisfy us. We wanted something legal… Every rabbi who comes out against the LGBT community needs to know that he is promoting the community's fight in his city for acknowledgement, equality, and rights. There's no doubt that the city's rabbi significantly expedited the establishment of an LGBT center. It's important to say that declarations like that by rabbis first harm members of their own community who are in the closet and suffering from it. We are in contact with yeshiva students who are in the closet and are suffering."
Members of the LGBT community have not yet decided on what model they would like to establish the LGBT center in Ramat Gan, but it's clear that it's not an attempt to imitate that of Tel Aviv's in Gan Meir. One idea being examined is a center that would serve the need of elderly LGBT residents.
Last week, the Ramat Gan City Council decided to condemn the city's chief rabbi's statements. In their condemnation, they wrote, "The city council calls on the rabbi to retract his derogatory statements that exclude and hurt thousands of citizens in Israel and to apologize for his remarks."
