After a long process of correspondence between the Israeli Gay Fathers Organization and the Israel Defense Forces, the IDF commands regarding summoning both gay dads of the same family unit for military service at the same time is now changing.



Udi Ledergor, Executive Director of Gay Fathers Israel, with his family

Yesterday, a new regulation was published by the IDF, with a specific consideration of gay dads in the same-sex family unit. According to the new regulation, partners who are “known in public” and have children will not be summoned for service at the same time.

According to the Gay Fathers Organization, besides the revolutionary change in the laws of the IDF, for the first time not only does it recognize same-sex families, it also recognizes same-sex marriage that was conducted in countries where it’s legal, even though same-sex marriages in Israel are still not legal.

“Turns out that when you strike a rock enough times, water eventually comes out of it,” wrote Udi Ledergor, Executive Director of Israeli Gay Fathers Organization.

Until today, the committee that you must approach to in order to postpone or cancel mandatory military service wasn’t qualified to discuss military service requests related to being a gay parent. Moreover,same-sex couples weren’t recognized by the IDF if the couple wasn’t listed as married by the Ministry of Interior.