Gay Activist Views Israel As Model for Other Countries

Liora Moriel carefully sipped a cup of steaming hot chocolate in the Student Union at the University of Maryland at College Park.

Wearing a wrinkled T-shirt and shorts, with her close-cropped, dark hair slightly mussed and a knapsack slung over her shoulder, the 47-year-old Moriel “kvetched” about a term paper and wondered aloud about her fate after leaving the academic milieu next year.

But lurking beneath this facade of a typical graduate student was the soul of a self-described revolutionary, whose mission in life is to fight for the rights of homosexuals, particularly in Israel.

“For a long time, I felt [being a lesbian] was nobody’s business. The people close to me knew, and why should anyone else care?” said the Tel Aviv-born Moriel, who lives with her partner in Bethesda, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C.

“But I realized it couldn’t be private as long as it was deemed immoral, perverse, wrong,” said Moriel, a leading gay and women’s rights activist in Israel who is studying graduate-level comparative literature and women’s studies. She also is a teaching assistant in the university’s English department.

“It’s incumbent upon people like me, who have nothing to lose and have been activities previously, to come out and publicly advocate the cause of the lesbigay [lesbian-bisexual-gay] community,” Moriel said.

“I think we’ve really been a light of Zion unto the nations, and one of the finest examples of how Israel can go in a progressive direction,” she said. “What we’ve accomplished I’d like to see other minorities accomplish.”

From 1991 to 1993, Moriel served as spokeswoman and chairwoman of an Israeli gay rights group, the Society for the Protection of Personal Rights. Her responsibilities included speaking to the Knesset and media about gay issues, as well as organizing rallies and conferences.

She also served as an officer-at-large for the World Congress of Gay and Lesbian Jewish Organizations.

In addition, Moriel has worked as a journalist, public relations specialist, educator, musician, actress, therapist for the disabled, and concert and symposium organizer.

Israeli society, despite the prevalence of Middle Eastern attitudes regarding sexuality and the precepts of halachah, or Jewish law, tends to be more accepting of homosexuals than American society, said Moriel, who grew up in Israel and Canada.

“Being a lesbian in Israel is not a dangerous pursuit. What one does with their life is considered their business,” she said. “In Israel, if you’re Jewish, you’re by definition human and part of the family. Here, people still struggle with the definition of `American,’ and gays and lesbians are not considered true Americans.”

In the United States, there are more gay parades, bars and bookstores, “but it’s a subculture where you feel alien,” Moriel said. “Israel’s a Mediterranean country, so people are more physical. People, if they hug, aren’t always thought of instantly as lovers.”

Moriel said the decriminalization of homosexual acts eight years ago served as a watershed event for Israel’s gay rights “revolution.” Israeli labor laws and army regulations have since been amended to prohibit discrimination of people because of sexual orientation, she said.

Israeli police officers now receive sensitivity training regarding gay rights and gay-bashing, Moriel said, and city mayors maintain an ongoing dialogue with gay activists to coordinate parades and events.

In addition, she said, Israel now has an unprecedented number of gay meeting places, nightclubs and theatrical productions.

“In Israel, the fundamental things are in place,” Moriel said. Gay rights are an “irrevocable part of Israeli society.”

For Moriel, the struggle to expand Israel’s acceptance of homosexuals has been a personal matter.

Four years ago, she gained fame there by “taking the lesbigay movement out of the closet” when she appeared on a popular Israeli television talk show with her partner and mother, “and publicly came out of the closet.”

“It was very difficult for me,” Moriel said. “I didn’t want to go public this way.

But to her delight, she discovered that the response from Israeli society to her television appearance was overwhelmingly positive.

“When I’ve seen people on the street or in elevators over the past few years, people have said to me, `Kol hakavod’ (way to go),” Moriel said. “It really galvanized the movement. And people began to come out to their families, friends, co-workers and most importantly, themselves.”

Unlike its American counterpart, the Israeli gay movement prefers to take a more low-key approach, Moriel said.

“The idea is not to say, `We’re queer, get used to it,'” she said. “We say, `We’re your friends, family and we trust that our bond won’t change.'”

Moriel criticizes the “more militant” American gay rights movement for being “not well-thought out, and there’s been a lot of rethinking about it. I think we got further in Israel by not being abrasive and acting as a mainstream advocacy group.”

She reserves particular scorn for the American movement’s emphasis on same-sex unions.

“I think this affects only a fraction of the lesbigay movement,” she said. “Why agitate for gay marriage when marriage is an institution that’s bad for most people who enter it? We’re shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Moriel, who plans to move back to the Jewish state next year after completing her degree, said the Israeli gay rights movement is now advocating legislation to provide for pension and social security benefits for gay couples.

Moriel said she hopes that other countries will emulate Israel’s model for gay rights.

“Ten years ago, Israeli gays and lesbians came to the U.S. for a fuller life. Now, the situation is completely reversed,” Moriel said. “At a time when Israel is getting so much flak for its political activities, it’s important to discuss some of the positive things happening there.”

Gay rights in Israel “is one of the few lights in a dark picture.”