Tel Aviv is world famous as a gay mecca, with it huge Pride parades and tolerant residents who don't look twice at same-sex couples holding hands in the street. But the city has never had a gay mayor.

MK Nitzan Horowitz, Meretz's candidate for the job in Tuesday's municipal elections, is trying to become the first openly gay person to head an Israeli city. Horowitz, 48, made headlines around the world in May when he declared his candidacy in the Middle East's gay capital.

Horowitz isn't the only pink power in the White City, currently headed by incumbent - and favorite to win - Ron Huldai. Horowitz and left-of-center Meretz boast four other gay candidates in Tel Aviv. Under the slogan "One vote that sends five gays to the council," Meretz presents a rainbow-colored ad and the smiling faces of Efrat Tolkowsky, Mickey Gitzin, Itay Pinkas and Dror Mizrahi.

Other ads show off Michal Eden, a former Meretz council member and declared lesbian. "A gay city deserves a gay mayor," she says in the ads. Unsurprisingly, Meretz and Horowitz stress values such as equality and tolerance while promising to increase budgets for the gay community and social services for gay youth in distress.

Meretz isn't the only party celebrating its gay candidates; centrist party Yesh Atid boasts two. Nimrod Dotan, the education director of a group offering programs for children and youth in the country's outskirts, is second on the slate, while fifth is Zehorit Sorek, a religious lesbian who lives with her partner and two children and works for the Education Ministry. The party's Facebook page states proudly that "Sorek established the Gay Minyan, which serves as a synagogue and in 2012 won the gay community's annual prize."

Yesh Atid's leaders regularly speak out in support of the gay community and gay marriage. "I too am hoping that Israel will approve civil marriage," Yesh Atid MK Boaz Toporovsky wrote on the party's Facebook page. "My amazing sister married the woman of her choice, and I'm happy and proud. Shelly and Liron, I promise not to rest until the state recognizes your marriage as it does mine."

Another gay candidate is Yaniv Weizman, running for Rov Ha'ir, a party representing young Tel Aviv residents in Huldai's coalition. Weizman is Huldai's adviser for the gay community, the main voice in the municipality in recent years for LGBT affairs.

Weizman stars in the party's ads with party leader and Deputy Mayor Assaf Zamir, who reportedly once told Weizman and another council member, "'Do you know what this city needs? Gays.' We then proceeded to make Tel Aviv the number one gay tourist city in the world. I'm pleased with that. It leaves more women for me."

In his two terms, Huldai has become the community's darling; he is photographed at every LGBT community event, voices support for the community, and opens the annual Pride parades.

"Undoubtedly Huldai has come a long way since his quote 15 years ago, when he said 'two gays kissing disgust me like cockroaches,'" says city-council candidate Mizrahi, chairman of Meretz's gay forum. "Still, I think we need more than parade openings. We need a group that will work and understand the gay community's needs. Our candidates are very experienced on that front."

According to Yesh Atid's Sorek, "Our situation in Tel Aviv is good, but it could be excellent. For example, the municipality should recognize gay couples living together; they should enjoy the same rights as married straight couples .... And it's inconceivable that [gay center] Barnoar should receive smaller budgets than other youth sports and culture centers."

After all, the gay community accounts for every fifth Tel Avivian, she says. "Budgets should be equal. We live in a free, liberal city, but we still have a lot of work to do."

Open gallery view Parade-goers at the Gay Pride Parade in Tel Aviv show their colors. Credit: Moti Kimche

Open gallery view Meretz's rainbow-colored ad. Credit: courtesy