Eli Yishai's controversial slogan
Nadav Abuksis
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Israelis don't care about homophobic rabbis anymore
Opinion: Allow me not to get upset by Eli Yishai's anti-gay campaign slogan. He is just trying to become relevant again, while we as a country have already moved past this kind of hatred.
Hey, Eli Yishai. You've been quite vocal about gay men, so now all you have to do is say something sneering about having two mothers and the horrors of the Gay Pride Parade—and you've solved the problem of earthquakes and managed to pass the election threshold to boot!
For anyone who dismissed the former Shas leader who had to strike out on his own — you got the upgraded version: more racist, more ignorant and a lot more aware. Because even Eli Yishai figured something out a long time ago: if you slam LGBTs, you get a television interview at 5pm, another at 6pm, and four seats in the Knesset.
But allow me not to be outraged, okay? For some reason, a religious politician (and, probably, some media savvy advisors who manage him), who is intolerant of the lifestyle and life of hundreds and thousands of LGBTs, doesn't bother me at all.
Eli Yishai's controversial campaign slogan: 'So there won't be a child with a father and a father!'
A few days after tens of thousands of Labor Party voters elected an out-and-proud gay man (handsome too, but taken) to the first spot on their list, and a week after even Likud voters—yes, Likud!—put an out-and-proud gay man on their list (not because he's gay, but because they thought he fit their party), and gender and/or sexual orientation didn't really bother the voters of either party, everyone knows that this gay train cannot be stopped.
The likes of Eli Yishai, Bezalel Smotrich or Bentzi Gopstein don't really matter to anyone anymore. This country and its citizens have long since moved on. We haven't had to ask for acceptance in a long time, it's already an established fact.
Just a week ago, I performed at the Gray Club in Yahud. One of my guests was an ultra-Orthodox man who came with his wife. From my show, it's really not hard to guess who I am and what my sexual orientation is. It's hard for me to describe the amount of compliments I got from both of them after the show. Gay? No one cares.
So allow me not to be outraged by an ignorant rabbi, a politician who is dying to make himself great again, or just someone who is trying to get ahead at my expense and at the expense of the gay community. The country has moved on—and I'm not just talking about the so-called Tel Aviv bubble, I'm also talking about the periphery, the national-religious sector, the ultra-Orthodox, secular—almost all parts of the population.
So it may not be perfect here, and not everyone loves us, and we're still not done fighting for our rights—but getting all worked up over some politician trying to win some votes from some ignorant people? We're way past that.
The writer is an Israeli actor and performer
