June is Pride Month in Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv City Hall becomes a huge rainbow flag for Pride month

 
June is Pride Month in Tel Aviv.   Tel Aviv expects 130,000 people, a record breaking number, to attend the Gay Pride events . In addition, 30,000 tourists are slated to arrive in the city for pride events across the city.

•    June 1-12: Pride Village at Meir Park (outside the Gay Community center) - events and shows (in Hebrew)
•    June 5-14: Pride Beach @ Hilton Beach with open air parties through the day until sunset
•    June 7-16: The Tel Aviv LGBT International Film Festival at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and the Tel Aviv LGBT Community Center
•    June 8-12: GAY EXPO at Dizengoff Center Mall, showcasing gay products and services (10:00-21:00 daily)
•    June 11: Gay football team practice (June 11 at 19:30 in Jaffa)
•    June 12: Mayor's cocktail at the Gay Community Center at Meir Park (in Hebrew)  (19:00)
•    June 13: Pride Parade 2014, starting at 10:00 in the morning from Meir Park . The 2014 Tolerance Award will be hosted by Israeli model and actress Moran Atias, with a performance by Israeli singer Dana International.

Check out all the Pride festivities at A Wider bridge, building LGBT connections with Israel

include the 2014 Tolerance Award and will be hosted by Israeli model and actress Moran Atias, with a performance by Israeli singer Dana International. - See more at: http://awiderbridge.org/record-breaking-number-of-people-expected-at-tel-aviv-gay-pride-events/#sthash.lKVfCEag.dpuf

Out of Israel Comes Pride: Gay men in the promised land

There is reason to feel pride in Isael's LGBT record.

* Gays have had full civil rights since 1992
* Gays have full rights to serve in the military
* Gays have partner adoption rights
* Gays have partner benefits for governmental employees
* Same gender marriages preformed abroad are recognized.

Inspired by the openness of Israeli society, gay porn producer Michael Lucas has created his first non-pornographic feature  Undressing Israel: Gay Men in the Promised Land,.  Check out the film trailer:





From Outsmart Magazine ,an article by  local journalist David-Elijah Nahmod

 When people think of Israel, they often conjure up images of suicide bombings, rocket attacks, and Orthodox Jews. During the opening moments of Undressing Israel: Gay Men in the Promised Land, the first non-pornographic feature from gay porn-king Michael Lucas, people in New York City’s Times Square are asked if they think homosexuality is legal in Israel. Many say they have no idea, while some assume it’s not.

 For nearly an hour, Lucas reveals the other side of life in the Jewish State. He visits the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament), where Parliament member Nitzan Horowitz issues a Gay Pride proclamation. In Tel Aviv, the country’s gay mecca, gay dad Yossi Berg, founder of Rainbow Families, walks with his young son and explains the importance of having children in Jewish culture.

 Lucas takes us to an Israeli gay wedding. He interviews an openly gay personal trainer, who shares his experience of coming out in the Israeli army, where homosexuality has been accepted since 1993.

 Throughout the film, Lucas makes it plainly obvious that much of Israel is a safe place to be openly gay.

 “Israel is more progressive than the United States,” he observes.

 Undressing Israel is not the first time Lucas’s camera has ventured inside the State of Israel. In 2009, he raised many eyebrows when he produced Men of Israel, the first in a series of gay adult features to be shot inside the country with an all-Sabra (Israeli-born) cast.

 Lucas, who works in New York City and Tel Aviv, has become one of Israel’s most vocal champions in the gay community. Unafraid of controversy, he’s been equally vocal in his condemnation of the virulently antigay regimes that exist in the Muslim world. His columns for publications like The Advocate, in which he harshly condemns the anti-Israel activism of queer-identified organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace, often draw fire, but he always stands his ground.

Read the whole interview at Outsmart