JERUSALEM (JTA) — A day care center in central Israel rescinded a reserved spot for a 4-month-old baby after its director learned that he has two fathers.
The baby was born by surrogacy, one of his fathers, Elad Musaev Kazaz, told Israel’s Channel 12. The other father was not identified in the report.
Channel 12 on Monday night broadcast recordings of conversations between Kazaz and the head of the day care center in Ramat Gan, which borders Tel Aviv.
The director told Kazaz that while the day care center was not religious, she and much of the staff are, and that she would have to “digest” the information that the baby has two fathers.
When Kazaz called her again at the end of the day, she said that as a religious woman she cannot have regular communication with men, and that she mainly spoke with the mothers of the children in the day care center.
Kazaz told Channel 12 that it sounded like the director took several hours to figure out an excuse to keep them from registering.
“I was hurt. It really hurt me,” Kazaz said. He added that “I hugged my son the whole time, like I was speaking to his heart, and I was looking him in the eyes the whole time and I promised to defend him and protect him.”
Kazaz said it took him and his husband 3 1/2 years to have their son.
The center cares for a baby with two mothers, it told Channel 12.
Same-sex male couples often hire surrogates in other countries to carry their babies. In February, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples and single men should be eligible for surrogacy in the country.
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